Being threatened with a subpoena (London)

In my first two years in London, I lived in one of the bedsits on the first, second and third floors of a terraced house in Belsize Park.  The ground and basement floors made up another flat.

Towards the end of my two years there, the owner of an estate agent moved into the flat below with his family.

I then started to hear music emanating from the room next to our shared bathroom on the first floor.  One day, on my way to the bathroom, the door to that room was ajar: I could see that it was just a storage room kept by the landlord, who lived further down the road, full of spare furniture and bits and bobs, all thrown together.  Sitting among all this was a transistor radio, blaring out music.  I’d thought at the time that maybe the landlord had been working in there, repairing some furniture, and was just taking a break without bothering to switch the radio off.  However, after that day, whenever I went down to the bathroom, even in the middle of the night, I’d hear the radio still going — every single time.

One day, my landlord told me that the owner of the flat below tried to get him out on the grounds that he didn't live there.  (I think the chap downstairs owned the freehold to the whole house.)

Ah, I see, that was what the radio playing 24/7 was about:  my landlord was trying to make us tenants think he was actually living in that room.  I didn't like this sneakiness.

Not long after, I moved out to West Hampstead.  Because he had my new address (for forwarding my post), my ex-landlord turned up one night with his lawyer.  The lawyer explained the situation:  the case had gone to court, so they wanted me to be one of his witnesses — to say that he did indeed live on the premises.  I said I was sorry but I didn’t want to do that.  

I would've been more sympathetic had she not then tried to pressurise me by saying, “We can subpoena you, you know.  You will not be able to refuse then, if you were subpoena’d.”

Instead of making him lose face by saying I knew about his radio trick, I simply said, “It will not be to your advantage to do that.  I will have to tell the truth in court, so it will not be to your benefit to have me there as one of your witnesses.”  

She then had a little discussion with him in Greek, and they left immediately.

(London, 1977–1979)