Amy Winehouse: The flowers, beer cans and TV trucks of Camden Square
Monday July 25, 2011
WHEN the broadcasters fall quiet, there is a respectful calm around the heap of flowers and cards and beer cans marked with felt-tip messages of adoration in Camden Square. The police tape which has been up since Saturday afternoon still keeps fans on the other side of the road from Amy Winehouse's house and underneath the trees, the shrine is slowly, steadily building.
That said, when you looked along the line of people staring at the tributes left over the weekend this morning, it was obvious who's who today. Journalist. Cameraman. Journalist. Journalist. Fan. Journalist. Journalist. Photographer. Fan. Curious resident. Journalist. Foreign television reporter. Each tribute is scribbled into the pad for some 'one tribute read: Amy we love you' fill.
The calm in the Square followed her father Mitch Winehouse's appearance at the house earlier. He stopped outside and thanked both the press for taking an interest in his daughter and the fans who were there for their support. "It makes this a lot easier," he said. "Amy was about one thing and that was love. Her whole life was devoted to her family and her friends and you guys as well." It is clear that many of those fans did not think that flowers were the most appropriate token for this shrine. In one corner of the Square, a glass of white wine has been poured and left untouched.
Cigarette skins and crushed beer cans share space with little candles. Street signs have been decorated with her name. In Murray Street and Camden Road, people who have never drifted this far from the Lock are mapping there way to the scene. There is already a sense that this open location – the house is right opposite a wide walkway – will become a place for music fans to stop at in the future, a mecca for want of a better word. There will no doubt be calls for the House Where Amy Winehouse Died, a scene of historical importance to music fans across the world, to be fitted with a plaque or something more. That's for another day, when the TV trailers have left and the police tape comes down.
RICHARD OSLEY