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PECKHAM PECULIAR THE a free newspaper for peckham and nunhead issue 7 february/march 2015 A DRAMATIC DEBUT peckham-born diana nneka atuona’s searing new play page 12 IN A SPIN Documenting life in the launderettes of Peckham and Nunhead page 24 THAT’S AMORE The Il Giardino team on their much-loved restaurant page 26 BOXING CLEVER How the Lynn boxing club is keeping young people off the streets page 10

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Page 1: The Peckham Peculiar issue 7

PECKHAM PECULIARTHE

a free newspaper for peckham and nunhead issue 7 february/march 2015

A DRAMATIC DEBUTpeckham-born diana nneka atuona’s searing new play page 12

IN A SPIN

Documenting life in the launderettes of Peckham and Nunhead

page 24

THAT’S AMORE

The Il Giardino team on their much-loved restaurant

page 26

BOXING CLEVER

How the Lynn boxing club is keeping young people off the streets

page 10

Page 2: The Peckham Peculiar issue 7

Nuts About Property!Contact your local property experts for a free sales or lettings valuation.

The Acorn Group, incorporating:

Peckham Rye Office, 30-32 Peckham Rye, Peckham SE15 4JR

020 7771 6777 [email protected] acorn.ltd.uk A member of

Page 3: The Peckham Peculiar issue 7

THE PECKHAM PECULIAR / 3February/March 2015

NEWS

EXCLUSIVE

THE PECKHAM PECULIAR EditorsMark McGinlay, Kate White

ProductionConcentric Blue (http://concentric.blue)

PhotographerLima Charlie

Features editorEmma Finamore

Sub-editorJack Aston

IllustratorAlice Feaver (alicefeaver.com)

ContributorsJoan Byrne, Garth Cartwright, Helen Graves, Dan Harder, Miranda Knox, Will Noble, Sam Oxley, Luke G. Williams, Luke Wolagiewicz

Marketing and social mediaMark McGinlay

For editorial and advertising enquiries, please email [email protected]: peckhampeculiar.tumblr.com Twitter: @peckhampeculiarfacebook.com/peckhampeculiarinstagram.com/peckhampeculiarpinterest.com/peckhampeculiar

DEAR READER,WELCOME TO ISSUE SEVEN OF

THE PECKHAM PECULIAR, A FREE LOCAL NEWSPAPER FOR PECKHAM AND NUNHEAD.

One year ago we printed the very fi rst issue of this paper, with the help of 150 generous people who donated £5,000 of their hard-earned

cash to our crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter.

The Peckham Peculiar doubled in size last year – going from a 16-page issue one to a bumper 32-page Christmas edition. We now have almost 10,000 followers on Twitter, 5,000 more on other social media platforms and 20,000 views of our Tumblr blog every month.

The very fi rst person to stock the paper was Gloria Douglas, owner of Satizfaktion hair salon and Queen’s Coff ee Bar on King’s Grove.

We’ve since expanded our distribution to 120 businesses in Peckham, Nunhead, Camberwell and East Dulwich.

When we fi rst set out, our aim was to produce a community newspaper with an emphasis on unique local stories and real people, rather than content driven by press releases, products and celebrities. In other words, we said, Kim Kardashian was unlikely to make the cut.

True to our word, Kim K hasn’t featured yet. But we have met dozens of interesting and inspiring people in Peckham and Nunhead over the

past year, whose stories we hope you’ve enjoyed reading.

The money we raised on Kickstarter paid for our fi rst two issues, and we now rely solely on advertising revenue to cover our costs. It’s thanks

to our advertisers, most of whom are local businesses, that we can keep printing the paper.

Our latest issue features interviews with Jahson Peat, who owns an African and Caribbean art gallery in Rye Lane Market (page 5);

and Dennis Lyndsay, proprietor of Dennis’ Butchers on Peckham High Street (page 23).

Nicholas Okwulu, founder of PemPeople, talks about the vital work he does to build community in SE15 and beyond (page 17); and we catch up with Malcolm McDonagh, a shoe-repairer

who is Peckham born and bred (page 20).

If you’d like to place an ad in our next issue, which is published early April, please email [email protected]. And if you’ve

got a story, let us know at the same address.

We hope you enjoy the issue.

Mark McGinlay and Kate White

Southwark Council has appointed an architect to design the area in front of Peckham Rye Station.

Southwark-based practice Landolt + Brown was chosen from a shortlist of four fi rms to take forward the design of the key site, with a planning application expected to be submitted this summer.

Their design will be informed by the “Atlas of Aspirations”, a document produced by the Peckham co-design team that summarises feedback gathered on the site from hundreds of local people.

Adam Brown, co-founder of Landolt + Brown, told The Peckham Peculiar: “We are very excited to be working with Southwark Council and Peckham Co-Design on the Peckham Square project.

“The section of Rye Lane that runs beneath the railways is one of London’s most characterful, diverse and vibrant streets, but it is not without its problems, particularly along the narrow, dim approaches to the station itself.

“We are relishing the opportunity of developing designs for new spaces and buildings that are fi rmly rooted in Rye Lane’s distinctive local character and which will create a more uplift ing setting for the historic station building and the arched brick viaducts.”

Landolt + Brown is a small practice that was founded in 2005, with clients including Network Rail and TfL. Jan Landolt previously worked at Foster & Partners for 13 years, on projects including the Jubilee line extension, international train stations and airports.

Adam Brown was formerly a director at John McAslan + Partners, and has worked on listed buildings including the Roundhouse and the De La Warr Pavilion; the restoration of King’s Cross Station and the new Hackney Wick Station.

Councillor Mark Williams, Southwark Council’s cabinet member for regeneration, planning and transport, said: “We were very impressed with Landolt + Brown’s work and how they have completely understood what we are trying to achieve through heritage-led regeneration.

“Their work displays a wonderful mix of creativity, working directly with architect-trained artist Wendy Hardie, and commitment to the principles of co-design and community engagement. I am very much looking forward to seeing what they, and the co-design team, bring forward.”

Pictured: The Red Cow, 190 Peckham High Street, served its last orders this winter. A pub of the same name has stood on this site for at least 160 years

architect for peckham rye station forecourt revealed

peculiar people

Our six front page images have all been photographed by the hugely talented Lima Charlie.

Issue one featured the Safehouses in Copeland Park; issue two was local fi lm-maker Adeyemi Michael, whose documentary Sodiq we screened at Peckhamplex in a free event for readers; and issue three was CK Flash and the Peckham BMX club.

Issue four starred community heroine Wendy Rother, who set up the Astbury Road Area Residents’ Association (ARARA); issue fi ve featured “the inn crowd” – aka the regulars from the Prince Albert pub – and issue six was Mickey Smith, founder of the CLF Art Café.

Queen’s Road was once called Deptford Lane and

was renamed in honour of Queen Victoria.

peculiar factPECKHAM PECULIARTHE

WORKING IT

The Peckham working men’s club fighting for survival

page 6

HAIR-RAISERS

In pictures: the legendary hairdressers of Rye Lane ply their trade

page 8

EMPTY NESTS

Vacant Peckham houses being commandeered as homes

page 11

a free newspaper for peckham and nunhead

BEAUTY IN DECAY

art blossoms in a former squat

page 12

issue 1 february/march 2014

PECKHAM PECULIARTHE

a free newspaper for peckham and nunhead issue 2 april/may 2014

REELPROSPECTS

adeyemi michael on filming gang culture

page 14

PITCH IMPERFECT

Peckham’s Travellers fight for land

page 10

SILENT SERAPHIM

Nunhead Cemetery’s stone guardians

page 12

FAIR AND SQUARE

Life in Peckham’s secret village

page 8

PECKHAM PECULIARTHE

a free newspaper for peckham and nunhead issue 3 june/july 2014

GRANDMASTER FLASHtransforming lives at peckham bmx page 14

JOLLY GOOD SHOW

A local lady’s life in theatre

page 17

FINELY TUNED

Meet the radio stars of SE15

page 10

OFF THE WALL

The story behind Peckham’s new mural

page 20

PECKHAM PECULIARTHE

a free newspaper for peckham and nunhead issue 4 august/september 2014

WONDERFUL WENDYa peckhamcommunity heroine page 14

PARK LIFE

The people of Peckham Rye Park and Common

page 12

TALKING TOURETTE’S

The woman who says biscuit 900 times an hour

page 17

STAR QUALITY

Nurturing talent at Theatre Peckham

page 10

PECKHAM PECULIARTHE

a free newspaper for peckham and nunhead issue 5 october/november 2014

THE INN CROWD

meet the locals of the prince albert page 12

MARKET FORCES

The food traders of Rye Lane

page 14

COMMUNITY MATTERS

Councillor Johnson Situ on Peckham’s changes

page 19

GONE TOO FAR

The new comedy film set in SE15

page 10

PECKHAM PECULIARTHE

a free newspaper for peckham and nunhead issue 6 december 2014/january 2015

HEART AND SOULhow mickey smith transformed

the bussey building page 12

MAKING MUSIC

The Peckham Chamber Orchestra in concert

page 20

TRADING UP

Akbar Khan on his Rye Lane emporium

page 23

SNOWY SCENES

Wintry weather in Peckham town centre

page 16

Page 4: The Peckham Peculiar issue 7

NEWS

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learn new skills

top marks

A series of free activities on the Brayards Estate this year will give people the chance to learn new skills involving nature, gardening, film-making and photography.

