Posts Tagged ‘Peckham’

Peckham & Stockwell Protests – 2017

Sunday, January 21st, 2024

Peckham & Stockwell Protests – on Saturday 21st January 2017 I spent the day in South London, photographing protests in Peckham and Stockwell.


Peckham welcomes march against deportations

Peckham & Stockwell Protests - 2017

Immigration raids in south London had target long-established African, Asian and Caribbean communities, dividing families, deporting people who have built lives in the UK with parents, partners and children here. Protesters compared the deportation flights which followed with slave ships, with deportees shackled with a guard on each side in a cruel and divisive act of racist discrimination.

Peckham & Stockwell Protests - 2017

The Home Office had carried out many of these forced deportations unlawfully, and the High Court had decided that their use of the ‘detained fast track’ procedure from 2005-2014 was unlawful and went beyond their legal powers. Had we as individuals had acted illegally for so long and so persistently there would be little doubt that we would now be in prison.

Peckham & Stockwell Protests - 2017

But the government gets away scot-free. The 10,000 or so asylum seekers deported under the old system could in theory ask for the decision made on their cases to be set aside and lodge a new appeal, although very few are likely to be in a position to do so.

Peckham & Stockwell Protests - 2017

The protest was organised by Movement for Justice, but supported by many other groups including including SOAS Detainee Support (SDS), Anti Raids Network, Zimbabwe Human Rights Organization Mazimbabweans, Jewdas, BLMUK, London Mexico Solidarity, Fight Racism – Fight Imperialism (FRFI), Sisters Uncut – South East London and Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants.

After a short rally the protests marched down Rye Lane, the main shopping street in Peckham, attracting a great deal of support from shoppers on the crowded street.

Some went into shops and handed out leaflets there and on the street. They held a short rally at the south end of the street before returning for another in the square by Peckham Library.

Peckham march against deportations


Oh! Mother march against knife crime – Peckham

Another protest march was taking place in Peckham during the afternoon. Oh! Mother, A Christian organisation based in South London which campaigns for change in communities was protesting to put an end to gun and knife crime.

Their march followed the stabbing to death in Peckham on 30th December 2016 of 24 year old Ernest Kalawa. Among the marchers were members of the dead man’s family, some of whom wore t-shirts commemorating him.

Oh! Mother march against knife crime


March against closing community centres – Stockwell

Members of Lambeth Labour were meeting in Stockwell to march to Stockwell Community Centre, one of two local community centres in Stockwell and Kennington Park which are run by Hyde Housing Association which were threatened with closure.

Lambeth Council is spending £50 million on a new town hall and had pledged £20 million to support the vanity Garden Bridge project, but the Labour-run council had made drastic cuts in community services, including library closures and selling off council estates to developers but has refused to support these community centres.

Lambeth Labour Council is one of a number of London Labour councils dominated by right-wing members who appear to have lost any sense that councils exist for the benefit of their residents rather than of the councillors.

Lambeth appear to follow in the footsteps of neighbouring Southwark, here journalist Anna Minton found that “20 per cent of Southwark’s 63 councillors work as lobbyists” for developers in the planning industry and that a significant number of Councillors and Council officers are making use of a ‘well-oiled revolving door’ to the industry.

March against closing community centres



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Open House, Sewol, Iran, Sabah, Sarawak & Orange Order 2017

Saturday, September 16th, 2023

Open House, Sewol, Iran, Sabah, Sarawak & Orange Order: Saturday 16th September 2017 was another busy and varied day for me in London, beginning with two visits on Open House Day and continuing with four protests.


Open House – Banqueting House – Whitehall

Open House, Sewol, Iran, Sabah, Sarawak & Orange Order

Though I’d often walked past the Banqueting House in Whithall, usually on my way to protests at Downing Street or Parliament Square, I’d never before been inside the building. But when I came past on Open House Day there was only a short queue and entrance was free. I had time to spare as a protest I’d hoped to photograph had failed to materialise, so in I went.

Inigo Jones designed (or copied from Andrea Palladio) the Banqueting House for the Palace of Whitehall, built 1619-22, and it is the only remaining building from the palace. It was the first neo-Classical building in England.

More about it and more pictures on My London Diary at Open House – Banqueting House.


Open House & more – Peckham

Open House, Sewol, Iran, Sabah, Sarawak & Orange Order

I went to Peckham to see a few things in the Peckham Festival including the Open House showing of the Old Waiting Room at Peckham Rye station which was housing a photographic exhibition of old pictures of Peckham.

Open House, Sewol, Iran, Sabah, Sarawak & Orange Order

The building itself turned out to be more interesting than the exhibition which lacked any real examination of the more recent past of Peckham. But there were other things to see in Peckham, and a short walk around Rye Lane and the Bussey Building is always interesting.

More at Open House & more – Peckham.


41st monthly Sewol ‘Stay Put!’ vigil – Trafalgar Square

Open House, Sewol, Iran, Sabah, Sarawak & Orange Order

Back in Central London, my first protest was in Trafalgar Square where a small group mainly of SOuth Koreans was continuing their series of monthly vigils in memory of he Sewol victims, mainly school children who obeyed the order to ‘Stay Put’ on the lower decks as the ship went down.

They continue to demand the Korean government conduct a thorough inquiry into the disaster, recover all missing victims, punish those responsible and enact special anti-disaster regulations.

