‘Eric Gordon was in a class of his own’

• IN the days since I learnt of Eric Gordon’s passing, I have been unable to stop thinking about him, about the lessons he had taught us, and those that are still to come, (Eric Gordon: Tributes to Camden’s great chronicler as founder and editor of CNJ dies at 89, April 8).

One memory of working for this remarkable man embodies his approach.

At around midnight on the evening of the Chalcots estate evacuation, I was accosted on the street by Eric.

Then aged in his mid-80s, he was recently returned from the upper floors of Taplow tower. He handed me a fistful of ragged, yellowing newsprint.

It had been found stuffed inside a resident’s wall, beside the front door frame. Proof, he suspected, of shoddy works.

I stifled a sigh. What has this got to do with the flammable external panels that triggered the evacuation, I thought.

In hindsight, I now realise this was another example of Eric’s infuriating habit of being right.

He had discovered within hours what we would all eventually learn: it was never just the cladding – itself a symptom of a greater story.

Buildings that for years had been refurbished and maintained by outsourced contractors were riddled with fire risks, he seemed to believe intuitively. The only octogenarian on the beat that night got to the story before all of us.

He stepped around officials trying to marshal the mass of journalists, went straight to listen to the real people caught in the middle and placed the drama within its historical context.

As always, he was in a class of his own. It’s true that we won’t see his like again. But all is not lost: his legacy lives on in the papers and its alumni.

BILLY McLENNAN
CNJ journalist (2012-2018)