The charred remains of Grenfell Tower are now a feature of the West London skyline and a symbol of the disparity between the living conditions of rich and poor in England's capital. When we visit North Kensington Law Centre (13 September 2018), literally in the shadow of the 24-storey high rise, a massive banner has recently been unfurled, obscuring the top floors. Emblazoned with a huge green heart, one side reads ‘Forever in our hearts’. It is in tribute to the 72 people who died in the fire 15 months earlier.

This time last year the railings outside St Clement's Church, were covered in flowers, candles, teddy bears, as well as the posters for the still missing. Over the road from the church is Baseline Business Studios, home to the law centre where a small team of five to ten regular staff plus volunteers have been helping survivors and the bereaved in the aftermath of the tragedy. The office is so close to the tower that in the first 24 hours of the fire it was behind the police cordon. Staff had to decamp to the church's community centre, and a drop-in clinic was up and running by lunchtime the day after the fire started.

“We’re part of the community,” the law centre's director, Annie Campbell Viswanathan, tells us. “People know that they can come to us.” We are discussing press reports about ‘ambulance-chasing’ lawyers ‘touting for business’ in the wake of the tragedy.

A solicitors’ firm had been criticised for fly-posting on the Lancaster West estate offering to help victims ‘kick-start any potential insurance claims and review any complex documents’. A disclaimer stated that two lawyers from the firm named on the poster, both trainee solicitors, would not be paid, but a third party ‘may charge for their services’. The firm in the flyers is a leading human rights practice, Leigh Day, and its controversial work representing Iraqi citizens pursuing claims of torture and murder against British troops has piqued press interest.

“People know that with us the first port of call isn't going to be their credit card,” says Viswanathan. “It has been critical since the 1940s and the beginning of the welfare state that the poor and marginalised have ‘access to justice’. What we mean by that is a really good-quality legal service. We provide that and we provide it to local people.”