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George Orwell |
Orwell’s Big Brother eyes up his doorstep
IT is not so much a case of “Big Brother is watching you” but more “Big Business is watching you”.
In his novel 1984, author George Orwell offered a bleak prediction of the surveillance state of the future. So he would surely be appalled by the CCTV cameras watching the comings and goings close to his old flat in Canonbury Square, Canonbury.
Far from being instruments of the state, the cameras – more than 30 of them – belong to private companies and well-to-do residents. The first two cameras are within 200 yards of Orwell’s old flat at 27b, which is commemorated by a blue plaque.
There is more CCTV at a nearby conference centre in Canonbury Place and at the back of a car dealership near the Compton Arms, Orwell’s old local. It is reckoned there are a further 28 cameras within 200 yards of Canonbury Square.
Shopkeepers and owners of high-value homes say that having CCTV makes them feel more secure. But residents are concerned about the constant surveillance.
Andy Gardner, 36, a regular at the Compton Arms, said: “It feels like we are heading towards a surveillance society. I am a law-abiding citizen yet from the moment I leave my front door to the moment I come back home my life is on film. It is nobody else’s business what I do and where I go, yet it’s all there on camera.”
Childminder Geraldine Tucky, 48, who works in Canonbury Square, said: “They are taking away our privacy and it feels like we are being watched. I have learnt not to think about the cameras, even though I can see them everywhere.
“Break-ins must be rare around here but people are paranoid. They are living in fear but that’s not how I would choose to live my life.”
But Bill Brewer, 57, a builder from Southgate Road, said: “I have nothing to hide so I’m not bothered at all. They make people like me safer.”
The borough’s ruling Lib Dems had to be forced by Labour councillors into extending CCTV coverage. There will soon be 112 council-run cameras, plus a number operated by Transport for London on main roads. Two mobile CCTV vans also patrol.
But, probably to Orwell’s relief, the nearest camera controlled by the Town Hall is a good half-a-mile away, at Highbury and Islington station.
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