The community events, which are organised by the Brayards Estate Tenants and Residents Association (BETRA), will take place throughout 2015. BETRA is encouraging people to get involved both as participants and volunteers.

Nature lessons will focus on younger children, who will learn about wildlife and how to make bird-feeders, bug hotels, natural perfumes and shampoos. They will also find out about recycling and other ways of protecting the environment.

The gardening sessions are aimed mainly at young people but adults are welcome too. Participants will discover how to grow organic fruit and veg, maintain green spaces and cook healthy meals using food grown on the estate.

Residents can also sign up to drama and film-making workshops, where they will develop their own short films. They will experience the whole process, from scripting, casting and filming to editing and promoting the film online.

At the photography sessions, young people and adults will learn a wide range of camera skills and techniques. They will also create an online portfolio to showcase their work.

The activities will be funded by grants from Southwark Council’s Joint Security Initiative programme and the People’s Health Trust – an independent charity addressing health inequalities across Great Britain.

Sessions are open to all, with priority given to local residents. To take part or volunteer, call 020 7635 5625 or email [email protected].

For more details, visit http://betra.btck.co.uk

A Peckham boys’ school has gone from bottom of the league tables to being rated “outstanding” by OFSTED.

St Thomas the Apostle College on Hollydale Road achieved the top ranking in all categories following an inspection in November. It’s a phenomenal achievement for the school, which just three years ago was on the brink of “special measures” due to poor behaviour and results.

Inspectors noted the boys’ “impeccable behaviour”, describing them as “respectful, polite and welcoming”. Teachers’ enthusiasm and expert subject knowledge was also praised, as well as the extra-curricular programme, which includes cadets and chess club (pictured).

The school, which admits boys aged 11 to 16, is now ranked in the top one per cent nationally for maths and the top three per cent for English at GCSE level. In September it will open a sixth form for boys and girls, which aims to match the success achieved by current pupils.

Page 5: The Peckham Peculiar issue 7

NEWS

protect peckham’s spiritA Peckham entrepreneur has warned that the council must provide more low-cost retail space if independent businesses are to thrive.

Jahson Peat owns Zionly Art Gallery in Rye Lane Market, which sells books on black history and spirituality, African antiques, health foods and jewellery, musical instruments, his own line of cosmetics and African and Caribbean artworks.

“The shop is like a scattergraph of my brain, with all the things that I love – art, books, interaction, teaching,” he said. “Information breaks down ignorance so unity can happen. It’s a place where all cultures and nations can come and feel an aff inity.”

In February he plans to open a second shop that is dedicated to the cartoon character Rastamouse. The interactive community space will feature toys, storytelling, monthly readings by the author Michael de Souza and opportunities for aspiring writers.

Peat was born in Brixton but his family moved back to their native Jamaica when he was three. Five years later they returned to London to live on the North Peckham Estate. “There were changing power structures in Jamaica,” he explained.

“Guns and drugs had started to come into the island, and it became much more violent than it was. When I came back to England, the number one culture shock to me was seeing trees in concrete. I think that’s a sin.”

Peat took a unit in Rye Lane’s Agora Indoor Market, which burnt down in 2001. Miraculously his books were packed together so tightly that they survived, bar the singed spines. “I took it as a sign – it was my phoenix moment,” he said.

He went on to open six shops – including a vegan restaurant, a gallery and a bookshop – in Brixton Market. “At the time it was a degenerated area, so as an entrepreneur, I took over as many empty spaces as I could and created businesses in them.”

But aft er rents quadrupled, he returned to Peckham in 2010.

“Peckham is real, it’s welcoming and it’s one of the safest places in London – it’s not as bad as people think. It’s very unique and diverse, kind of like what Brixton used to be.

“Now Brixton has gone so corporate, they’re getting rid of the nuances of the area. People who lived there 20-odd years ago, who would have done their rounds, they don’t like it now. It doesn’t feel like the place of old, it’s sterile. For me, Peckham still has that raw edge.”

While Peat believes that regenerating the area could bring new customers to his shop, he fears that it will create a divide. “Regeneration means going behind people’s backs and creating a new pocket of segregated wealth,” he said.

“You’re doing things that sound nice, you’re saying you’re going to help, but you’re building something we can’t aff ord to rent. We need the council to hold onto places and not give the monopoly

to private landlords, because we need low-cost rentals.”Peat is passionate about helping young people develop their

creativity. “We need the spark of youth to be invested in. You might have a child who hasn’t done well in school, he hasn’t got the patience for college – but he’s very creative.

“These kids say they’re no good at maths or learning, but they can hustle down the pennies and make a profi t on a kilo of herb; or memorise two pages of lyrics and spit them out in under a minute.

“We need to say to these individuals: ‘You learnt on the street one way, but you can overlap those skills with your arts. You can make a similar type of wealth, without worrying who’s coming aft er you.’ We need to show them they have opportunities.”

Visit Zionly Art Gallery and the Rastamouse shop at unit 30-31, Rye Lane Market.

Coplestonyour space in the

heart of the community

Celebrations WellbeingMeetings

CafeConcerts

ExhibitionsEnterprise

CommunitySpirituality

Learning

www.coplestoncentre.org.uk 020 7732 3435

[email protected] Centre, Copleston Road, London SE15 4AN

A family friendly cafe with play space on Bellenden

Road, Peckham Rye offering great coffee, fresh juices, cakes and toasties. Wonderful weekday

pre-school sessions at 9.45 to 10.45.

Pop in and say hello or find out more at

triobellendenroad.co.uk

Page 6: The Peckham Peculiar issue 7

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Page 7: The Peckham Peculiar issue 7

February/March 2015 THE PECKHAM PECULIAR / 7

NEWS

A woman has slammed Southwark Council for repeatedly failing to fix the boilers on her estate – leaving her and her neighbours without hot water and heating for weeks at a time.

Caroline Neil (pictured), who has lived on the North Peckham Estate for 20 years, said the boilers have broken down on countless occasions. “Not a full month goes by when we don’t have problems with the heating and hot water – it’s affecting the entire estate,” she said.

“Last winter we had no heating for nearly eight weeks and no hot water for three – it was freezing. Another time it went off for six weeks, including over Christmas. The council sent their contractors round with blow-heaters for everyone, but they’re so expensive to run.”

Dealing with the council’s call centre has been frustrating, she said. “It’s like banging your head against a brick wall. Every time you ring them to report a breakdown, they’ll say it’s just your flat, or that it’s fixed, when we know the whole block is affected and it’s not fixed.

“It’s really distressing to go for weeks on end with no hot water,

having to boil kettles every morning so you can wash before you go to work. A couple upstairs who have a child had to go and stay with his parents because they just couldn’t cope.”

Councillor Richard Livingstone, Southwark Council’s cabinet member for housing, said: “We apologise for the ongoing heating and hot water issues on the North Peckham Estate.

“Resolving the problematic pipework on the estate is a major priority to the council and we’re doing our utmost to rectify the problems. To solve some of the most immediate heating and hot water issues we have renewed some of the worst mains across the estate.

“The more complex issues may require extensive work, which is why we’ve now commissioned expert gas consultants to review the plant across the estate and provide an independent view on its conditions and any recommendations to improve system reliability and efficiency.

“We expect to have the consultants’ report by the end of February and are planning to attend the tenants and residents’ meetings to share the results, recommendations and next steps.”

An urban forest, a skate park and a children’s play area are just some of the ideas suggested for Peckham Square, in a co-design exercise that aims to “shape the future” of the area.

Peckham residents and workers have attended several meetings and workshops as part of the co-design, which concludes at the end of February. Feedback gathered will be used to inform a planning application for the site.

The project was commissioned by Southwark Council and is being led by Carl Turner Architects. They hope to find out what people think about the area around Peckham Platform, 91 and

93 Peckham High Street and the square as a whole. At a January workshop, discussion topics included the

potential for new tall buildings on Peckham High Street and relocating the arch. But some said they feared over-development of the square and described the arch as an “open, covered and democratic public space”.

To keep up-to-date with the co-design and for details on February’s meetings, visit www.peckhamsquare.co.uk or follow @peckham_square on Twitter.

The Gowlett is famed for its tasty stone-baked pizzas – and now it’s taking them on the road.

From February, staff from the Peckham pub will hit the streets in a restored 1980s London Leyland Titan bus called The Crust Conductor. They will park up at a host of venues and festivals, starting with Brick Brewery on Blenheim Grove.

