A second group of students from the Harris Academy at Peckham worked with Amanda Egbe to produce a two screen video installation on Modern Peckham since 1945. They used film and photography to observe the dynamic transformation of living life in Peckham.
World War II brought radical change to Peckham. “No other part of London, except Croydon, suffered more severely from the ravages of Hitler's flying and rocket bombs” according to Harold P Clunn in London Marches On in 1947.
Bomb damage or no bomb damage, Peckham carried on with its traditions of manufacture and shopping after World War II. Peckham Rye was home to the Denette Works and Deanes Limited who claimed to be 'Makers of Britain's Best Baby Carriage'. Rye Lane meanwhile was known as the Golden Mile and Peckham’s famous department store Jones and Higgins attracted shoppers from miles around.
Entertainment went on as before but the cinemas which had taken the place of music-halls before the war were now being turned into bingo halls and the Central Hall, once home to thriving Saturday afternoon film shows for children, became a Top Twenty rock and roll club.
These weren’t the only aspects of Peckham that were changing. The war had depleted Britain’s workforce and there was an influx of immigrants from the Caribbean in the 1950s and 1960s to help solve the country's labour shortage, with many recruited to work on the buses.
There was also administrative change as Peckham became part of the London Borough of Southwark in 1965, and physical change. In 1971/2 the old Grand Surrey Canal was drained and filled in, and by the 1980s Peckham, along with inner city areas all over Britain, had gone into decline. By the early 1990s Southwark as a whole was the second most deprived borough in England and Peckham was the most deprived part of Southwark with multiple indicators of deprivation.
In recent years there has again been dramatic change. As the world moved forward towards the new millennium the Peckham Partnership worked to provide new homes and once again there were exciting and innovative developments in Peckham: Peckham Premier Cinema opened in 1994, nearly half a century after the Pioneer Health Centre closed its doors, Peckham Pulse hit the scene in 1997, and in 2000 the revolutionary Peckham Library opened.
Today, around 25,000 people call Peckham home. Peckham residents come from all over the world: there is a big African population, particularly from the Cote D'Ivoire, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Somalia, and there are also people from many other areas including the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, Vietnam, Turkey and the Balkans. There is a mix of cultures, religions and approaches to life. Peckham’s diversity has perhaps been best reflected in the Flavas festival held to celebrate the huge range of food to be found in its streets.
Is there life on Mars? Are there melons in Peckham?
Yes, and breadfruit, okra, cassava and giant yams, and one of the youngest and liveliest populations in town!
