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Thank you for picking up the February/ March edition of the Dulwich Diverter, your free local paper for Dulwich.
The cover stars for this issue are Rachel and Conrad Sharp, the co-owners of Dulwich Antiques. Their pop-up shop on Upland Road is a treasure trove for interior design enthusiasts, with an eclectic array of furniture ranging from a late 18th-century grandfather clock with a moon dial to a 20th-century G Plan teak dressing table.
We find out why Rachel and Conrad are so passionate about furniture restoration, antiques and the stories behind them on page eight.
Also featured in this edition is Jamie Mockridge. Jamie is a longstanding and familiar face on the south-east London food scene as a result of his co-ownership of the popular Arlo and Moe cafes.
Jamie also runs a fermented food business, Jamie Ferments, with his products stocked by local shops including Proud Sow in Dulwich Village and Jones of Brockley in East Dulwich. He tells us more on page 11.
Elsewhere, the local writer Susan Allott looks at the history of the River Peck, which features in her novel, The House on Rye Lane. Susan charts the
Dulwich Hamlet FC have appointed the highly experienced Bradley Quinton as their new manager, in a deal that runs until the end of the season, writes Luke G Williams
Speaking to the Dulwich Diverter, Quinton, 46, said he was delighted to have joined such a “huge club with a great fanbase”.
“I’ve come up against Dulwich Hamlet before as a manager and a player,” he said. “I know where they are at this moment in time and where they should be. The club haven’t been doing themselves justice, so we need to work a lot harder and then I’m sure we’ll move in the right direction.”
At the time of writing, Dulwich were 18th in the Isthmian League Premier Division, just two points ahead of the relegation zone. However, Quinton is confident that the side will soon be on the up once again. “The main thing you need in football whatever level you play at is confidence and work rate,” he said.
“I’ve worked hard so far in getting the players to understand where we should be with and without the ball. I want them to have the confidence to go out and express themselves and play with a smile on their faces. We had a fantastic [training] session last night. In training the boys have been thriving and buying into it. Every session the intensity has been superb.”
Dulwich have been battling something of an injury crisis this season, and Quinton said reinforcing the squad was a possibility in the coming weeks and months.
“We’re discussing this with the board and the chairman,” he said. “There are possible movements, things we may be able to do. Yes, we’ve got a few injuries but we can only wait and see what happens. In another two or three weeks hopefully some of the injured players will be available again for selection.
subterranean stream, which flows from One Tree Hill through Honor Oak, Peckham Rye Park and Common and on to the Thames, on page 17.
On the centre pages, our brilliant photographer Julia Hawkins takes a quick tour of some of the fantastic wine bars that we have in the local area.
And towards the back of the paper you will find the usual selection of Dulwich Diversions, which includes two fabulous recipes from local food writers, our ever popular crossword plus Peter Rhodes’s illustrations of a couple of local heroes, the actor Iain Glen and the footballer Quade Taylor.
The next issue of the Dulwich Diverter will be published in April and will come out before the Easter weekend. As ever, it will be distributed to our many stockists across East, West, North Dulwich and the Village.
If you’re a local business or organisation who is interested in advertising, please drop us a line via dulwichdiverter@gmail.com. We would love to help promote what you do both in print and online, across Dulwich, south-east London and beyond.
We hope you enjoy the issue!
MarkMcGinlayandKateWhite
“In the meantime, the lads understand that everyone will be given a fair crack of the whip and the chance to show they want to play – not just for me but for the club and the fans.
“If we need to strengthen the squad we will do. There are some fantastic players and good youngsters at the club. Given our position in the league it’s important we stick to the game-plan and stick together.”
After being on Tottenham’s books as a schoolboy, Quinton had a successful playing career with teams including Braintree and Enfield. He also went on to manage both these clubs, leading Enfield to the play-offs and Braintree to promotion in 2018. Quinton also holds the club record for appearances for Braintree. He has also managed Welling and Hemel.