Landlord Jonny Henfrey came up with the idea for pizzas on public transport after he accidentally bought a bus on a spring evening in 2013. He installed a wood-fired oven, a sound system on the top deck and The Crust Conductor was born.

Catch the bus from February 6 at Brick Brewery, Blenheim Grove, on Fridays from 5-9pm and Saturdays from 12-9pm. Pizzas start from £6 and there’s a full bar serving cocktails, craft beers and wines. Guest DJs will include Chris Coco and Bill Brewster.

Funding has finally been found to restore the derelict Victorian staircase at Peckham Rye Station.

Local architect Benedict O’Looney plans to refurbish the iron and stone staircase and link it to the old waiting room above, with work expected to begin this spring. Once complete, it will allow people to access the room without entering the station.

O’Looney said: “I have collaborated with Southwark-based engineers Structure Workshop to devise a stair that hangs gently above the existing cantilevered stair, so as not to put any further stress or weight on the existing 19th century stonework.

“The new stair is quietly and carefully detailed, inspired by the work of the Italian architect Carlo Scarpa, who is well-known for his refined modernised interventions in ancient Italian buildings in the 50s and 60s.

“Although the new stair is detailed in slender steel plate, it has Portland stone treads and a fat hardwood timber handrail, so the things you touch will feel like the old Victorian stair designed by our great hero Charles Henry Driver.”

The project is being funded by the Railway Heritage Trust, Southwark Council and Network Rail, which pledged the final £50,000 needed. It follows years of campaigning by Peckham Vision and the Peckham Society.

Eileen Conn, coordinator for Peckham Vision, said: “The

Victorian staircase is a beautiful historic asset for Peckham in a prime spot. It is essential for opening up the old waiting room to public use.

“The room is a community enterprise that will offer a wonderful multi-purpose function space for hire in Peckham town centre. It will meet a growing need for this type of space, and its use will be strongly supported by the local community.”

In 2012 the staircase was revealed to public view for the first time in more than five decades, after the Peckham Society secured a £6,000 grant to unbrick the windows and door and illuminate the space at night.

residents left in the cold

be there or be square

pizza express

a step forward

Peckham Fair’s grand collection of beasts included panthers

and a pelican. It was abolished in 1827.

peculiar fact

Page 8: The Peckham Peculiar issue 7

8 / THE PECKHAM PECULIAR February/March 2015

NEWS

a novel ideaA bibliophile is calling for people to turn off their iPads, smartphones and televisions for an hour and focus on a book.

Rhoda Idoniboye held her first silent reading party in January at the Ivy House pub – and the next one takes place on February 12.

Unlike a book club, those attending the monthly events can bring any book they like and read to themselves, whilst enjoying a drink from the bar. There’s an option to stay and socialise when the silent session is over.

Idoniboye said: “I’ve been asked why people would go to a bar to read when they could just do it in the comfort of their own homes. But I think there’s an energy and camaraderie in being in the company of other people, even if you are all reading.

“With everyone leading such busy lives and the rise of the internet and social media, reading is almost a luxury these days. But I love reading, and being able to get away from everything and lose yourself in a book with a glass of wine is such a pleasure.”

The next silent reading party is on February 12 from 7pm at the Ivy House, 40 Stuart Road. For more details, email [email protected].

A Nunhead resident is inviting local women to join her new Women’s Institute (WI) group.

Claire Sheppard (pictured, centre) who has lived in the area for 15 years, decided to set up a Nunhead WI to give women a chance to regularly meet. “With everyone having jobs, children and so much going on, it can be difficult to find the time to socialise,” she explained.

“The WI meetings will be once a month so it’s not a huge commitment, but it means you’ve got that date in the diary when you know you’re going to be meeting.” The group, which is open to all women from Nunhead and Peckham, costs £36 per year to join.

The first meeting, which will be led by a regional WI representative, will be held on February 16 from 8pm at the Old Nun’s Head. “Everyone is welcome and we’re hoping to get a really good turnout – the more the merrier,” said Sheppard.

Meetings will then take place on the third Monday of every month from 8pm. They will feature refreshments, time to chat with other members and regular speakers and demonstrations on a wide variety of topics.

The WI, which celebrates its centenary this year, traditionally covers five areas: art and craft, home economics, public affairs, sports and leisure and the performing arts. It has a long history of campaigning on issues ranging from birth control to women’s rights.

The organisation has enjoyed a surge in popularity in recent years, shaking off its frumpy, “jam and Jerusalem” image to attract new generations of members. The format of meetings has also changed somewhat since 1915, Sheppard said.

“It’s not a requirement to sing Jerusalem at the start of every meeting anymore – unless the group decides it wants to. I’m sure we’ll be doing things like cake demonstrations and crafts, but WI groups can organise burlesque classes and stand-up comedy too.”

Joining a WI can also be a great way to make new friends, she added. “A lot of people find that living in London can be a bit desperate sometimes – so it’s a nice way of meeting other people in your community with similar interests.”

To find out more, email [email protected].

A north Peckham resident has secured a brand new bike shelter for her block of flats.

Robyn Conway has lived in the St George’s Church Housing Co-operative on St George’s Way for 10 years. She decided to campaign for a shelter after several neighbours had their bikes stolen, while others had to lug their cycles upstairs as the building doesn’t have a lift.

“More and more people had bikes or intended to get bikes – something I wanted to encourage,” she said. The shelter, which was funded with a £13,500 grant from Southwark Council’s Cleaner Greener Safer (CGS) programme, is lockable and stores 20 bikes.

The Clayton Arms is set to get an unexpected new lease of life – as a cocktail bar, restaurant and music venue.

The boarded-up boozer on Clayton Road was ransacked during the 2011 London riots and closed for good two years later. After failing to attract a buyer, it fell derelict and was squatted for a short time.

Now the pub has been taken over by Adam Towner and Katy Gray Rosewarne, who operate members’ clubs The Dolls House in Islington and the Dead Dolls Club in Bethnal Green. They previously ran an 18-month pop-up in Hoxton Square.

The Peckham Dolls House is expected to open in April and follows the launch of the Islington club in February. That venue, which is spread over three floors, has a public ‘parlour’ that is open to all, a library with a martini bar and a members-only ballroom.

Dishes on the menu include sirloin steak with béarnaise sauce, fillet of sea bass with mussels and Sunday roasts; while the cocktail list features a pisco sour with lemon, sugar and egg-white, a negroni and an old-fashioned. The venue hosts weekly jazz, swing and DJ nights.

The membership process is described as “the antithesis of established West End members’ clubs”, with those wanting access to the members-only area required to fill in an online form and make payment with a bottle of spirits from the club’s approved drinks list.

going wildFrogs are the theme of a fun-packed day in Peckham in March, which is open to kids of all ages.

The free event, at the Centre for Wildlife Gardening, will feature lots of outdoor frog-inspired games and activities. Children can make their own frog masks, go pond-dipping, get their faces painted and enjoy some themed storytelling.

For the adults, the centre will be offering tips on pond creation

and gardening to help urban wildlife thrive. Refreshments, local produce and plants will be available to take home in exchange for a small donation.

March 15, 11am-4pm at the Centre for Wildlife Gardening, 28 Marsden Road. The centre has disabled access. Info: 020 7252 9186, www.wildlondon.org.uk

women join forces

gimme shelter

pub to be dolled up

Page 9: The Peckham Peculiar issue 7

“I am bowled over by the behaviour & engagement of the boys.”“Leadership & teaching is at the very highest level.” Ofsted, Nov 2014

2014 GCSE Results: 76% 5A*-C (incl Eng & Maths)

English: 84% A*-C Maths: 86% A*-C 2x Science: 91% A*-COutstanding learning at the College is supported by our committed sta� , state of the art facilities and the dedication of our students.We are proud of our boys’ achievements – we are within the top 5% of schools nationally and the boys’ progress in English and Maths puts us within the top 1% of schools for value added.� is success is founded on traditional values and the highest expectations of behaviour and learning.Nurtured within an aspirational and caring environment, it is our guiding principal that our boys leave well equipped to play a valuable role in society.

Signi� cantly above the national average

St � omas the Apostle College

Hollydale Road, Nunhead, se15 2eb | 020 7639 0106www.stac.uk.com | @stacsouthwark | [email protected]

Page 10: The Peckham Peculiar issue 7

10 / THE PECKHAM PECULIAR February/March 2015

SPORT

fight clubTHE LYNN ATHLETIC BOXING CLUB ON WELLS WAY HAS PRODUCED COUNTLESS CHAMPIONS IN THE SPORT, AND HAS WELCOMED BOXING LEGENDS FRANK BRUNO AND MUHAMMAD ALI THROUGH ITS DOORS. The club is like a second home to many local youngsters, but securing funding is a constant battle

WORDS LUKE G. WILLIAMS PHOTOS LUKE WOLAGIEWICZ

It’s a freezing night and Wells Way, the sloping road that bisects Burgess Park, is shrouded in darkness. Rain is falling in vertical sheets as cars edge their way home and pedestrians hurry to get out of the cold. Thankfully, amid the damp of this dank evening, a reassuring light is visible. It emanates from the entrance to the old public baths, a magnificent Grade II-listed building originally constructed thanks to the Victorian philanthropist John Passmore Edwards. The local library that once occupied part of the building has long since closed, but the Lynn Athletic Boxing Club, which has maintained an unbroken residence here for more than 30 years, is still going strong.

