Lisburne Road

The Upcott family live on Lisburne Road in Hampstead. Strike and Robin have arranged to interview Katya Upcott, Josh’s agent, in a cafe, but she asks them to come to her home instead as her daughter is ill and off school. Later in the book, the Upcotts’ address is given as 81 Lisburne Road, but the house numbers do not go that high in the real street.

“Lisburne Road was a quiet residential street of terraced red-brick houses: solid, palatial family homes. As most of the parking spaces were full, Strike and Robin had to park some distance from Katya Upcott’s house, and Strike suffered in silence the renewed twinges of his hamstring and the irritated end of his stump as they proceeded up the street, which was built on a slight incline.” (Chapter 34, The Ink Black Heart

Strike rings the doorbell of the Upcotts’ house, and the door is opened by Gus Upcott. Katya Upcott asks them to come upstairs, where the detectives interview her about her involvement in The Ink Black Heart cartoon and her relationships with Josh and Edie. They also meet her husband, Inigo Upcott, and their daughter, Flavia.

After Strike and Robin finish their interview with the Upcotts, they leave and Flavia Upcott “popped up from behind the hedge” (Chapter 34, The Ink Black Heart). She talks to them about their detective work as they walk up the street, Strike and Robin toward the Land Rover, Flavia on her way to visit her neighbour’s puppies.

You can find Lisburne Road on the map here: