Are you standing by the silent library? Tiptoe away, continue quietly toward the corner, then turn it like a page. Turn right into Brooksby’s Walk. Take 100 paces north. Now cross over the crossing.

‘As you step, black and white, over the road, look away to your right. Can you see the old boundary wall? This is all that remains of the Old Eastern Fever Hospital. A few haunted vaults, several red brick arches spanning the centuries. The wall no longer contains, it describes; it draws a line between care and community. Breathe deeply as you enter the open green space. Sit on a bench in Homerton Grove, in the green open space in front of the hospital. 'Broken Water' gives way to waters breaking and the cry of new life.’

The collage of testimony comes mainly from Every Birth It Comes Different: Writings from the Hackney Reading Centre, published by Centerprise in 1980.