Some of the questions we put to the Triangle Club last week and their answers
‘What does Sutton smell like?’ was one of the questions we put to the Triangle Club when we saw them last week. Smell is an often overlooked sense, yet an extremely powerful memory trigger – when I visited Japan last year I was aware of how different it smelt to London, and now I only have to walk past a noodle bar to be whisked back in my mind to the narrow alleys of Shinjuku. Closer to home, a combination of industrial cleaning products and over-cooked vegetables can take me back to school in seconds.
Does the smell of a place change over time as lifestyles change and technologies come and go? What did Sutton smell like when there was less traffic and more people worked on the land? What will it smell like in the future if the village expands?
To one member of the Triangle Club Sutton smelt of chickens, from the chicken farm near the Brook. To me, arriving in the village direct from London, Sutton smells of clean air (unless an HGV is thundering past..), fresh leaves and flowers of spring, with a dash of cooking.
But what do you think? What smells remind you of Sutton?