41st monthly Sewol ‘Stay Put!’ vigil


Overthrow the Islamic Regime of Iran – Trafalgar Square

Also in Trafalgar Square the 8 March Women’s Organisation (Iran-Afghanistan) were protesting on the 29th anniversary of the massacre of political prisoners in Iraq following a fatwa by Ayatollah Khomeini calling for the death of all Mojahedins and leftists as ‘fighters against God’ and ‘apostates from Islam.’

The fatwa led to over 30,000 political prisoners, mostly members of the main opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) being executed, largely hanged in groups of six and buried in mass graves.

The protesters call for the overthrow of the Islamic regime as necessary for the ‘litigation movement’ can achieve justice and build a society where such executions cannot occur and no one is suppressed, imprisoned or tortured for their ideas.

More pictures: Overthrow the Islamic Regime of Iran.


Black Day for Sabah & Sarawak – Downing St

A short distance down the road at Downing St, Sabahans and Sarawkians were protesting on Malaysia Day, which they say is a ‘Black Day for Sabah and Sarawak’, calling for a restoration of human rights and the repeal of the Sedition Act and and freedom for Sarawak and Sabah.

Among them was Doris Jones, the leader of the Sabah Sarawak Keluar Malaysia secessionist movement in London.

When Malaysia was founded on 16th September 1963 the two independent countries in North Borneo joined with the Federation of Malaya and Singapore and were given promises, assurances and undertakings for their future in the federation. These included ’20 points’ of an Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC) Report, which the prrotesters say have been cast aside, and anyone raising them is being detained under a draconian Internal Security Act.

More at Black Day for Sabah & Sarawak.


Lord Carson Memorial Parade – Cenotaph, Whitehall

The annual Lord Carson Memorial Parade, one of several annual parades by lodges of the Orange Order came to the Cenotaph for wreaths to be laid. As well as various lodges dedicated to the Apprentice Boys of Derry there were others remembering the Ulster regiments that fought on the Somme. As well as members of lodges in the Home Counties and London, these parades also include some who come from Ulster and Scotland.

Lord Carson (1854-1935) was a leading judge and politician in the UK becoming Solicitor General and First Lord of the Admiralty. He had joined the Orange Order at the age of 19, and in 1911 became the leader of the Ulster Unionists, determined to fight against home rule for Ireland by “all means which may be found necessary“, becoming one of the founders of a unionist militia that became the Ulster Volunteer Force.

But in later years he warned Unionists not to alienate the Catholics in the north, something which parades such as this clearly do in some areas of Northern Ireland. In London they are much less controversial, although I have at times been threatened by those taking part for photographing them. But on this occasion I received just a few hard stares and even some faintly welcoming grins from some who recognised me.

More pictures on My London Diary at Lord Carson Memorial Parade.


High Rise, Houses, Car Parts, and a Club

Friday, February 24th, 2023

Continuing my walk in Peckham in March 1989. The previous post on this walk was Asylum, Lorry Park, Works, Museum & Office Door.

Bird in Bush Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3c-21
Bird in Bush Road, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3c-21

I spent some time exploring the area around Malt Street and Ossory Road, now on the other side of Asda, where some demolition was taking place but took few photographs, none on-line, and then walked back along along the Old Kent Road to Peckham Park Road, going down this to Green Hundred Road. I found myself in a large area of council housing, much of which was fairly standard LCC five storey blocks dating from the late 1930s, solidly built, their height limited back then by the lack of lifts.

The foreground flats in this picture are from the late 60s and are on Bird in Bush Road, part of the GLC designed Ledbury Estate, and as well as these 4-storey maisonette blocks there were also four identical 14 floor H shape tower blocks, including this one, Bromyard House, which has its entrance on Commercial Way.

Bird in Bush Road, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3c-22
Bird in Bush Road, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3c-22

This picture was taken from close to the east end of Bird in Bush Road, and the building cut off at extreme left of the image is the former Arthur Street Board School (now Camelot Primary School.)

The design dates of these flats, also on the Ledbury estate, is from the early 1960s and was replicated across London by the GLC, using the prefabricated Danish Larsen-Nielsen system. After one at Ronan Point suffered a disastrous collapse following a gas explosion flats built using this system should have been strengthened, but somehow Southwark Council failed to do so on this estate. I’m not sure whether this had now been put right. but none have yet collapsed.

Doddington Cottages, Commercial Way, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3c-24
Doddington Cottages, Commercial Way, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3c-24

This semi-detached residence dating from 1836 which was Grade II listed together with the neighbouring Doddington Place around nine years after I took this picture.

The name possibly comes from Doddington Hall in Cheshire, built by Samuel Wyatt for Sir Thomas Broughton in 1777-90 and its parkland landscaped by Capability Brown. There is also Doddington Place at Doddington near Sittingbourne in Kent, but this was only built around 1870.

Tustin Estate, Old Kent Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3c-11
Tustin Estate, Old Kent Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3c-11

The Tustin Estate is on the north side the Old Kent Road immediately west of Ilderton Road. It has three 20 storey towers, Windermere Point, Grasmere Point (in the centre here) and Ambleside Point, each with over 70 flats which were approved by the GLC in 1964. There are also six low-rise blocks on the estate.

According to Southwark Council, “In March 2021, residents voted in favour of demolishing and rebuilding the low-rise buildings in a residents’ ballot. This will include replacement council homes, additional council homes and key worker housing, shared equity homes and homes for private sale. There will also be a replacement school building, new commercial spaces and a new park. All existing residents will be able to move to a new council home in the first phase of the scheme.” I’m unsure how far this scheme has so far progressed and it remains to be seen whether the council will keep its promises, which it almost completely failed to do on some earlier schemes.

