The most baffling part of the climb was getting to the base of the Rock. Or so we thought until we embarked on the Face itself. On a Saturday we started to ask our way along the limpet-horde of wrecked garages and scrapyards that encrust the base of the reef. Nowhere does the 500-metre soaring triangle of raw limestone actually sprout from common ground. These rusting corrugated-iron shanties shut us out. At Rock Haulage Ltd, 26 Devil's Tower Road, a tanned and stubbled man is standing in the doorway of a den stacked up with cannibalised cars. When I say, 'We want to climb the cliff here,' he says instantly, 'Are you sure?', looking me full in the eye. He is friendly about access but must clear it with his boss, who 'should be back by 6'. As we talk, the crag leans over us hugely.

LRB 13 May 1993 | PDF Download