The Legacy of the Hackney Mole Man
The Mole Man of Hackney or William Lyttle became notorious because of all the tunnels he dug under his house and in some cases his neighbours. He supposedly has cost Hackney Council around £400,000 in making his house safe. This report from the Guardian a few years back gives a lot of detail.
Even now, a couple of years after his death, the site is still in the middle of a planning argument according to this report.
This is a difficult one, in that the building may once have had some architectural merit. I also know from personal experience how expensive it can be to restore buildings when they get to this state. So a complete restoration may only be possible by someone who has more money and imagination than sense.
I’m glad I don’t live next to what is left of the house.
The Anonymous Widower 
We live opposite it. We knew William Lyttle – he wasn’t a nice man. We are all objecting to the latest plans – the previous application for a block of flats was thrown out – and we are pushing for a restoration of the detached house on this corner site.
Comment by Marc | May 27, 2011 |
As I said previously they will need very deep pockets. And if you are spending that sort of money, you would probably want to be in a different area of London.
I suppose though, you wouldn’t have to do all the excavation if you wanted an underground pool or garage!
Thinking about it though, it is a good site of a sensible size and a really well-designed modern house, with impeccable eco credentials could possibly be designed that was sympatetic to everything around it.
I’m not going to get involved, as I suspect when my house was built, there were objectors to it. I would have objected to my house, solely on the grounds that the builder didn’t do a good job and attempted to save money at every place he could.
But we do need more houses and especially family ones everywhere in this country. We have far too many little boxes which could have been designed by any eight-year-old with Lego.
Comment by AnonW | May 27, 2011 |
Dear Marc,
I’m doing some researches about William Lyttle in order to complete a short documentary about him. You said you used to live opposite his house, I’d be very happy and grateful to have more details about the man and your relationships as neighbors (Why exactly wasn’t he a nice man ? Did you use to see him a lot around the neighborhood ? Was he very talkative ? Did you notice anything suspicious about the house before his eviction ?)
A thousand thanks in advance,
Emilie Herbert
Comment by themolemanproject | June 9, 2011 |
Well, if you knew the man and have things to say about him, please visit the facebook page (William Lyttle, the mole man of Hackney); I’m undertaking researches about him and any comments will be helpful and highly appreciated !
Comment by emilieherbert | June 17, 2011 |