Notable Residents
Edmund Gosse, the poet, the son of naturalist Philip Henry Gosse
De Beauvoir Town was home to William Lyttle (1931–2010), a retired electrical engineer known as the Mole Man of Hackney. Mr Lyttle dug a series of tunnels under his property on the corner of Mortimer Road and Stamford Road. In 2001, his tunnelling caused an 8 ft (2.4 m) hole to appear in the pavement on Stamford Road. Reports that the tunnelling had started again in 2006 were confirmed when Hackney Council found a web of tunnels and caverns, some 8 m (26 ft) deep, spreading up to 20m in every direction from his house. In August 2006, the Council succeeded in getting a court order banning Mr Lyttle from his property. Mr Lyttle died in 2010 and the fate of the house, now derelict and needing a new roof, was thought to be uncertain. The house was auctioned on the 19 July 2012 and sold for £1.12 million.
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Famous quotes containing the words notable and/or residents:
“a notable prince that was called King John;
And he ruled England with main and with might,
For he did great wrong, and maintained little right.”
—Unknown. King John and the Abbot of Canterbury (l. 2–4)
“In most nineteenth-century cities, both large and small, more than 50 percent—and often up to 75 percent—of the residents in any given year were no longer there ten years later. People born in the twentieth century are much more likely to live near their birthplace than were people born in the nineteenth century.”
—Stephanie Coontz (20th century)