Clifton Crescent, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3c-13
Clifton Crescent, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3c-13

I returned to Clifton Crescent which I had photographed earlier and too a rather better and closer picture of this magnificent curved terrace. As I explained earlier, it was Southwark Council’s decision in 1972 to demolish this crescent that led to a local action group which became the Peckham Society in 1975. Fortunately they managed to stop the demolition when only No 1 had been lost. They convinced the council that retaining and restoring the properties was a cheaper option, and the lost house was rebuilt and the entire crescent, Grade II listed thanks to their efforts in 1974, was restored by 1977. The Crescent was built in 1847-51 and represents an interesting transition between earlier Regency styles and the simpler Victorian terraces.

Car spares, Loder St, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3c-15
Car spares, Loder St, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3c-15

From there I made my way east, going under the railway on Culmore Road or Clifton Way and then south to Loder St. This whole area has been redeveloped since I made these pictures in 1989 and is now covered with low-rise housing. I made two pictures of this car breaker’s yard (you can see the other on Flickr).The tower blocks are those of the Tustin Estate.

Hatcham Liberal Club, Queen's Rd, New Cross, Lewisham, 1989 89-3d-61
Hatcham Liberal Club, Queen’s Rd, New Cross, Lewisham, 1989 89-3d-61

I walked down to Queen’s Road, I think along York Grove, stopping briefly to photograph a street corner. On Queen’s Road before catching a bus I photographed the Hatcham Liberal Club, built in 1880 in Queen Anne Dutch style and Grade II listed ten years after I took this picture. It was one of the largest of a number of late Victorian working men’s clubs and became a popular venue with a large hall at the back available for hire for parties and gigs and also for until it closed in 2006. In 2009 most of the interior was converted into flats.

Shops, John Ruskin St, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-3d-62
Shops, John Ruskin St, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-3d-62

I changed buses in Camberwell, where I made a slight detour to make another visit to photograph the row of shops on John Ruskin Street as the final picture of the day and this walk.

The first post about this walk was Shops, Removals, Housing and the Pioneer Health Centre. I’ll post about my next walk in 1989, in the City of London, shortly.


Asylum, Lorry Park, Works, Museum & Office Door

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2023

Continuing my walks in Peckham in March 1989. The previous post was Bird in Bush, Wood Dene, Asylum and a School.

Caroline Gardens, Licensed Victuallers’ Benevolent Institution, Asylum Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3c-53
Caroline Gardens, Licensed Victuallers’ Benevolent Institution, Asylum Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3c-53

I stepped a few feet inside the Caroline Gardens Estate to photograph No 79A, which was one of two identical lodges at the ends of the main site. This one is at the north end and the plaque above the doorway has been restored and can now easily be read, ‘THIS LODGE ERECTED 1849 HENRY ENGLAND CHAIRMAN’.

Caroline Gardens, Licensed Victuallers’ Benevolent Institution, Asylum Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3c-54
Caroline Gardens, Licensed Victuallers’ Benevolent Institution, Asylum Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3c-54

The corner of this lodge occupies most of the right half of the picture, looking down the rather uneven pavement with some vintage street lamps to more of the Asylum buildings. I didn’t go further into the estate as I think I felt this and the earlier pictures of it were enough. The buildings of the Licensed Victuallers’ Benevolent Institution (Caroline Gardens) in Asylum Rd are Grade II listed and as my previous post mentioned were acquired by Southwark Council in 1960.

Lorry Park, Asylum Road, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3c-55
Lorry Park, Asylum Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3c-55

The lorry park on Asylum Road was something of a contrast to the elegance of the Asylum buildings, though I liked its selection of lines and blocks, the trailers, the fence, barrier and posts and wires.

I can’t see any trace of this now and but I think it was probably on the east side of the street where there is now a large car park for Lidl.

Wales Close, Asylum Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3c-56
Wales Close, Asylum Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3c-56

On the west side of Asylum Road was this dead end back street, not named on my map from the 1980s but was where Wales Close is now. The tall blocks in the background are on the Ledbury Estate on Commercial Way.

Streets such as this were very much a reminder of London as a city full of industry with many areas like this full of small manufacturing businesses of all trades, as well as larger companies and great industrial estates.

Livesey Museum, Old Kent Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3c-43
Livesey Museum, Old Kent Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3c-43

Asylum Road ends at the Old Kent Road and the Livesey Museum was at No 682, just a short walk towards central London. The Livesey Museum was commissioned by George Livesey, chairman of the South Metropolitan Gas Company, in 1890 as a library for workers of the local gasworks and later entrusted to the people of the old parish of Camberwell as a public library. It was damaged in wartime bombing but restored and opened as the the Livesey Museum for Children from 1974 to 2008.

Southwark Council wanted to sell the building off, but found that they were not the owners, as it was owned by a covenanted trust. It was squatted in 2010 but then became home to Treasure House, providing special education to vulnerable young adults in Southwark.

Offices, Malt St, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3c-32
Offices, Malt St, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3c-32

I kept walking along the Old Kent Road towards Bermondsey, taking a few pictures including of Christ Church next to the museum and the murals on the North Peckham Civic Centre by Polish artist, Adam Kossowski. Plans for the demolition of this building were approved by Southwark Council in 2019, preserving the mural, listed in 2017.

