The Zone

A couple of years ago a strange thing happened to me whilst walking through the dark, maze-like and piss-tinged underpass that acts as the main pedestrian thoroughfare in Elephant & Castle.

As I was about halfway through I noticed that I was approaching a homeless man sitting on the floor. This, as you can imagine, is no rare occurrence down in the underpass.

I thought nothing of it and planned to ignore the pitiful mutterings of ‘spare some change’. But those words never came. This wasn’t your average grubby street urchin. Instead, there was what I can only describe as a wizard. A large sackcloth hood and immaculately groomed moustache and beard partly covered, but could not wholly hide the face of this man, of which the large Gallic nose and almost translucent eyes scorched themselves into my memory.

It was a brief encounter. I said nothing. I suppose I was too baffled to respond to what he said to me….

‘The box above our heads’

That was all, it wasn’t so much what he said that affected me but rather the way that he said it, with such gravitas and authority. It was only when I emerged from the underpass, climbed the steps and looked around that I saw what he must have been referring to. Situated in the middle of the roundabout is a huge polished steel cube.

Coordinates: 51°29’42”N 0°6’2”W

After some research I found out that the structure is ‘officially’ a memorial for the scientist Michael Farady (famed for his discovery of electromagnetic induction).

The inside of the structure houses a transformer for the Northern Line branch of the tube. It seems odd to me that London Underground and the architect of the memorial would collaborate like this. It just seems like these are two separate explanations for the space that have, over time, merged into one nonsensical explanation. Which leads me to question if either one is true in the first place.

A popular rumor is that the cube is the home of music producer Aphex Twin. By the sound of his music I wouldn’t put it past him to live somewhere like this. Perhaps this disturbing music video of his was shot there?

About a year ago I was sitting in a pub in Elephant with a few friends and there were a couple of elderly gents sitting behind me. I’d been working all day and the drink was making me a little sleepy. I zoned out of the conversation and just sat there thinking about nothing in particular. It was then that I picked up on what one of the gents behind me was saying. It went something like this…’Ere, you see that fing on the randabout over there. Well once I see this geezer open up a little door and go in. You know what the weird fing is right, he was carryin nuffin but a typewriter.’

The other chap said ‘oh is it, fucking fascinating, I’m off.’ Then they both left.

I like the idea that the cube contains nothing but a writer churning out volume upon volume of the greatest philosophical text ever written, right on the roundabout of Elephant & Castle.

Personally, I have my own ideas about the cube, inspired by one of my favourite Tarkovsky films, Stalker. It's set post-apocalypse and there’s a whole city that has had to be evacuated, a ghost city, like Chernobyl. The place has lain desolate for years and at it's centre there is an area, referred to throughout the film only as The Zone. The Zone is a place that defies the laws of science, phones ring without being plugged in, you can walk for hours in one direction, through dense foliage and across fast flowing streams, only to find yourself back where you began.

Most importantly though, with the right temperament, the Zone is a place where all of your dreams come true.

Perhaps on the roundabout of Elephant & Castle, encased within a cube of polished steel, there is The Zone.