What a slum. Everyone here would leave if they could; thousands trapped until fate or fortune deals them a lottery win, a jail term or a one way ticket to the Central Middlesex morgue. He turns back to the High Road. Halal grocers, launderettes and barbershops; cripples pushing wheeled walkers, shabby ghosts clutching reused plastic bags filled with just enough to carry them through another day on this pissforsaken earth.