Somewhere random: 23 Cranley Gardens, Muswell Hill I don't get very long to research these random boroughs. The random Haringey location I was really seeking was the house of the late Mr Trebus - the notorious garbage hoarder. But I couldn't locate his Crouch End address on the internet in time, so instead I headed north to the home of another man who had trouble disposing of his rubbish. To 23 Cranley Gardens, the last home of serial killer Dennis Nilsen.
Today this is just a very ordinary semi-detached house in a well-to-do residential neighbourhood. Cranley Gardens is a wide tree-lined avenue blessed with panoramic views down the hill to the east. Residents keep their front lawns trimmed and their crazy paving hosed clean. Many of the houses have been divided up into flats, and number 23 is no exception. The garden is full of well tended shrubs, the path has been laid with red terracotta tiles and the front door is a too-bright shade of lilac. Most importantly, the drains no longer smell. That was the telltale giveaway back in 1983, the first hint that the new resident in the attic flat might not be quite as normal as he seemed.
Dennis Nilsen had already murdered 12 men before he moved into Cranley Gardens. In his new upstairs abode he was to strangle three more. John Howlett came round for a night of rampant sex in 1981, but ended up face down in the bath until he never came round again. Dennis attempted to cover his tracks by hacking John into manageable chunks and flushing bits of him down the toilet. He then boiled John's head on the hob, and hid his larger bones either in the garden or at the back of the flat in a tea chest. There's hospitality for you. Homeless Graham Allen suffered a similar fate, as did heroin addict Steven Sinclair several months later. But Steven was one body too many for the sewage system to cope with, and the other residents of number 23 soon summoned a plumber from Dyno-rod to try to clear the blockage. When the police came round and confirmed the discovery of human remains in the pipes, Nilsen promptly confessed all. He's currently serving life at a prison in East Yorkshire, and he's up for parole next year. The local Neighbourhood Watch are no doubt already planning to ensure that he won't be returning to Cranley Gardens when, or if, he ever comes out. by bus: 43, 134
Today this is just a very ordinary semi-detached house in a well-to-do residential neighbourhood. Cranley Gardens is a wide tree-lined avenue blessed with panoramic views down the hill to the east. Residents keep their front lawns trimmed and their crazy paving hosed clean. Many of the houses have been divided up into flats, and number 23 is no exception. The garden is full of well tended shrubs, the path has been laid with red terracotta tiles and the front door is a too-bright shade of lilac. Most importantly, the drains no longer smell. That was the telltale giveaway back in 1983, the first hint that the new resident in the attic flat might not be quite as normal as he seemed.