I haven’t digitised my black and white picture as I thought I had taken better images in colour, but if so I’ve yet to digitise those either. The former North Peckham Civic Centre was the Twentieth Century Society’s Building of the Month for November 2020, and has been described as ” by far the finest 20th Century building on the Old Kent Road.” and was once described by Southwark Council as a building of ‘Architectural or Historic Interest’. But that seems not to be enough to save it, although it was still standing a few months ago.

The doorway to Offices I photographed at 500 Old Kent Road, on the side of the building in Malt Street has since disappeared, along with the row of late Victorian terrace housing in my next frame which I think were also on Malt Street. 500 Old Kent Road is now a part of the address of Asda Old Kent Road Superstore at 464-504, and Malt Street is considerably wider to give easier vehicle access to the Asda car park.

More on this walk in March 1989 to follow. The first post about this walk was Shops, Removals, Housing and the Pioneer Health Centre.


Peckham Pride

Monday, February 20th, 2023

Earlier this week I took a walk with a couple of friends in Peckham, one of my favourite parts of south London, and currently on this site I’ve been making a number of illustrated posts about walks I made there back in 1989, the latest, a couple od days ago being Bird in Bush, Wood Dene, Asylum and a School. But I’ve also photographed other events in Peckham, including the first Peckham Pride, seven years ago on Saturday 20th February 2016.


Peckham Pride

LGSMigrants and Movement for Justice organised the event to put the politics of resistance which has for many years been sidelined by the growing commercialisation of Pride marches and events back into Pride.

Peckham’s FIRST EVER Pride march is for everyone with and without citizenship, papers or no papers. We REFUSE to accept stigma or discrimination over the colour of our passports, the colour of our skin, our gender, our sexuality or our ability.

They had chosen to come to Peckham for this event as the area had become a major target for anti-immigration raids, racist go-home vans, and street harassment by the Home Office.

The are has a large Nigerian and Ghanaian community which makes it a convenient target for racist raids leading to brutal deportations on cattle-like charter flights to Nigeria and Ghana. But its residents have also made it a focus of growing popular resistance on the streets to these illegal and immoral activities.

Several hundred supporters of the event met on the square by Peckham Library – now threatened along with the Peckham Arch by Southwark Council who are eager to build on much of the area – and perhaps to end the community events which gather there, sometimes critical of council activities.

At a rally there were speeches calling for refugees to be welcomed in Britain and to find here a safe haven where they can enjoy freedom, oppourtunity and education. Instead they are faced with a government which is increasingly making the country a hostile environment both for them and for the majority of citizens. The speakers emphasized the need to organise and act together to oppose and defeat these polices.

From the arch on Peckham High Street Peckham Pride marched down the major shopping street of Rye Lane, attracting attention and some encouraging gestures and comments with some loud chanting and a samba band.

They stopped again a little past Rye Lane station where there were more speeches, including by another former Yarl’s Wood detainee who told how they had organised and held together to stop a fellow detainee being forcibly deported. A local shopkeeper came to talk about the Border Force raids, including one on his premises and the community opposition close to them, and there was a powerful speech from a local resident about the need to organise resistance and oppose these raids.

Local resistance is both effective and appropriate, as the Home Office employees who carry them out are generally acting in abuse of the law. I had to leave before the end of the march and missed the performances which were to follow it at the Bussey Centre at the centre of Peckham.

Peckham Pride

Bird in Bush, Wood Dene, Asylum and a School

Saturday, February 18th, 2023

Continuing my walks in Peckham in March 1989. The previous post was Costa, A Corner & Our Lady of Sorrows.

Bird in Bush Park, Bird in Bush Rd, Naylor Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3b-45
Bird in Bush Park, Bird in Bush Rd, Naylor Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3b-45

This park was formed by wholesale housing clearances by Southwark Council in the 1970s. The triangular area between Bird in Bush Road, Naylor Road and Commercial Way which had around 35 houses built from around 1870 until the end of the century with back gardens was flattened, leaving only a couple of buildings on the northern corners of the area.

The houses in this picture are on the other side of Commercial Way and I was standing on or close to Naylor Road. I spent quite a long time taking dozen pictures of these semi-embedded tyres which made a BMX track, all fairly similar to this.

Flats, Meeting House Lane, Queen's Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3b-11
Flats, Meeting House Lane, Queen’s Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3b-11

I walked west from the park and down the route of the former Surrey Canal back to Peckham High Street, turning along this to the east to the junction with Meeting House Lane.

Southwark Council decided to demolish Wood Dene (part of the Acorn Estate) in 2000, later selling it off on the cheap for £7million to Notting Hill Housing Trust who redeveloped it as Peckham Place. It was demolished in 2007. When built Wood Dene was home to 323 families as council tenants. The replacement was only completed in 2019, has no real social housing with just 54 homes at so-called ‘affordable’ rent of up to 80% market rent.

As I was preparing to take this picture a woman walked across and I waited until she was in a suitable position to include in the picture. I think her presence emphasises the massive scale of the 1960’s block.

St John Chrysostom, Church, Meeting House Lane, Queen's Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3b-14
St John Chrysostom, Church, Meeting House Lane, Queen’s Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3b-14

Some way up Meeting House Lane on the corner of Springhall Street was the Anglican Church and Parish Centre of St John, Peckham, built in 1965 to replace the bombed St Jude and St Chrysostom, whose two parishes were amalgamated. The architect David Bush worked on a “truly theological and quite unique brief, following on from a weekend building conference at Sevenoaks” resulting in a building suitable for varied religious and secular use.