Quinton is the third person to take charge of Dulwich since the departure of the long-serving former manager Gavin Rose, who left the club after 13 years’ service in September 2022. Paul Barnes initially took over the managerial hot-seat, with Hakan Hayrettin succeeding Barnes in March 2023.
Dulwich were relegated from the National League South at the end of the 2022-23 season, and under Hayrettin finished 12th in the Isthmian League Premier Division in 2023-24. However, Hayrettin was sacked in early January after a poor run of form in which Dulwich plummeted towards the relegation zone.
When announcing Quinton’s appointment as manager, the Dulwich Hamlet chairman, Ben Clasper, said:
“Bradley has what we believe it will take to come into a challenging situation, from his experience in this division to his time working within a fan-owned club, and we were further encouraged by the feedback from those who have worked and played for him.”
An exhibition by the London-based artist Somaya Critchlow has opened at Dulwich Picture Gallery.
The Chamber is a one-room display that features six works commissioned by the gallery, including three large figurative paintings. Sketches created by the artist throughout her research are also presented, alongside old masters.
The exhibition is Critchlow’s debut solo show in a British public institution, and was made in response to the gallery’s historic collection. Critchlow said she had been struck by the narrative paintings in the gallery, including those by artists such as Peter Paul Rubens, Peter Lely and Anthony van Dyck.
She was intrigued by the stories behind them, which are rooted in religion, literature, history, the imagination and mythology, including Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the ancient epic poem to which Critchlow was continually drawn while creating her works. She has often contemplated how these stories can mask complex power structures.
Drawing from the classical poses and dynamic gestures of the old masters, Critchlow was fascinated by history painting and also by the nude. Her own figures hover on the threshold of allowing their stories to be known intimately, while at the same time maintaining their distance.
Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber – a collection of short stories in which fairytales are retold and power dynamics upturned – has been a constant reference for Critchlow. Her paintings find synergies with works such as Gerrit Dou’s 17th-century painting A Woman Playing a Clavichord, which depicts a woman seated inside her chamber waiting to receive a guest, possibly her lover, and ambiguously holding the viewer’s gaze.
The Chamber evokes a place where narratives unfold: from an intimate room or a public meeting place to the chambers of the heart.
Dr Lucy West, a curator at Dulwich Picture Gallery, said: “When I look at JeanHonoré Fragonard’s 18th-century Young Woman [included within the display] I see two things. An artist at the height of their powers, applying oil paint in thrilling ways. I also see a woman, who is real, fantastical and unknowable – all at the same time.
“In Somaya Critchlow’s new works for The Chamber I find this same feeling. Through her masterful paintings, Critchlow permits us to place fresh eyes on historic art in the most exciting of ways – disentangling threads and then entangling them all over again.”
The Chamber is part of Unlocking Paintings – a series of thought-provoking displays at the gallery that present new perspectives on its collection.
A Sheltered home for the elderly in the heart of Herne Hill
2-room
The Dulwich-born singer Kelli-Leigh is aiming to take her career to the next level with the release of her new single, Broken Heart.
Produced by DJ SKT and released on her own Music Core label, Kelli-Leigh said the track was “a big dance-pop record which features my love of anthemic big sounds”.
“I’m really excited about it,” she told the Dulwich Diverter. “I’ve also shot a video which I’m planning to release on Valentine’s Day. I’m flipping it up a bit – anyone who’s not happily celebrating Valentine’s Day will have the Broken Heart music video to enjoy!”
Kelli-Leigh is hoping the single will help her build on her “amazing” 2024, in which she felt she “anchored herself as an artist”. Among her successes was her single Unconditional, which she released independently. Subsequently signed to Armada Music, it became Kelli-Leigh’s first solo record to be added to Radio 1’s playlist, receiving three weeks of airplay on its C list.
“I’ve been on a lot of tracks which have been playlisted, some with or without my name on, but to finally have my own solo playlisted record on Radio 1 was a really huge moment for me,” Kelli-Leigh said.
“This year I want to follow on from that and lean more into my own artistic vision and sound – putting who I am as an artist really out there.”