Tonight, a Monday evening, a group of kids aged between nine and about 13 are being put through their paces with a series of exercises, while older and more experienced pugilists pound the heavy bags, spar, shadow-box or sit studiously wrapping their hands before gloving up for sparring. The ambience within the gym is characterised by determination and discipline, allied with warmth and good humour.

Terry Pearson, one of the club’s trustees, ushers me into a small office, overflowing with piles of boxing gloves, vests and shorts. “I

originally got involved when I brought my son along when he was about nine-years-old,” he explains. “I started off just as a volunteer. Then I became competition secretary, took my level one and two coaching badges and now I’m one of the club’s trustees and the club secretary.”

When Terry speaks about the gym it is with a highly infectious sense of passion and a discernible pride. “We are the oldest running amateur boxing club in the country – the club was established in 1892 and it’s always been here in Southwark. We’ve been in this building since the 1980s, and previous to that the club has been in all sorts of places – above cafés, above pubs and in Manor House baths on the Walworth Road for a long time. It’s a club steeped in history. We’ve had champions at every level you can think of in amateur boxing – the list is absolutely endless.”

Former British and European heavyweight champion Danny Williams, who famously defeated Mike Tyson in 2004, is among the Lynn Athletic alumni, while Frank Bruno and Muhammad Ali have both visited or trained at the gym in the past. One of the current crop of youngsters hoping to follow in these boxers’ illustrious footsteps is Chris Mbwakongo, a 19-year-old welterweight who is

now a member of the Great Britain national amateur squad. Like all the boxers I meet during my evening at the gym, Chris

combines an articulate, outgoing nature with a likeable lack of arrogance. He is adamant that the Lynn, and the sport of boxing, performs a crucial function for young people in the Peckham, Walworth and Camberwell areas. “Boxing provides kids with discipline,” he points out. “It helps them to control their temper and anger, and puts them in the right frame of mind for life. It’s important because you never know what life has in store for you.”

It’s a theme that Pearson expands on. “It seems a cliché to say it but, given the area we are in here, the gym really does help to get kids off the streets,” he argues. “You read about it every day – kids involved in gang culture or knife culture. But once these kids come into the gym and once they get interested in boxing they don’t leave. Boxing gives them a healthier lifestyle and it also gives them a structure and a goal to work towards. I think we play a big part in the community. We also do a lot of outreach projects, we’re involved with several schools in Southwark and we run summer and Easter holiday camps in Burgess Park.”

Despite the clear community benefits the Lynn offers, funding

Page 11: The Peckham Peculiar issue 7

February/March 2015 THE PECKHAM PECULIAR / 11

SPORT

is a major issue for the club. After the recent expiration of a 10-year subsidised lease from Southwark Council, rents have risen considerably. “It’s common knowledge that we haven’t got a new lease with Southwark Council,” Pearson explains with a sigh. “We’re just on a rolling programme on our old existing lease. We would love to stay here, but unfortunately the council have valued it as a commercial property and what they are asking in rent we just cannot afford. If it came to the crunch we would have to move on, which is a shame as it’s a fantastic gym in a fantastic location, right in the centre of the local estates. We don’t want to move.”

With the club finding it hard to meet its annual overheads after the rent increase, a recent £36,000 grant they received from the London Evening Standard newspaper was a godsend, providing enough money to ensure the club’s future on Wells Way for another two or three years. After that, though, the outlook remains unclear.

“We’re always looking for sponsors,” Pearson confesses. “If there are any companies out there who would like to sponsor us, they can get in touch with our chairman Geoff Born. You need financial security to have stability and if we knew we could carry on here for the next five or 10 years that would be fantastic. Unfortunately,

though, through what we bring in from our subs and what we might earn if we put on our own boxing shows, it’s hard to make ends meet. We deliberately keep the subs low for the kids. We’ve been asked before why we don’t put our subs up, but in this area there’s a lot of poverty. If we charged more our members wouldn’t be able to afford it – I’d be sitting here on my own!”

One of the Lynn’s growth areas in recent years has been the explosion of interest in women’s boxing, with the introduction of the event at the 2012 London Olympics inspiring many female boxers to join the club.

“We’ve got quite a few girls in the gym,” Pearson confirms. “Since the Olympics the popularity of women’s boxing has gone through the roof, and so has the standard. The girls who are coming into the gym now really want to do it. Some of our girls train harder than the boys because they really want to succeed. The stereotype has been broken now. We don’t divide people. They all train together – there’s no segregation, they’re not female boxers or male boxers, but Lynn boxers.”

Fifteen-year-old schoolgirl Ellie is one such boxer. “I started here when I was about nine,” she says. “My brother boxed and I thought

I might as well come down. I did it to lose some weight and then fell in love with it. The Lynn is like a family, you feel welcome as soon as you walk through the door. I train six days a week, including running on the weekend. The hardest thing is making weight, and getting your head right for when you box. A lot of my friends say to me: ‘You don’t look like a boxer!’ They’re very supportive, although sometimes they’re a bit shocked to hear I box.”

Head coach Sam Mullins, who has been at the club for five years, takes up Ellie’s point about the family atmosphere at the club. “We all get on despite being from different walks of life and different backgrounds,” he stresses. “We’re like a family. When the boxers spar they let each other have it, but afterwards they always shake hands. That’s what we’re about.”

Luke G. Williams is the editor of Boxiana: Volume 1, an anthology of boxing writing. His new book Richmond Unchained: The biography of the world’s first black sporting superstar is published in August. Follow Luke on Twitter @boxianajournal and The Lynn Athletic Boxing Club @Lynnboxingclub.

Page 12: The Peckham Peculiar issue 7

12 / THE PECKHAM PECULIAR February/March 2015

THEATRE

a story of survivalDIANA NNEKA ATUONA’S POWERFUL NEW PLAY LIBERIAN GIRL SCORED RAVE REVIEWS FOLLOWING ITS DEBUT AT THE ROYAL COURT THEATRE LAST MONTH. The 31-year-old, who grew up in Peckham, reveals how she quit her law course to write the hard-hitting drama

WORDS EMMA FINAMORE PHOTO LIMA CHARLIE

Mistaken identity, onstage duels and girls masquerading as boys at a west London theatre might call to mind a Shakespearean classic. But throw in civil war, child soldiers with machine guns, drugs and rape, and you have an entirely different picture. In fact, you have Liberian Girl, by Peckham-born playwright Diana Nneka Atuona.

The play debuted last month at the Royal Court theatre, and has garnered vast amounts of attention from the national press – the critics have dubbed it “a striking debut”, an “impressive play”, and “powerfully disturbing” – hit square between the eyes by its subject matter and the immersive nature of its staging.

Audience members stand (literally) in the middle of the action, sharing a 14-year-old girl’s experience of the first Liberian civil war, as they are ordered around by teenage soldiers – recruits to president-turned-war-criminal Charles Taylor’s infamous Small Boys Units – witnessing their brutality, and fragility, up close.

The writer behind this high-def action is Diana, who was born and raised in north Peckham. She grew up on the Friary estate, “right opposite Rio Ferdinand actually, he knew my brothers and sisters”, she tells me when we meet in a stolen hour in January – somewhere between Diana’s work, rehearsals and curtain up.

She caught the writing bug young, and says she was always penning songs and stories. At 14 she wrote a play for a local church. “It was something really tacky,” she cringes, giggling. “You know, ‘God came down and said…’ or something, but people liked it, and it was fun – I really enjoyed the process of writing and watching it all take shape.”

“I always wrote, but it wasn’t something really encouraged in a Nigerian family – I was encouraged to do more professional stuff.” Diana studied international politics at university, and won a scholarship to take a law conversion course at BPP Law School in Waterloo. But despite her parents’ reservations, she soon fell back into writing.

After trying her hand at music, TV and screenplays, she interned for the Royal Court, which brought events to alternative spaces with a project called Theatre Local. One of these spaces was Peckham’s Bussey Building, and Diana got involved in a free playwright workshop.

She says she had always thought of theatre as “restrictive”, a slow, slightly clunky medium – “all those scene changes”. But the Royal Court showed her “there are so many different ways of telling a story on stage”.

Her first foray into theatre was based on an old screenplay about two boys in war-torn Liberia bonding over football, which she worked on with her brother. But after years of research and writing, a strikingly similar movie, Africa United, was released: “When I saw that film had come out, I just wanted to smash the TV screen. All that work, wasted,” she grimaces.

