A river ran under the Island. It ran alongside the railway track. Follow the silver line with your eye. Some people said they could still hear it, at night, when it was quiet. The river came down to the Island from Stamford Hill, then flowed on by Hackney Downs. It’s what made the houses so damp. In some places the buildings were subsiding, sloping over on the soft ground. 

Unless you lived on the Island it was hard to find your way in and out, but the Islanders knew a short cut. They paid a penny toll and hopped over the gardens backing onto Evering Road. They called it ‘going over the wall’.