As well as focusing on her own artistic journey, Kelli-Leigh is also at the forefront of the battle to ensure that artists’ rights are protected across the music industry through her role on the board of the Featured Artists’ Coalition.
“It’s a fantastic organisation and I really love being a part of it,” she said. “The music industry is in a weird place. More than ever, the consumer is able to have any music they want at their fingertips, but the downside of that is that the value of music has gone down so much that a lot of artists are struggling. We need to challenge companies like Spotify who aren’t paying a fair base rate to artists.”
Kelli-Leigh has racked up a host of prestigious credits throughout her career, including a Grammy nomination and performing on UK No 1 hits such as I Got U by Duke Dumont featuring Jax Jones and I Wanna Feel by Secondcity. She also performed the track Miracle by Raphael Saadiq, which featured in the 2023 Eddie Murphy film Candy Cane Lane.
However, despite all her accomplishments, it is south-east London where Kelli-Leigh remains happiest. “I’m a south London girl through and through,” she said.
“I could never live north of the river! I briefly lived in west London and when I got back to south London I felt I could breathe better.”
Julia Hawkins, a photographer for this paper and our sister title, the Peckham Peculiar, has been named one of the winners of the Portrait of Britain awards.
The shortlisted images were announced last November before the winning portraits were displayed across the country on digital billboards, in locations including high streets and transport hubs.
Portrait of Britain is an annual photography award run by the British Journal of Photography. It aims to capture the essence of the UK through portraiture, elevating voices from marginalised communities and celebrating the resilience of a united, diverse nation.
Hawkins took the above photo of Julia Baker in 2023 as part of her portrait photography project, On Loneliness, which aims to normalise talking about this universal human emotion.
Some 50 portraits and testimonials about loneliness gathered by Hawkins will be published in a book by the School of Life later this year.
Baker was born in China in 1917 and lived there until 1942, when she settled in her parents’ homeland of Canada. She stayed there until she met and married a British man and moved to London in 1961.
Baker was very sporty in her youth. Her main passion was lawn tennis, but she loved athletics too. She was also a real adventurer, travelling across and volunteering in places as diverse as Algeria, Tibet, Mexico, the US and India, where she saw Mahatma Gandhi when she was 25.
Baker was looked after by her son Tom in her home until she died in November last year, shortly after being told her portrait was one of the winning images.
Franklins has celebrated 25 years in East Dulwich.
The restaurant offered a £19.99 menu and held an online auction to raise money for Albrighton Community Fridge, a local charity aiming to reduce food waste that Franklins has long supported.
Items available through the auction included a personal consultation with Claudia Winkleman’s stylist, Sinead McKeefry, a signed copy of Jay Rayner’s latest book, Nights Out At Home, a meal cooked in your home by the Franklins co-owner and chef Tim Sheehan, and a deluxe stay for two at the five-star hotel Vintry & Mercer in the City.
Rod Franklin, who founded the restaurant with Sheehan in 1999, said: “We
really want to thank everyone who has helped to make Franklins the success it is, from our staff past and present, suppliers and neighbours to our amazing and loyal customers. Twenty-five years is quite the achievement, especially after Covid and the recent economic downturn.”
Sheehan added: “It’s great to be able to celebrate our anniversary by helping out our friends at the Albrighton Community Fridge. Here’s to many more years of serving the local community we are proud to be part of.”
Located on Lordship Lane in East Dulwich, Franklins has always championed seasonal produce and prides itself on its classic British menu, which changes weekly.
Two local authors have become Goldsmiths honorary fellows.
Evie Wyld and Caleb Azumah Nelson, who both hail from southeast London, joined Bollywood film actor Kalki Koechlin to receive their awards in a degree ceremony at the university in New Cross.