But it was far from wasted. Having already immersed herself in research for the original project – “When you’re writing you really do feel like you’re in the country” – Diana stuck with Liberia’s children and this time uncovered a darker story of war, sexual violence, oppression and shattered childhoods. A new play was born.

Liberian Girl won her the 2013 Alfred Fagon Award for best new play of the year, but then momentum sort of sputtered out: “I was having meetings about meetings,” she groans, “but nothing was actually happening, and in the end I thought, ‘I’m just going to have to put this thing on myself.’

“Then I thought of War Child, the charity – they work with child soldiers, my play’s about child soldiers – and wrote to them to see if we could work together.” It was a moment of serendipity: “At 3am I got an email from the CEO saying they were having a meeting about the arts side of their summit the next morning, and if I sent my play over there and then, they’d be able to discuss it,” she says.

Flash forward to the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence last summer, where Diana watched a cast of actors read her play to a packed audience at the ExCel Centre in London’s Docklands, which included William Hague and Angelina Jolie. “I just hid at the back,” she recalls, “trying to see the reaction of the audience.”

Then the Royal Court confirmed it would stage the play, with a debut date of January 2015. Diana gives me a massive thumbs up across the table: “While I was writing it, I always imagined the story being told at the Royal Court. I feel so blessed.”

The transition from writing a play to seeing it performed has been a strange process, she says. “They allow you to sit in on rehearsals but, you know, the director’s doing the directing, which is really weird. It used to be just you and the play, in your bedroom.”

The opening night was “nerve-wracking”, she confesses. “We had people walk out, but I was told to expect that. It was difficult, part of me wanted to run after them and say: ‘If you just stay here you’ll understand what I’m trying to say.’ There are ways of writing a rape scene that aren’t so gruesome, but it is a gruesome thing, so… It was difficult even for me to watch.”

Diana is determined that Liberian Girl will be the first of many creative projects. She describes the Old Vic, where she works part-time front-of-house, as a hotbed of activity, where everyone is working on projects in their spare time: “It’s the drama school I never went to. We all just support each other.” I wonder how many Old Vic customers realise that the young woman taking their ticket stub on the door has had a hit play at the Royal Court?

Diana says now she’s moved from law to theatre she feels better-placed to deal with social injustice, and speaks passionately about the arts and their role: “If they’re not reflecting all aspects of life and society, then what are they doing? Not everything has to be ‘educational’, and not all my work will be, but I’m definitely someone

who has an opinion on lots of things.”However, she says she doesn’t want to be pigeon-holed early on

as someone who only writes about ‘issues’: “Not everything has to be preachy – the arts should educate and entertain. Now for me it’s about going on to other subjects. I feel excited and nervous about moving on. I want to go into TV, film, and I love period dramas. I love imagining places and times I was never born in.”

I recall speaking to fellow Peckham playwright Bola Agbaje for The Peckham Peculiar last year, and how she described what felt like barriers in the arts world for black British writers and directors, especially women. Diana tells me that The Stage newspaper recently published a list of the 100 most powerful people in theatre. “They are predominantly white men,” she shrugs.

“It’s a reality, and it’s not as diverse as it should be, but I was brought up to not see barriers everywhere, and to perceive them as advantages instead. It’s a competitive industry whether you’re black, white, whatever. But if you’re tenacious enough, anything can happen.”

Liberian Girl is showing at the CLF Art Café, Bussey Building, until February 7 (020 7732 5275); then at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre, Tottenham, from February 10-14 (020 8365 5450).

Page 13: The Peckham Peculiar issue 7

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14 / THE PECKHAM PECULIAR February/March 2015

PECKHAM IN PICTURES

Page 15: The Peckham Peculiar issue 7

February/March 2015 THE PECKHAM PECULIAR / 15

PECKHAM IN PICTURES

community caffsWORDS JACK ASTON PHOTOS LIMA CHARLIE

“There is nothing that smells more London than a caff,” writes the architect Edwin Heathcote in his brilliant book London Caffs, which charts the history of London’s “fading, Formica world”.

These buzzy institutions, he argues, stand in stark contrast to the corporate uniformity stifling our city’s streets – and are refreshingly free from the latest fads and design trends. In other words, “caffs are not about lifestyle, they are about everyday life.”

Peckham has its fair share of such places, including those pictured here – Crossroads on Bellenden Road, Ozzies Coffee Shop on Rye Lane and the cafés in Sky Shopping City and Rye Lane Market.

But some are under threat. Jenny’s has been based in the arcade in front of Peckham Rye Station for about 35 years. The cheerful red and white signage proclaims freshly-made sandwiches and all-day breakfasts.

Inside, the green plastic chairs and bright yellow walls form a warm and inviting place to while away an hour or two, have a chat or read a newspaper with a steaming mug of coffee (£1) or tea (80p).

If you’re feeling peckish, the olympic breakfast – two grilled eggs, three sausages, sliced tomato, beans and mushrooms for £4.70 – is a good choice. Other options include shepherd’s pie with veg and gravy, scampi and chips, jacket potatoes, omelettes, burgers and lasagne.

Manager Seyit Kaya (pictured left) has worked at Jenny’s for eight years. The café opens from 6.30am to 4pm, Monday to Saturday, and Seyit arrives at 6am every morning, having travelled down from north London. “We have a lot of regulars – families, young people, old people,” he says. “There’s a real community here.”

However, he fears that Jenny’s might be forced to close if planners decide to knock down the arcade to create a public square in front of Peckham Rye Station. “Jenny’s is a historic place and our customers like coming here – it’s a good place.

“We haven’t really heard much from Network Rail or the council on the station development. If they relocate us elsewhere on the site then that will be OK, but I don’t know what’s going to happen at the moment.”

Page 16: The Peckham Peculiar issue 7

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Page 17: The Peckham Peculiar issue 7

February/March 2015 THE PECKHAM PECULIAR / 17

PECKHAM FOCUS

people power

NICHOLAS OKWULU SET UP PEMPEOPLE FIVE YEARS AGO, AIMING TO EMPOWER RESIDENTS IN NORTH PECKHAM. The group organises bike repair sessions, big lunches, workshops for youngsters and dozens of other community events and activities

WORDS EMMA FINAMORE PHOTO LIMA CHARLIE

A pop-up shop will appear on Peckham High Street in February half term, offering jewellery-making, balloon-decorating, T-shirt printing, clothes-recycling, language classes and an amazing bike-powered smoothie-maker (yes – you did read that right).

Bite the Ballot will be there, encouraging young people to get involved in politics and voting, alongside representatives from Tate Modern and a host of artists, musicians and other creative types.

Behind this clamour of activity is PemPeople (short for ‘people empowering people’), an organisation that aims to promote inclusion and give communities a voice in some of south London’s most deprived wards.

“I’ve got ants in my pants – I wake up in the morning and think, ‘What am I going to do today?’” says PemPeople founder and community enabler Nicholas Okwulu, when a group of us meet for a chat at Queen’s Coffee bar on King’s Grove.

Peckham resident Nicholas, 48, was born in Vauxhall, and in 1979 joined his dad in Nigeria. On his return to England, he studied for a diploma in biochemistry and later started a record distribution company before setting up PemPeople in 2010.

PemPeople’s website defines its mission as: “to promote and achieve increased inclusion of BAME (black, Asian, minority ethnic) communities and those considered hard to reach within our society… empowering our target communities to help themselves.”

So what does this mean in practice? First of all, PemPeople organises a Big Lunch event in north Peckham – an annual get-together and lunch for neighbours. “Once we had 800 people attend one of the events, I think it was the biggest in the country,” says Nicholas.

Three years ago the group was given the royal seal of approval when Prince Charles and Camilla attended a Big Lunch Christmas event in Peckham, helping to celebrate the work of PemPeople. “It’s literally been a rollercoaster from there,” says Nicholas.

In 2013 PemPeople entered Peckham’s Unwin and Friary Estate into a national Clean Britain competition. The estate was chosen out of hundreds of applications, winning a professional clean-up and a visit from TV presenter Sarah Beeny, who joined residents on a mass tidy-up.

PemPeople has also been involved in the annual Peckham Junior Apprentice, where young people aged 13 to 19 pitch their products

in a real boardroom to bank representatives from Northern Trust and M&G Investments. Then last year, the group received funding from Southwark Council to build a pedal-powered smoothie machine. Nicholas used this fun (and tasty!) invention to teach groups of young people a lesson in business and entrepreneurship.

“They ran it themselves like a small business, they identified costs, profit margins, and learned that if you make a fiver selling smoothies, it’s not a fiver profit – you have to put some of that back into the business.”

PemPeople’s speciality, however, is bikes. The group runs repair sessions all over south London and has its own workshop in The Remakery, a cluster of studios dedicated to recycling unwanted items in Camberwell.

“Ideally we’ll help you learn to fix your bike, so you can start riding again,” says Nicholas. “But if you don’t want to learn then we can fix it for you, or we can take unwanted bikes for our workshop.”

