Tim Hunkin’s Housing Ladder

If you are heading to Clerkenwell this Thursday 17th November for our Celebration of the Life & Work of Colin O’Brien, starting at 6pm at St James, Clerkenwell Green, you might like to walk over to Holborn afterwards to visit Novelty Automation which is open until 10pm that night for the inauguration of a new machine by Tim Hunkin

Tim Hunkin climbs The Housing Ladder

Yesterday I paid a visit to Novelty Automation, Tim Hunkin’s home-made slot machine arcade in Holborn, where I found the maestro at work installing his latest satirical contraption, The Housing Ladder, Buy the House or Die Trying – an elegant construction which expresses our current crisis with astute irony.

The purpose is to climb the ladder to reach the shining house at the top without being knocked back by buy-to-let entrepreneurs, property developers or second home owners. Once you start climbing, a clock that gives you eighty years starts ticking and you need to be alert because, if the one of the villains pops out, you will find yourself sliding backwards down the ladder and may run out of time before you can reach the top. Unlike life, there are options which you can choose, offering degrees of difficulty – from EASY PEASY (Offshore funds), QUITE EASY (Bank of mummy & daddy) and HARD (No savings).

At first, I was encouraged when I succeeded by setting the machine to EASY PEASY (Offshore funds) but then I was dismayed to discover the HARD (No savings) option takes greater skill than I possess – Why should I have been surprised? Readers are invited to step up and test their ability on The Housing Ladder at Novelty Automation.