This is Grahame Tower on the South Acton Estate. Interestingly, all the blocks are named after authors such as Buchan, Jerome, Conrad, Galsworthy, Hardy, Carroll, Chesterton and – rather oddly IMHO – Charles Hocking. I must confess to never having heard of Charles Hocking and on googling him discovered that his claim to authorship fame was a book written in 1969 called “Dictionary of disasters at Sea During the Age of Steam: Including Sailing Ships and Ships of War Lost in Action”, which BTW costs more than £4,000 on Amazon. I think if I lived in Charles Hocking House, I would start a protest group to rename it “Ian Fleming House” – a notable omission from Ealing’s literary list. Grahame Tower was the closest I could find for today’s word, which was “picaresque” meaning ‘Originally: relating to or characteristic of a rogue or knave. Now chiefly: designating a genre of narrative fiction which deals episodically with the adventures of an individual, usually a roguish and dishonest but attractive hero (cf. picaro n., picaroon n.1 1). Also: having the attributes associated with this genre of narrative.’ (OED). Mr Toad is arguably picaresque – at least he’s roguish and not terribly honest, but I would perhaps draw the line at calling him attractive. Meanwhile, the works of Lawrence, Kipling and Wodehouse are full of picaros, but sadly their buildings have already been demolished as part of the council’s ‘regeneration’ plan. Why do I feel another “Dictionary of disasters” coming on?
Day #268 of a 365 project, where the daily pic is informed by the OED word of the day.