Peter Crouch looks out towards west London from the vantage of Primrose Hill. In the distance, beneath the summer haze, is the place where he grew up and the football ground where he made his professional debut. There is also the charred shell of Grenfell Tower.
‘One of my best friends is a firefighter and he was there the day after,’ says Crouch, whose childhood home in Ealing is just five miles from the residential block where more than 80 people died in a fire on June 14.
‘Gregg told me about some dark things, firemen being so close but not being able to save people.