The building now lookks a little different, with the large brick side on Springhall Street now entirely covered by a colourful mural painted in 2017.

Licensed Victuallers’ Benevolent Institution Asylum Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3c61
Licensed Victuallers’ Benevolent Institution, Asylum Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3c61

The Edwardian Baroque building here seems to go under several addresses in Asylum Rd, and although it now clearly calls itself 12b is Grade II listed as 12a Asylum Rd, a former annexe to offices of the almshouses, built 1913-1914, architect F.E Harford. Other sources refer to it as 10 Asylum Rd.

Licensed Victuallers’ Benevolent Institution, Asylum Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3c-62
Licensed Victuallers’ Benevolent Institution, Asylum Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3c-62

The Licensed Victuallers’ Benevolent Institution Asylum was founded in 1827 on a large site on what became Asylum Road, a short distance from the Old Kent Road (which its Grade II listing gives as its address.)

The asylum was simply housing for retired publicans and was not a ‘lunatic asylum’ though many of its elderly residents might have been a little fuddled from years of alcohol fumes and consumption. The earliest buildings date from 1827 and the architect was Henry Rose, but there were later additions in similar style in the 1840s, 1850s and finally in 1866. It became the largest almshouses in London with over 200 residents in 176 homes.

Most if not all of the buildings are Grade II listed. In 1959 the Licensed Victuallers moved to new almshouses in Denham, Bucks and in 1960 Camberwell Borough Council bought the property for council housing, apparently naming it Caroline Gardens after a former resident.

Leo Street School, Asylum Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3c-63
Leo Street School, Asylum Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3c-63

This 1900 building on Asylum Rd is at the back of the Leo Street School and opened in 1900, a year after the main school, architect T J Bailey. In my picture the board states it is part of ILEA’s Southwark College. It was converted to residential use in the 1990s.

The next instalment on this walk will begin with some more pictures of Caroline Gardens from my walk in March 1989. The first post about this walk was Shops, Removals, Housing and the Pioneer Health Centre.


Costa, A Corner & Our Lady of Sorrows

Thursday, February 16th, 2023

Costa, A Corner & Our Lady of Sorrows continues my walks in Peckham in March 1989. The previous post was A Laundry, Crescent, Shops, Mission & Settlement.

G Costa & Co, Marlborough Works, Staffordshire St, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3b-54
G Costa & Co, Marlborough Works, Staffordshire St, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3b-54

G Costa, importers and distributors of fine foods was founded in 1879 and incorporated in 1913. The company moved out of Peckham to another of its sites in Aylesford Kent in 1994, and was bought by Associated British Foods in 2003.

Among its products is the Blue Dragon range of sauces and ingredients for Chinese, Japanese and S E Asian meals. The factory site has since been developed as housing.

Staffordshire St area, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3b-55
Staffordshire St, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3b-55

Although this building has been replaced by a new block, these is still a slight bend here at the south end of Staffordshire Street just before it ends on Peckham High St. There are still some posts along the side of the pavement, but no longer needed to protect pedestrians from lorries from the factory, but three hoops to lock a bike to outside the entrance to Gaumont House.

This block was the site of the first Gaumont Palace Theatre to be built in London in 1932, on the site of the 1898 Peckham Hippodrome Theatre on Peckham High St between Marmont Road and Staffordshire Street. Later it became simply The Gaumont and was damaged by bombing in 1941 and a V1 flying bomb in 1944, managing to re-open after both a few months later. Refurbished in 1948 it closed in 1961 and was converted into a Top Rank Bingo club with boxing matches once a week. It was sadly modernised in the 1970s, closed in 1998 and was demolished in 2002.

I was attracted by the odd pattern of rectangles, including one one the pavement in the foreground and others along the wall, with those each side of the leaning lamp post formed by shadows rather than the actual doorways and subtly subverting the impression of space in the picture.

Marmont Rd, Peckham High St, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3b-56
Marmont Rd, Peckham High St, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3b-56

I took two pictures on this street corner, the first on an impulse when a man walked in front of me as I was getting ready to take a picture, his shadow falling on the tiles of the doorway.

Marmont Rd, Peckham High St, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3b-41
Marmont Rd, Peckham High St, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3b-41

But this is the picture I had stopped to take, and rather more carefully composed. If you look carefully from this corner now you can see that the five windows in my picture have all been bricked up, with just a small window left at the top of the lowest one. The block of flats further down Marmont Road is still there though now rather hidden by trees.

At right the curve with lights is above the tiled entrance to the foyer of the Top Rank Bingo Club, built in1932 as the Gaumont Palace Theatre, though later modernised. The large foyer extended out into the street corner in a single storey curve from the massive brick block of the cinema.

There is still a curved corner at the right, but to a newer and rather anonymous building on the site, Gaumont House.

Houses, Friary Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3b-42
Houses, Friary Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3b-42

This terrace of splendid double-fronted Victorian houses, continued at the left by some slightly less grand without a first floor window over the central door is still there on Friary Road.

The road was developed in the 1840s as Lower Park Road, when Peckham Park, also known as Peckham New Town was a very desirable middle class suburb. Like many other London roads it was renamed in the 1930s and became Friary Road, named for the Friary on the corner of this road and Bird in Bush Road.

