My interest in the world of gangs dates back almost 30 years through a long history of living and working in Lambeth, London SW9.

I first worked in Brixton, SW9, in 1981, covering the April riots for my university newspaper. From 1982-85, I was a frequent visitor to many of the multiple squats in and around Brixton before finally moving to Brixton in 1985. I was then to live and/or work in Lambeth until 2012, including five years living on Loughborough Estate, SW9. The estate is home to over 3,000 families and consists of two separate parts: Old Loughborough, which is brick built 1940s former London County Council (LCC) properties, up to five storeys in height; and New Loughborough, comprising six 11-storey tower blocks dating from the 1950s and 1960s, interspersed with some flat-roofed, low-rise properties. The tower blocks were brick-built rather than concrete slab prefabricated system-built and reputed to resemble ocean liners when viewed from a certain angle. Although I lived in one I never did find that angle. In immediate proximity to this estate was Angell town – a low-rise, 1970s brick-built warren of interlocking streets and cul-de-sacs, which by 1985 had developed a notorious reputation. One hundred yards away were Coldharbour Lane and Southwyck House, an eight-storey, neo-brutalist, deck-access block built in the 1970s and often mistakenly thought to be Brixton prison. Built in a horseshoe-shaped crescent, it was called the barrier block, as it was planned to act as a sound barrier to an adjacent motorway. The crescent shape faced away from Brixton town centre such that the edifice presented a cliff-face rising out of the street, with tiny windows in place for soundproofing against motorway traffic. The motorway was never built. Rumour had it that the Danish architect killed herself shortly after the block was completed as it was ‘facing the wrong way’. Within a few years of completion, Southwyck House, along with Angell town, became dumping grounds for poor black families. An invisible line between them constituted the infamous Brixton ‘frontline’, a line that could not be seen, but could often be smelt by virtue of the cannabis smoke which pervaded the air at every corner.