I live in Hackney, squeezed between Shoreditch Park and the canal. The building is fairly dilapidated postwar council stock, and we're last on a long chain of rebuilding works, which kinda puts us in the crosshairs of the running down of local government budgets, debates about their collective duty, insane London property prices, gentrification and so on. All this discourses swirling around above our heads like smoke from a BBQ. The most striking geographical features are the park next to us and the canal. The park is great, like an extended front garden for me in summer even though it's very flat and empty of much wildlife and tree growth. It's more like a flat expanse of green than much else, and that took a beating in last year's hot summer. The canal - complete with Drax throwups (and a million others) - is like a kind of mainline for hipsters and probably one of the nicest walks one can do in London. Probably the best thing about the estate is it's quite cut off from roads so you get lots of kids running around playing and screaming, sounding like proper urchins.