PemPeople has also been involved with the Peckham BMX club, a bike track in Burgess Park. The club aims to engage young people in a healthy, competitive sport, but is also strategically placed in order to bridge the gap between often hostile groups of young people.

The club puts it poignantly: “On a spit of land between two tower blocks controlled by rival gangs, is a tiny dirt track that defies the conventional image of Peckham, an epicentre of the 2011 riots. This is the site of the Peckham BMX club.”

But it’s not all fun events and activities: PemPeople is also part of a group managing £33,000 of funding in the Livesey ward in north Peckham. “We distribute money in order to make a difference,” Nicholas explains.

The group also takes on local volunteers with a view to empowering them. “All our volunteers have a vision of where they want to go,” says Nicholas. “I say to them, ‘Don’t ask me what you should be doing, tell me what you want to do.’”

Nicholas has been helping young people onto City and Guilds-accredited courses – including Michael O’Donagh and Edward Johnson, who join us in the café. Michael is almost qualified as a certified bike mechanic, and Edward is hot on his heels.

“The course has been great,” says Michael. “It’s really helped open my eyes.” Edward has been running a bike stall on East Street Market. He first got involved when he saw a PemPeople pop-up

offering web-design workshops. “Nicholas was there with a really snazzy bike,” he remembers. From there he plugged away, helping out on everything he could and working towards starting his City and Guilds training – “Nicholas is good at cracking the whip!” he laughs.

Suzanne is another volunteer. She doesn’t need help into a career but simply wants to learn new skills: “I used to be a courier, so I always rode bikes,” she says. “I’ve been riding in London for 26 years. It’s a very friendly group, but we want more women – come on girls!”

After half term’s pop-up in Peckham the group has plans to organise a big London to Brighton bike ride and other bike trips, “to get people out of their comfort zone”, says Nicholas.

He also wants to help more of his volunteers into jobs – “no one has to be skilled to start volunteering with us, just show an interest and enthusiasm” – and hopes to find people with big ideas to help them run projects themselves.

Nicholas talks about establishing a consortium of local groups and individuals to help access and direct funding for south London projects all together, rather than competing. “There’s more competition for funding now, so we have to step up,” he says.

He wants grassroots organisations to be in control and help people make decisions, rather than politicians, who he thinks too often “make assessments based on what they read in the newspapers”.

Above all, he says, it’s about “being a family – everyone together sharing ideas”. The bikes that PemPeople fix up are a bit like the group’s approach to communities themselves: learn to fix things for themselves and communities won’t have to depend on the powers that be.

But it all starts with a simple hello and a chat, which Peckham and Nunhead residents are invited to do in February at the pop-up on Peckham High Street. Nicholas tells me to expect a “good environment, good people, somewhere we can all get together and have a cup of tea”.

Can’t say fairer than that – see you there.

Want to get involved in a project, fix your bike or learn a new skill? Drop into the pop-up shop at 91 Peckham High Street from February 9-28 (most activities from February 16-22), or to The Remakery, 51 Lilford Road, SE5. Follow PemPeople on Twitter @pempeople.

Page 18: The Peckham Peculiar issue 7

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Page 19: The Peckham Peculiar issue 7

February/March 2015 THE PECKHAM PECULIAR / 19

CANAVAN’S

right on cue

CANAVAN’S LATE-NIGHT POOL BAR IS HOME TO LEGENDARY CLUB NIGHTS FEATURING DEEP HOUSE, DISCO, TECHNO AND FUNK. IT ALSO HOSTS SUNDAY KARAOKE SESSIONS AND POOL TOURNAMENTS. Owner Kieran Canavan reveals his big plans for the Rye Lane venue

WORDS WILL NOBLE PHOTO LIMA CHARLIE

“The police cordon was right across our door. We were lucky enough not to get too much damage. But I did sit in here for three days thinking, ‘What have I done with my children’s inheritance?’”

This was Kieran Canavan’s first experience of Peckham. He’d bought a pool club at the southern end of Rye Lane two weeks before the London riots of 2011.

It’s mid-afternoon and Kieran has just emerged at the bar of the same club – now called Canavan’s – from somewhere upstairs. He was up until half nine this morning sorting the place out after last night’s karaoke.

We take a seat in an area lit by flashing fruit machines. Countdown is on in the background, regulars sup lagers at the bar, and the odd kid wanders in with a pool cue tucked under their arm, ordering a Coke before disappearing out the back.

“We have karaoke here every Sunday night,” says Kieran. “There were 280 people here last night. For karaoke! Everybody joins in, including the staff. They have to get up and they have to join in and have a bit of a laugh.

“Our youngest person here last night was probably 18, and the oldest person was 84. She’ll get up to sing My Old Man’s a Dustman and all the old wartime tracks. The 19- and 20-year-olds do her backing vocals.”

Aside from the singing regulars, Canavan’s has two resident warblers in Spike and Millie the cockatiels, who are let loose around the bar area during quieter periods. The Canavan’s cats, JD and Bacardi, look on hungrily at the birds, although Kieran suggests they’re no longer interested in eating their feathered peers.

Kieran’s name was originally spelled with a C, but when he moved over here from Belfast 20 years ago, the authorities didn’t recognise Ciaran as an actual name, so he ended up changing it.

Owning venues is nothing new to Kieran – he had pubs and clubs over in Ireland before coming to London for an intended change of

career. He worked in nursing homes and then taught maths, English and health and safety to 14-to-16-year-olds who were out of the school system. But eventually he fell back into the bar trade.

Opening a bar following the London riots wasn’t easy. “Thankfully the people of Peckham were very resilient,” he says. “But it was incredibly quiet here for a few months afterwards, trying to get people to come to Peckham at night again. I spent quite a long time going round the local universities, convincing people to come down and look at the place. They all liked it, they all tweeted to friends.”

But there were still major changes to be made. “I realised that because of the size of the place, the amount of tables that were here, it wasn’t paying for itself and wasn’t going to pay for itself. While it was a great venue in a good area, something had to be changed to make it work. And it was to lose some of the pool tables, soundproof rooms, and bring in DJs.”

The first DJ was Bradley Zero – founder of Rhythm Section – who continues to frequent the club’s Funktion-One sound system. More local promoters followed suit, and soon the Canavan’s programme was oozing with house, disco, funk and various other genres. There were still problems to contend with though.

“We had an issue with gangs and an issue with drugs when I came here first,” says Kieran. “I had to close the place for six weeks to hopefully have them find somewhere else to go. When I reopened I had my own security staff here, and we did pick and choose who we let in. Because of the culture and the times we’re living in, drugs are always going to be an issue but we do knock it on the head as soon as we see it.”

Canavan’s is a “community place” where everyone is welcome, he says. “A lot of my karaoke people are here every day of the week, and of course all the kids come in for the free pool, from three o’clock to eight o’clock, which is lovely,” he says with a wry smile. In truth, the Canavan’s owner is a serious proponent of mastering the pool

cue from an early age. After all, he discovered the club in the first instance by playing in pool leagues here himself.

“We have the London county junior team every Saturday, as part of our free pool initiative for the kids. We’ve got a qualified coach who comes once a month, teaches all the kids, and hopefully inspires pool players for the future. It’s a good cycle that is starting to happen with the place.”

The Canavan’s community spirit extends to Kieran’s Rye Lane neighbours – venues like Four Quarters, Frank’s Bar and the Bussey Building. He doesn’t see them as competition, because, he says, everyone is bringing something different to the table.

“Joe [from Four Quarters] has actually taken up pool himself, and he comes over here quite regularly to practise. So we get on quite well. Frank from Frank’s Bar is a regular here. We’re having chats about different ideas. I have a big area out the back where we’re going to start doing barbecues in the summer.”

Are there any other plans in the pipeline? “I have fantastic dreams and aspirations about Canavan’s,” says Kieran. “We have a massive basement area that we’re hoping to change into a nightclub. We’re also looking to get the kitchen up and running to do a totally different type of food to what other people are doing in Peckham at the moment. We’re looking for people to bring ideas to us.”

Kieran believes there’s a lot of potential for others to get their projects up and running in Peckham. “We’ve had nights where there’s been hundreds of people walking up and down Rye Lane because there aren’t enough places to go. There are opportunities in Peckham for someone who wants to come here and wants to do something great. It won’t be me because I’m happy with what I have.“

Even though, as Kieran points out, no venue can ever be perfect. “We do from time to time put suggestion boxes in the toilets. Normally it’s ‘change the owner’ or ‘get rid of the fat fella who owns the place’.”

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20 / THE PECKHAM PECULIAR February/March 2015

PECKHAM PEOPLE

sole manMALCOLM MCDONAGH HAS BEEN REHEELING SHOES AND CUTTING KEYS FOR PECKHAM LOCALS FOR DECADES. Now, after surviving recessions, riots and a devastating fire on Rye Lane, he’s finally decided to hang up his boots

WORDS GARTH CARTWRIGHT PHOTO LIMA CHARLIE

At the Quick Heel Bar in Rye Lane Market, Malcolm McDonagh has served the local community six days a week for more than 30 years – repairing shoes, cutting keys and fitting locks after-hours.