Our Lady of Sorrows, Catholic, Church, Bird in Bush Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3b-43
Our Lady of Sorrows, Catholic, Church, Bird in Bush Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3b-43

For some reason the church here is listed as the Church of Our Lady of Seven Dolours on the Old Kent Road, Southwark, London, SE15, a quarter of a mile away, although the listing does include the correct address of Bird in Bush Road where my picture was taken showing the side of the Grade II listed church.

This very large church was designed by the prominent Victorian church architect E W Pugin and built from 1859 to 1866, delayed by lack of funds, for the Capuchin Friars. They built a Friary next door (designed by James O’Byrne) on what is now Friary Road in the 1884s and served the church there until 2000 when the Friary buildings were handed to the archdiocese and are now home to a Vincentian community.

Our Lady of Sorrows, Catholic, Church, Mission House, Friary Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3b-44
Peckham Friary, Catholic, Church, Mission House, Friary Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3b-44

These are the 1884 buildings for the Capuchin Friars from where they served the church and community until 2000.

More on this walk in March 1989 to follow. The first post about this walk was Shops, Removals, Housing and the Pioneer Health Centre.


A Laundry, Crescent, Shops, Mission & Settlement

Monday, February 6th, 2023

Continuing my walk in Peckham in March 1989. The previous post on this walk was London & Brighton, Graffiti, Boys At Colmore Press.

Skips, Quantock Laundry, Queen's Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3a-13
Skips, Quantock Laundry, Queen’s Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3a-13

Houses in this row on Queen’s Rd were being renovated and turned into flats. Many of these properties were still in a fairly poor condition in 1989. Although these houses all seem of rather similar quality and are all I think “Early to mid C19”, number 52, just out of my picture on the left has been singled out for listing, despite it and others having had significant rebuilding in the 20th century.

It was only listed in 1998. Perhaps it was then under threat of demolition. Most of these houses were being converted into flats at the time I was photographing them.

There is still a Quantock Laundry, but in Weston-Super-Mare, where the name seems rather more appropriate.

Houses, King's Grove, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3a-14
Houses, King’s Grove, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3a-14

25 and 27 King’s Grove are part of a long terrace on the west side at the Queen’s Road end of the street. The face a rather grander row of joined semidetached villas on the opposite side of the road.

Culmore Rd, Clifton Crescent, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3a-15
Culmore Rd, Clifton Crescent, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3a-15

The view across Brimmington Park towards the three tower blocks of the Tustin Estate on the Old Kent Road. The park was created when a number of terraced houses and small factories were demolished in the 1970s. Perhaps the name was a reference to the rather grander Royal York Crescent in Clifton, Bristol.

Clifton Crescent was built in 1847-51. It was saved from demolition by Southwark Council by local campaigners in 1972-4, when the properties were in a poor condition after years of neglect. It was the fight to save this crescent that led after demolition had begun to the formation of the Peckham Society, a Civic Trust affiliated society which continues to argue the case for conserving what remains of Peckham and making new developments acceptable to residents. The society also had a more militant wing.

Clifton Crescent was an unusually large Victorian development for this area and unlike most other large crescents was built in red brick. Grade II listing in 1974 helped to ensure its survival and in 1977 the facade was restored and the houses converted to flats by the London Borough of Southwark.

My next pictures appear to be taken on Rye Lane, and I can no longer remember whether this was on the same walk or on another a week or two later. But since I was still in Peckham I will continue with them here.

Simon's Jewellery, Rye Lane, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3b-01
Simon’s Jewellery, Rye Lane, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3b-01

On the west side close to the Peckham High Street end of Rye Lane. The shop has been recently refurbished, but the facade above remains much the same, though the long box which I assume once carried the name of a shop has long been removed.

What She Wants, Rye Lane, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3b-64
What She Wants, Rye Lane, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3b-64

What She Wants at 26 Rye Lane later became Atlantic Clothing, was briefly Solo then around 2014 became FAS Hair & Cosmetics. The upper floor windows have long been bricked up and the first floor of the wall above the shop front graffitied, making the decoration on the frontage difficult to see.

The Halifax is still there at 22-4, its single storey shop, along with that of Vodaphone next door still hiding the considerably more elegant building above it. You can still see the upper floors from the opposite side of the road on the corner with Hanover Park.

Orchard Mission Hall, Mission Place, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 3b-65
Orchard Mission Hall, Mission Place, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 3b-65

Following an evangelical campaign at Peckham Wesleyan Church (Methodist) in 1887 a group of young men began to hold meetings and services in this deprived area of Peckham. They met in the open air, and in various other places including the disused Blue Anchor pub and a cottage in an row know as The Orchard close to here.

In 1893 they moved into Batchelors Hall, but in 1904 the Ragged School Union (later known as the Shaftesbury Society) bought a site in Blue Anchor Lane (now Mission Place) and built this building, which opened in 1906 and is still there, considerably restored.

The Peckham Settlement, Goldsmith Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3b-52
The Peckham Settlement, Goldsmith Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3b-52

A couple of the lime trees here have gone, but building work in 2016 has transformed this short row into 44-50 Goldsmith Road, four separate houses, adding three new front doors with steps up to them, more imposing doorways and windows and a fence alongside the pavement – and a price tag around £900,000 each.

