Mark Waddell outside his home in Kentish Town

“FOR SALE” signs are a familiar sight on the streets of the borough, as estate agents look for potential buyers and renters in the frenetic churn of the property market.

But Kentish Town poet Mark Waddell puts these boards to a different use altogether, using a sign outside his Islip Street home to display words and phrases from his latest poems.

Previous signs, which Mr Waddell describes as “a mischievous grin at the world”, have read: “Give me a sign”, “the happiest man in the village is always voted chief”, and “after all these years your father can still cry at sunsets”.

“All the signs are, on the whole, designed to make you think, laugh, have a sense of surprise, a sense of wonder, and stop and look for a minute – you know how we’re all rushing around like crazy things, looking at our phones, not having a minute for ourselves.

“So if you just stop and you look at something for a minute, you’ve got a bit of time out from your busy mind,” he said.

Mr Waddell has published two volumes of poetry, On the Cusp of Greatness and Particles of Wonder, and reads his poetry live to audiences around Kentish Town and beyond.

“I am inspired by Kentish Town because of the characters… it’s a real community where we live, we know all the neighbours,” he said.
“People say London’s unfriendly but I don’t think so. It’s a series of villages, and if you make a bit of effort, and you smile at people, you’ll get a lot back,” he said.

“I’m a bit of a word thief. There was one time when I was sitting in the Pineapple [pub] and I heard a guy say on the phone: ‘Hi Mum, how’s the human trafficking going?’ And I wrote that down as a title, and that became a poem. I did actually chat to him afterwards and it turned out his mum was a police officer.”

His signs often start conversations in the street, Mr Waddell said, adding: “I think that’s why the signs work. I’ve had lots of funny interactions with people over the years.

“There’s a few that stick in the mind: I remember a big, burly guy getting out of his car, a bouncer character. He looks up at the sign that says, ‘He married his childhood sweetheart and stayed true’, and burst into tears.

“You do get reactions. The other day there was a sign up that said ‘the ministry of corruption’, and this guy came up to me and said, ‘They’re all corrupt b**tards, aren’t they?’”

Mr Waddell hopes his signs allow people to slow down.

He added: “I’m doing a project at the moment that looks at slow looking and slow watching at the British Museum.
“Apparently people go past the Mona Lisa in 12 seconds. Obviously, we’ve forgotten just because of the pace of technology to be, to stop. And I think the signs give people that little moment of respite.”