I’ve been using Quick Heel for almost two decades now but, dropping in recently to get a key cut, I noticed a ‘business for sale’ sign on the wall. Dismayed to find that Malcolm is hoping to sell up, I asked him to tell me about his Peckham life.

“I was born on the Sumner Estate on Sumner Road in 1954,” he says. “We were a big family, 12 of us living in a four-bedroom council flat. It was crowded – I remember there being a curtain hung across the room to separate it.

“It was an old-fashioned estate with the bath in the kitchen. I even remember having a bath in the sink. The flats where I grew up got knocked down and then they built new houses. To me it seems ridiculous that they had to knock them down. They were very solid buildings.”

Malcolm’s family didn’t have much money, but he remembers an idyllic childhood. “We grew up with the bomb-sites as our playground. I even remember playing in the bomb shelters. They were dark and dreary and full of drawings of Adolf Hitler.

“You’d go down six or eight feet and into the tunnels. It was good fun. We also played on the canal. We’d build rafts and off we’d go. There was a canal warden and he’d chase us away. It was fascinating watching the barges bringing wood down to Whitten’s.”

After leaving school, Malcolm took a variety of jobs – making furniture and working for a jeweller on Rye Lane. Then he started helping out at a shoe repair stall that was based in the old covered market at 48 Rye Lane, which is now known as Rye Lane Market.

“I never had a problem finding work back then,” he recalls. “If you didn’t like your job in the morning you could leave and find a new one in the afternoon. I started coming in here [Rye Lane Market] in the 1970s to help out a guy who did shoe repairs.

“Back then the market was far, far busier. It had a similar layout to today’s market but it used to take an hour to walk through because so many people would be shopping here. They closed the old market for two or three years while they revamped it.”

When the market shut, Malcolm went to work in another shoe repair shop at the top of Rye Lane. After 18 months the owner decided to sell up and Malcolm bought the business. “There wasn’t a lot of to buy – just an old machine that eventually caught fire,” he laughs.

In 1983, the Bray Shopping Centre – later renamed the Agora Indoor Market – opened on the eastern side of Rye Lane. Malcolm took a stall there but in 2001 a huge fire swept through the space, which is now home to Sky Shopping City.

“It was the biggest fire Peckham has seen since World War Two,” Malcolm says. “Everyone lost everything, and nobody was insured. No insurance company would take us on because the building had a wooden structure and they said it was a fire hazard. They were right!

“I lost my business. I had to do shelf-stacking at a supermarket and work for a big shoe repair company for two years. I also trained to be a bus driver but only lasted two days – it wasn’t for me.

“Once I’d saved enough money, the opportunity to shift into here came along. I had to re-buy the equipment and started off with really bad, secondhand key-cutting machinery. Then, after two years, I had enough money to buy good new machinery.”

Malcolm has seen Peckham change considerably during his lifetime. “Rye Lane used to be called ‘the second Oxford Street’. It was brilliant and had all the big stores. There was a Marks & Spencer where Primark is now.

“Everywhere changes though. I hear people talk about ‘the good old days’ – yeah, they were different but there were much harder times then. I grew up with plenty of days when our dinner was bread and sugar.”

Peckham has seen more footfall in recent years, but it hasn’t translated into extra trade for Quick Heel, says Malcolm. “Peckham Rye Station is busy at night – you should see the mess on the streets on Sunday morning! But it’s not brought more trade for us small businesses.”

Of course, one of Peckham’s most famous fictional characters is another market trader, Del Boy, and Malcolm is a big fan of Only Fools and Horses. He says the show reflects the banter of south-east London’s markets.

“It really captures the sense of humour that you find in Peckham and Bermondsey – people who just love to take the piss out of one another,” he says. “Other people don’t understand it, they think we’re having an argument – but we’re really just having a craic, as the Irish say.”

As we chat, a steady stream of customers come and go. “Some Saturdays I get a continuous two or three hours of work,” says Malcolm. “But we now live in a throwaway society, where shops like Primark sell shoes so cheaply that people buy ’em, wear ’em and throw ’em away.

“What I’d like to see is people who use Peckham Rye Station not just getting on a bus and going home, but coming into the covered market and seeing what is here, supporting their local businesses and keeping the spirit of Rye Lane alive.”

Malcolm has been in business for decades, surviving fire and the 2011 riots (“[the owners of the market] pulled the shutters down and locked us in here”, he says) and is dedicated to his public: why does he want to sell Quick Heel?

“Basically, my shoulders are giving up due to the amount of pressure from the shoe repair side of it. If I can’t sell the business then I’d like to get someone in who could take over for a few days a week. Anyone reading this who is interested, please drop in and see me.”

Page 21: The Peckham Peculiar issue 7

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Page 23: The Peckham Peculiar issue 7

February/March 2015 THE PECKHAM PECULIAR / 23

FOOD

have a butcher’sFROM GOAT MEAT AND OXTAIL TO CHICKEN LEGS AND COW FEET, THE CHOICE OF CUTS AT DENNIS’ BUTCHERS ON PECKHAM HIGH STREET HAS CUSTOMERS QUEUING OUT THE DOOR. Owner Dennis Lyndsay says it’s all down to top-notch preparation and service with a smile

WORDS HELEN GRAVES PHOTO LIMA CHARLIE

Many people in Peckham will recognise the colours of the Jamaican flag on the awning of Dennis’ Butchers, right in the middle of Peckham High Street. Whatever time you pass by, there always seems to be someone inside, placing their order at the glass counter, holding a hand out for change, or just having a chat with the owner, Dennis Lyndsay. He knows almost everyone by name, because he’s been running his eponymous shop for an impressive 28 years.

The large display of meat includes piles of beefy oxtail; chicken legs; goat meat for currying; bright red pigs’ tails; honeycomb tripe and giant cow feet, sought after for their gelatinous quality. The back wall is lined with endless boxes of spices and neat rows of all-purpose seasoning. As I chat to Dennis, our conversation is punctuated with the sounds of cleavers hitting boards and the high whine of saws through bone.

Customers buzz in and out, and the team of five staff is in high spirits, laughing and joking, taking and preparing orders. Dennis is busy, even though January is a quiet month. “The queue was enormous over Christmas,” he tells me. “People were ordering large chickens, lots of hams, roast beef, joints of pork; we had people waiting up to two hours to get served.”

Why are they prepared to wait so long? “It’s all because of the way we prepare the meat for them,” says Dennis, flashing me one of his beaming smiles. “They have hardly any work to do when they go home. They don’t have to clean the meat again, or cut it. Everything is prepared properly. That’s what keeps us going – that’s the secret. The customers don’t mind coming the distance for that service. It’s all about the individual – you treat them nice, and they come back.”

Dennis tells me that his customers are diverse, and he sees “a combination of people, but the majority – about 70 per cent – are

West Indian. We’ve got a lot of eastern Europeans, as well as English and Irish too.” I ask him about the differences in his customers’ shopping habits and he tells me that they mostly cook traditional West Indian food.

“The main thing they buy is the goat meat; they’re big on their curry goat. They do a lot of chicken portions too. The way the meat is cut depends on what they are cooking – if it’s fried chicken they like it jointed nicely, some like it medium-sized, some like it large. If they’re doing jerk chicken, they like it in portions. If it’s curry chicken, they like it cut small. You might get one greedy man coming along saying, ‘Give me that big piece as it is!’”

I ask Dennis what he likes to eat at home, and he tells me that his wife cooks traditional West Indian dishes, like oxtail stew and chicken. Dennis was born in the UK to Jamaican parents, and despite living in Peckham for much of his life, he refers to Jamaica as “back home”. I ask him about his childhood in Peckham and he tells me, “It’s totally changed, you know? Bellenden Road is upmarket now. It’s like ‘Uptown Peckham’, like a different area on its own.

“My Dad used to have a shoe repair shop on Bellenden Road back in the day, before he passed on. They fixed it up, the area, fancied it up, and now there’s new people coming in. We used to live on Holly Grove when I was a kid. To buy that same house now would cost well over £1 million. It was a big place… very nice. It overlooked the train station and you could hear them announcing on the Tannoy every morning, ‘East Dulwich, North Dulwich, Tulse Hill, Streatham’. We memorised it.”

I ask Dennis if there are any other changes he’s noticed over the years and he says: “I preferred the olden days, it was nicer, people had more respect for you. People are more demanding now and

they don’t have the right manners. Everyone was more pleasant and kind. I know things change but I can see the difference. I can’t complain though, we’re still here, and we’ve still got the regulars from back in the day.”

He remembers how Peckham used to be a destination for shoppers, and people would travel a long way to come here. “All the shops were full, people would come to Peckham to go shopping. We used to have a lot of big stores: C&A, Woolworths, Jones & Higgins, Marks & Spencer. Once they disappeared in the early 90s, a lot of people just started selling the same things.”