This building was a part of The Peckham Settlement, established in 1896 and led by the head mistress of Wycombe Abbey, a girls public school in Buckinghamshire, Miss Frances Dove to alleviate the social problems of the area. It was an innovative project, setting up the first children’s nursery in London and pioneering ‘meals on wheels’ and an unemployment insurance scheme and in 1987 the first government sponsored ‘job club’. It moved to this area in Goldsmith Rd in 1930. A financial crisis in 2012 meant it had to sell the buildings to pay its debts, with a surplus providing investment income to make grants for local charities and community groups.

The Peckham Settlement, Staffordshire St, Goldsmith Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3b-53
The Peckham Settlement, Staffordshire St, Goldsmith Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3b-53

More of the buildings of the Peckham Settlement in Staffordshire Street.

To be continued…


The first post about this walk was Shops, Removals, Housing and the Pioneer Health Centre


London & Brighton, Graffiti, Boys At Colmore Press

Saturday, February 4th, 2023

My posts on this walk in Peckham in March 1989 began with Shops, Removals, Housing and the Pioneer Health Centre, and this post continues from where that post ended, on Queen’s Road, Peckham.

House, Queen's Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3a-41
House, Queen’s Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3a-41

Houses at 142-148 on Queen’s Road are Grade II listed, as well as 152-158 further east, toegther with 2-6 St Mary’s Road. I don’t think there is now a number 150, and these form a fairly continuous group of large early 19th century houses. My picture shows 146-148. I also photographed but have not digitised the pair of houses at 156-158, the latter also known as St Mary’s Court.

No 148 has the name EVAN COOK Ltd on its door, a private limited company dissolved in 2015 whose activities are listed as ‘Other transportation support activities‘ and offered Export Packaging, Removals and Storage. They appear to have owned a number of properties in south London. In my previous post I included a photograph of their large premises on Lugard Road, where the company name is remembered in Evan Cook Close. The company had begun by selling second-hand furniture around here in 1893.

London & Brighton, pub, Asylum Rd, Queens Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3a-44
London & Brighton, pub, Asylum Rd, Queens Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3a-44

I walked under the railway bridge at Queens Road station (the apostrophe in Queen’s seems optional in this area) and on the corner of the road was this pub opposite the station named for the London & Brighton Railway. Formed in 1837 in 1846 it merged with four other railway companies to become the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) and in 1923 this became part of the Southern Railway, until nationalisation.

But the South London line from London Bridge to a new Peckham station here only opened to passengers in 1867, after the merger. The road, formerly Peckham Lane, was renamed after Queen Victoria in 1866 and the station was soon renamed to Queen’s Road. I think the Peckham on its name came much later to avoid confusion with other London stations, Queen’s Road Battersea and Queen’s Road Walthamstow.

The pub was closed in 2008 but its sign – a different one from that in my picture – stands as a sad reminder on Queen’s Rd. The building remained standing until 2013 and was a popular squatted centre with parties and music gigs for some time with some interesting murals. It was replaced by a four storey block of flats, London & Brighton Appartments, with shops and parking on the ground level.

Ora Lighting, Kings Grove, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3a-45
Ora Lighting, Kings Grove, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3a-45

The next turning to the east going north from Queen’s Road is King’s Grove. This small works has been converted into a taller block at 2c King’s Grove, Quay 2c. Designed by owners architect Ken Taylor and sculptor Julia Manheim on a site described as a former milk depot this now now houses design and sculpture studios and three flats. Built into the front wall is a large window used to display art works, the m2 Gallery, using what would otherwise have been a blank wall of a small room containing gas, water and electric meters etc. The building, completed around 2003 has featured in some Open House weeks.

Graffiti, Wood's Road, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3a-33
Graffiti, Wood’s Road, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3a-33

The letters appear to be Eco Charp which meant nothing to me. I now find from Flickr that he was a teenage graffiti tagger from a local Greek/Cypriot family who were in various businesses including ice cream vans in the area and connected with the Peckham snooker hall at 267 Rye Lane which in the 1990s became the rave nightclub Lazerdrome. Apparently his family made clear to Eco Charp when he was about 18 that he had to grow up and stop his graffiti activities.

The house is the Grade II listed 2 Wood’s Road, which featured in one of my posts on earlier walks in the area, first built in the late 17th century but much altered in the 19th and recently renovated.

Colmore Press, Colmore Mews, Wood's Road, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3a-23
Colmore Press, Colmore Mews, Wood’s Road, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3a-23

This disused print works was on Colmore Mews, a small street off Wood’s Road. just south of Queen’s Road. Two young boys were climbing up the side of the disused building. This was at the rear of the offices of the of the company at 62a Queen’s Road, Peckham. None of th buildings visible in the picture remain. The fence at left was around the playgorund at the rear of the school on Woods Rd, now John Donne Primary School.

Boy, Colmore Mews, Wood's Road, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3a-25
Boy, Colmore Mews, Wood’s Road, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3a-25

As often happened, one of the boys asked me to take his picture, and I obliged. Behind him on both sides were some of the buildings on both sides of Colmore Mews, now replaced.

Boys, Colmore Press, Colmore Mews, Wood's Road, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3a-11
Boys, Colmore Press, Colmore Mews, Wood’s Road, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3a-11

His friend then also wanted his picture taken and I took two more pictures of the two boys as they went back to climbing up the wall before continuing on my walk.

Boys, Colmore Press, Colmore Mews, Wood's Road, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3a-12
Boys, Colmore Press, Colmore Mews, Wood’s Road, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3a-12

Back in 1989 it was still not unusual for children to play on the streets – just as I had with my friends as a working class child. I didn’t think they were likely to come to much harm.

