In a city where media companies and hospitals have armed guards, this accessibility is unusual. Inside, drivers sit and chat in between shifts, the overhead fan whirring and causing the dim electric light to flicker over their faces.

Well, Captain Smollett, what have you to say? All well, I hope; all shipshape and seaworthy?

I can make a scroll like that in a single heat.

Had he succeeded in awakening in 1966, he would no doubt have been fascinated to find the site of his obliterated house the subject of lively interest and debate as archaeologists and architects attempted a hypothetical reconstruction.