Dennis has no plans to build an empire of his own, however, despite his loyal customer base and the regular long queues out into the street. “It’s hard enough to run this one as it is!” he laughs. “It’s a commitment and I’ve sacrificed a lot just to keep it going. When you have a family, you can’t really be there for them as much as you want to be. This is my family. I’m always here. There’s other business you can do without having another shop. Don’t be greedy!” He supplies many other local establishments with meat, including JB’s Soul Food – a Jamaican takeaway just off Peckham High Street – and Sacred Heart School in Camberwell.

Dennis clearly enjoys his work, and tells me that he likes selling meat, that he relishes the everyday tasks involved in being a butcher, despite the fact he fell into it by accident. “It was an after-school thing, when I was about 13 years old, for a bit of extra pocket-money. My mum used to go to a local butcher (on Choumert Road) and they said, ‘Your son can help clean up!’ I left school at 17, and I always wanted to do carpentry, to be honest. I loved doing that, but butchery was the next best thing. It just worked out for me, and I never looked back.”

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24 / THE PECKHAM PECULIAR February/March 2015

LAUNDERETTES

clothes encountersWORDS AND PHOTOS JOAN BYRNE

So you’ve just arrived on planet earth and you’re told about this warm, fragrant place where you can go, have a nice sit-down, chat with a stranger or read a book, and leave with all your washing done. Fantastic.

But although we might take them for granted, launderettes could become an endangered species. Recently, a few in our neighbourhood have closed, including The Laundry on Forest Hill Road, which was in business for six decades. The owners, Lynn and Sue, ran it for the last eight years and were sad to sell up.

“People say, ‘You’re always busy, you must be making money,’” Lynn says. “What they don’t think about is the bills. It was £1,000 a month on gas alone. Then there’s the water. We have to pay for the water that comes in and for what goes out.”

Paula has run Laundromat on Bellenden Road for the last 18 years. She has seen many changes in that time. “It’s much richer here now,” she says. Paula was at work when David Cameron did a walkabout in Peckham a few years ago.

“I saw a lot of tall men. I went out and asked, ‘What’s going on, a film?’ They’re always filming around here. ‘No, it’s the prime minister.’ He had a coffee next door then came in. He said, ‘I don’t know how you can do all that ironing.’ I said, ‘It’s my job, sir.’ He said his mother used to do lots of ironing.”

The launderette on Nunhead Lane is owned and run by a family originally from Nigeria. William, an economics graduate, can be found working there some days. He loves Peckham and Nunhead because, he says, they remind him of the energy and noise of Nigeria. Home in Blackheath is much quieter.

Brenda has managed the launderette on Lordship Lane since 1983. She says the clientele has changed: “It’s young professionals now, wanting service washes. They don’t have time to do washing.”

Launderettes are personal; we literally bring our dirty washing there. Sometimes we bring the most difficult things… stained goods, which we expect to be rendered good as new and usually they are. And who hasn’t sat, waiting for their laundry, and been mesmerized by the washing and drying going round and round and round?

I once read that in Elizabethan times, washerwomen were the independent working women of the age. Washing laundry was one of the few ways you could, as a lone female, operate a business. It’s a physical job: you have to be strong and smart, and that’s still the case in modern-day launderettes. In addition, you have to make it work, despite the odds..

Joan’s book of launderette photos will be published this spring.

Page 25: The Peckham Peculiar issue 7

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Page 26: The Peckham Peculiar issue 7

26 / THE PECKHAM PECULIAR February/March 2015

RESTAURANTS

a local treasureMUCH-LOVED ITALIAN RESTAURANT IL GIARDINO BROUGHT A SLICE OF SARDINIA TO SE15 WHEN IT OPENED IN THE LATE 1980s. The mouth-watering food, friendly staff and quaint, cosy interior have made it a Peckham institution

WORDS MIRANDA KNOX PHOTOS SAM OXLEY

With its familiar yellow facade, rustic green shutters and green-and-white striped awning, Sardinian restaurant Il Giardino is part of the proverbial furniture on Blenheim Grove.

Inside, the classic menu has barely altered in years, and the traditional decor, all imported from Italy, has hardly been touched since the restaurant’s founder, Alex Mascia, opened its doors in 1987.

Current owner and head chef Eduardo Tello, 47, has maintained Il Giardino’s original character since taking the helm 18 years ago. His staff’s passion for the restaurant and the surrounding area is infectious.

Waitress Susi Sassi, 44, says: “Home is where the heart is, and if you’re in a place where you’re very happy and you love it, you are the luckiest person in the world. I love this area and the community, and have lived here for nearly 30 years. I feel like I’m at home here.

“We have such fun working together every weekend. When one of us starts to laugh it sets everyone off. We never get upset with one another. For me, working here is like going out. I can crack a joke and have an audience!”

This sense of ‘belonging’, feeling at home and providing a friendly service is everything to Il Giardino. One wall is lined with Polaroid snaps of people who have celebrated their birthdays here – another indicator of just how valued the customers are to Eduardo and his team.

Eduardo moved to the UK from the Peruvian capital Lima when he was just 18 years old. “My brother-in-law was working at the Peruvian Embassy,” he recalls. “I visited as a tourist at first, and I didn’t know any English so I wanted to learn the language.”

He got a job washing dishes at Il Giardino in the same year and was promoted to sous-chef just six months later, working under previous owner Alex. In 1997 Eduardo bought the restaurant after Alex fell in love and moved to Brazil.

All the original decor in Il Giardino – from the empty bottles of Barbera red wine to the dried flowers adorning the bar and the

paintings – was brought here from Alex’s native Sardinia, the second largest island in the Mediterranean sea.

“Alex was in love with Peckham as well,” Eduardo says, reflecting on the early years. “He taught me how to cook Italian food. I’ve always liked the Italian accent and cooking, and the passion that goes into it.

“My father was a Peruvian chef and cooking was something I was brought up with, making dishes like ceviche [fresh raw fish marinated in citrus juice and spices]. People eat lots of fresh fish in Sardinia and in Lima as well, because it’s on the coast.”

Susi has also been around to watch the business flourish over the years. She grew up in Rimini, a city on the east coast of Italy, and like Eduardo, moved over to England when she was 18.

She joined Il Giardino as a waitress in 1994, before taking a break to start a family and returning in 1998. She says: “I moved here initially because I wanted to learn English, but I didn’t imagine staying here and travelled back and forth.

“It wasn’t until I had got married and had my children that it hit me how much I loved this country, and I realised this was home. I started to see the English world through the children’s eyes and thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I love it.’”

Susi now works three nights a week at the restaurant, which seats 70 and has more space on the terrace in the summer. “Our busiest time of year is Valentine’s day,” she says. “We make a big effort, all dress in red and give out heart-shaped chocolates to make it really special.

“We get lots of new customers, and others are regulars who have been coming for 28 years. They’re all lovely. We’re welcoming to everyone – not just because we want them to come back but because we all love people and socialising.”

Some of Il Giardino’s most popular dishes include the orecchiette walnuts – a small dome of orecchiette (Italian for ‘little ears’) pasta from Puglia served with a light tomato and basil sauce and topped

with walnuts. Spaghetti mussels – which is made with fresh mussels, garlic,

chilli and a touch of tomato – is another classic. Susi’s favourite is the Trotta – off-the-bone salmon and trout that’s shallow-fried in butter with capers and white wine.

In addition to a huge enthusiasm for the food they serve, it’s obvious from the outset that Eduardo is well-loved by his team of nine staff. Susi says: “The food at Il Giardino is amazing because Eduardo cooks with passion. I call him my teddy bear, because he’s the loveliest man alive! He never raises his voice, even when we tell him off or when it’s busy. He’s always organised and full of energy.

“I found the area scary when I first started working here. It was dark, and the main road wasn’t as busy. I wouldn’t take the bus home alone. Eduardo would drop me home every single night. Now, when I finish at midnight or one o’clock in the morning I can walk around. It’s changed a lot.”

She adds: “Eduardo knows more than me about Italian cooking because he learnt from Alex, who was so meticulous, and trained Eduardo for 10 years before he took over the restaurant. He’ll still ask my opinion on dishes sometimes, and we’ll chat about it.”

While Il Giardino hasn’t altered much over the decades, that’s not to say the staff are against change. “[Peckham Rye] station being redeveloped has got to be a good thing,” says Susi. “We were consulted, and have been updated on what’s happening.

“Change can be good. When the cinema was built, we found business picked up. Many customers come in and say, ‘Every day I walk past here and I really want to try it’, or their friends have recommended us.”

Eduardo adds: “The community spirit in Peckham means that we can make friends with the customers and build up good relationships with people from this area. We care about each other.”

Pictured above: Eduardo Tello and Susi Sassi

Page 27: The Peckham Peculiar issue 7

February/March 2015 THE PECKHAM PECULIAR / 27

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