{"id":21596,"date":"2024-08-06T09:11:21","date_gmt":"2024-08-06T08:11:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=21596"},"modified":"2024-08-06T12:36:54","modified_gmt":"2024-08-06T11:36:54","slug":"misc-william-lyttle-the-mole-man-of-hackney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=21596","title":{"rendered":"MiSC: William Lyttle, The Mole Man of Hackney"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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William Lyttle, in front of his property.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ever since childhood I\u2019ve wanted to dig underground. Indeed, I did so. Which I\u2019ve written about elsewhere on here. But I\u2019ve never worked on the scale I\u2019d like to. Maybe I never will? I don\u2019t know\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But here\u2019s a post on a guy who did. I\u2019ll be honest, he\u2019s clearly an eccentric, or nutjob, even. And if I do<\/em> ever go underground, as I dream of, I\u2019d hope it\u2019s not in the same \u2018hillbilly heap\u2019\/mental patient style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That being said. Teresa and I are<\/em> clutter-bugs\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, I discovered this story today. Here\u2019s an interesting article<\/a> on it, and related matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Faked, or genuine?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sadly, but predictably, some folk wish to make more of all this than is actually credible, e.g. the above (from a website calling itself \u2018undertheradarcases\u2019, or something similar). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A tantalisingly spooky image from a newspaper piece.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here are some images of Lyttle\u2019s house, in Hackney, which fell into disrepair. And some of the \u2018catacombs\u2019 he dug.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I ought to credit Karen Russo for a number of the subterranean images. Russo talks online about trying to make a film with\/about Lyttle, but having to abandon the project, due to his aberrant behaviour – racist, misogynistic, she claims – towards her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A blue wall plaque was put up, in his \u2018honour\u2019, or memory.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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This is a terrific image!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Not sure where this one is taken?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Lyttle\u2019s final years sound awfully tragic. Evicted from his home, forced to live at the top of a tower block (to prevent further tunnelling!), and faced with bills he obviously couldn\u2019t pay, for work the council allegedly carried out make his property safe (removing stuff\/filling in holes, etc.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve read that he knocked through a joining wall in his high-rise prison – his compulsion diminished, but not vanquished – and descended into paranoia and ill health. Eventually dying of \u2018natural causes\u2019, in 2010, around the age of 79.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems typically heavy-handed that The State should do this to a guy nearing his end. I recently read about an Australian law enforcement fiasco called Operation Painter<\/em>, in which elderly vulnerable folk were also treated abominably. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In my opinion they should have left him to die in peace, in the home that he clearly loved, in his own weird way. All their brutal interventions did was steal an old man\u2019s home and make a misery of his final years. Way to go!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2012 Lyttle\u2019s former home, inc. what remained of some of his tunnels, was bought by artist Sue Webster, who had the place renovated. Read more about that here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ever since childhood I\u2019ve wanted to dig underground. Indeed, I did so. Which I\u2019ve written about elsewhere on here. But I\u2019ve never worked on the scale I\u2019d like to. Maybe I never will? I don\u2019t know\u2026 But here\u2019s a post on a guy who did. I\u2019ll be honest, he\u2019s clearly an eccentric, or nutjob, even. … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “MiSC: William Lyttle, The Mole Man of Hackney”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGwUa-5Ck","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21596"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21596"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21628,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21596\/revisions\/21628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}