I returned back to Queen’s Road where a later post will continue. The previous (and first) post about this walk was Shops, Removals, Housing and the Pioneer Health Centre


Shops, Removals, Housing and the Pioneer Health Centre

Friday, January 20th, 2023

Peckham, March 1989

It was March 1989 before I had time for another walk in London after my walk on 12th February. I was still then teaching full-time and and this kept me busy, and the weather wasn’t always good at the weekend. If it was forecast to pour with rain most of the day I stayed home, and there were some weekends too when the trains were not running and getting to London took too long to be worth doing. But I did manage two walks in march, the first a long wander around from Peckham to New Cross and the second in the City and Shoreditch.

Shops, Rye Lane, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-2f-16
Shops, Rye Lane, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-2f-16

From the metal shutters on these shops you can see that this walk was on a Sunday. I preferred working on Sundays, particularly for busy shopping centres such as Rye Lane as the streets would then be empty with few shops opening. This allowed me to concentrate on the buildings without the distraction of people in the picture or walking in front of my camera.

In the morning the sun was shining on the buildings on the west side of the street and you can see long shadows from the lights projecting in front of ‘Lipstick’. Film of course didn’t have EXIF data but I suspect that ardent meteorological detectives could tell be exactly the time and day from the shadows, but I think it was likely to have been around 10 am. Back then I often caught the first train to London on Sundays, which left a little after 8am, so could be in Peckham after catching a bus perhaps by 9.30. And I will have got off the bus quite close to here, before walking east along Peckham High Street and Queens Road.

Evan Cooke, Removals, Storage, Lugard Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3a-62
Evan Cook, Removals, Storage, Lugard Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3a-62

My next stop to take a picture was in Lugard Road, where just a few yards to the south of Queens Road I found the premises of Evan Cook offering Export Packaging, Removals and Storage with some interesting girders above their wide gates and linking these to the factory building. I was puzzled by these and could not work out what purpose they served.

This works has since been demolished and replaced by flats, and there is now also Evan Cook Close. From my photograph I thought the business was called Evan Cooke with an ‘e’ and I can’t understand what the final character is. The company, first incorporated in 1903 was dissolved in 2015 but the works had gone long before.

Temporary Housing, Dundas Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3a-63
Temporary Housing, Dundas Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3a-63

I continued down Lugard Road, turning into Hollydale Road and making my way to Dundas Road where I found these pre-fabs, which I think are LCC temporary housing. In 1963-4 the LCC designed temporary housing together with the Timber Development Association as a temporary solution to the then acute housing problem.

Designed to last 15 years these homes came as two boxes which were craned onto piles of paving slabs and did not need dug foundations. The two boxes were than bolted together. The walls were asbestos covered with plastic and both roof and floor were made from plywood sheets sandwiching polystyrene insulation. They had a hall, living room, two bedrooms, kitchen and bathroom.

Some were still being lived in 50 years later, but these in Dundas Road have long been removed and replaced. I walked along Dundas Road to St Mary’s Road, pausing to take a picture of St Mary Magdalene Church which I have not digitised as I think I took a better picture of this now demolished building on another occasion.

R E Sassoon House, St Mary's Rd, Belfort Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3a-65
R E Sassoon House, St Mary’s Rd, Belfort Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3a-65

This block of workers flats were commissioned in memory of amateur jockey Reginald Sassoon, whose mother was a friend of housing reformer Elizabeth Danby who was working with architect E Maxwell Fry and doctors Innes Hope Pearse and George Scott Williamson on the Peckham Experiment in the neighbouring Pioneer Health Centre. Fry was responsible for the building but collaborated with Denby over the interiors.

R E Sassoon House, St Mary's Rd, Belfort Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3a-52
R E Sassoon House, St Mary’s Rd, Belfort Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3a-52

The flats, opened in in November 1934, were designed to provide an ultra-modern well equipped living space for families, with 3 three-room flats and one four-roomed flats on each of the five floors. The curtain wall to the plate glass staircase tower was decorated with a glass mural of a horse and rider by Hans Feibusch. The interior was considerably altered in the 1980s when it was taken over by Southwark Borough Council. Surprisingly this block by one of the UK’s most distinguished modernist architects only got its Grade II listing in 1998.

Pioneer Health Centre, St Mary's Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3a-53
Pioneer Health Centre, St Mary’s Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3a-53

Doctors George Scott Williamson and Innes Hope Pearse ran the Pioneer Health Centre in Queens Rd, Peckham from 1926-9, signing up 950 local families at 1s (5p) a week and offering various exercise activities, games and workshops and regular medical checkups as well as other medical services. The positive results led them to open a larger purpose-built centre a short distance away in St Mary’s Rd, designed by Sir Owen Williams, Grade II* listed as ‘Southwark Adult Education Institute’.

Pioneer Health Centre, St Mary's Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3a-55
Pioneer Health Centre, St Mary’s Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-3a-55

The centre was too comprehensive in its approach to fit in with the National Health Service and too expensive to keep going outside the NHS and it closed in 1950. When I took this picture it was a leisure and adult education centre for Southwark Borough Council, who sold it in the 1990s to be converted into luxury flats. But the Peckham Experiment remains a superb example of what a proper national health service could and should provide, with truly holistic approach to keeping the people fit and healthy.

I continued up St Mary’s Road to Queens Road, where the next post on this walk will begin.