Wyld is the author of five critically acclaimed novels. A recipient of the Miles Franklin award, the Stella prize and the Encore award, in 2013 she was named on Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists list. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Azumah Nelson’s debut novel, Open Water, published by Penguin in 2021, helped establish him as a compelling voice in contemporary literature. After receiving widespread acclaim, the book won the Costa first novel award and the British
Book Awards’ debut fiction book of the year. Azumah Nelson’s work highlights the richness of south-east London’s communities and culture, celebrating underrepresented voices.
Koechlin, an actor and writer, graduated from Goldsmiths before embarking on a career in theatre and film. Her debut film role in Dev D earned her a Filmfare award for best supporting actress.
She has since starred in other critically acclaimed films including Margarita with a Straw and Gully Boy. On the stage her writing and performances have won accolades including the Hindu’s MetroPlus playwright award.
Koechlin was also named a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in the 2018 French honours for her contribution to the arts.
BY MIRANDA KNOX
While furniture is designed to be functional and practical, the right statement piece steeped in history will often have its own story to tell, and can be an interesting conversation starter.
Whether it’s a family heirloom, a restored mid-century classic or a vintage find from a fair, an item of furniture can provide a glimpse into the past.
Which is precisely why Rachel and Conrad Sharp are so passionate about their business, Dulwich Antiques, which has – until the end of March at least – a pop-up shop on Upland Road.
The married couple live in the area with their three kids, aged between six and 14, and moved here 15 years ago from Elephant and Castle.
Conrad grew up restoring old pieces of furniture and at one point worked as a cabinet maker, as well as pursuing his main career in theatre and acting – an industry that he still works in today.
Despite this, and the fact that Rachel and Conrad both have a keen interest in home furnishings, they are relative newcomers to the antiques trade, only starting out as a fully fledged business in January 2024.
Originally, restoring old furniture was a necessity for the couple, who loved interiors but didn’t have the means to splash the cash on pricey pieces.
IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL BIT OF FURNITURE THAT HAD BEEN LEFT ROTTING, AND WE WERE SO INSPIRED BY THE STORY OF WHERE IT HAD COME FROM. IT MUST HAVE BEEN PART OF A BIG, ELABORATE WEDDING IN INDIA, AND SOMEHOW IT’S ENDED UP IN PECKHAM
Conrad says: “We didn’t have a huge amount of money, but we liked nice things. If you want nice things and you don’t have much money, you’ve got to figure out how to get nice things that need fixing and then you need to fix them up, and so necessity is the mother of invention in that way.”
Rachel says: “Conrad has been into design his whole life. We’ve been together for 25 years, so I think maybe being around Conrad may have rubbed off on me a little bit too!
“We grew up together and he used to make me furniture for my birthday. One of my favourite pieces of furniture was when he made me a beautiful Welsh dresser made of solid wood. That’s still in our kitchen now actually.”
Conrad adds: “Rachel has lived all over the world, Switzerland, the Philippines ... I think that has kind of influenced her taste.
“She just gets the fact that no matter where you are in the world, you can see when something has been made carefully and with love and it’s not just been bashed out.
“It has to be really well built. Robust. I don’t want it to just look good. It needs that quality craftsmanship. Nothing artificial.”
Furniture restoration became more of a focus when lockdown happened in March 2020. Conrad says: “Suddenly I realised that I couldn’t do any of my theatre work or any of my events work or performances.
“I had a show booked at Greenwich Theatre that I’d written for March 2020. It was definitely not a good time for theatre.
“I thought, I’ve got to do something, so I decided to restore furniture. It was more for fun as opposed to selling it at that point.”
The couple started by buying items very cheaply or acquiring them for free, and then restoring them to their former glory.
While they obviously look for visually pleasing items, it’s the stories behind the pieces that really excite them.
Conrad says: “One item that piqued our interest was something called a damchiya, which is a really large cabinet.
“I was walking through Peckham Rye and it was there on the street, outside someone’s house. It was in disrepair so I knocked on the door and asked about it.
“He [the owner] said he didn’t want it and I could take it, so we picked it
up in our VW campervan. It weighed more than a piano – it was very heavy.
“We did some research and worked out it was a north Indian dowry chest from the 1800s. It still had some silver Indian coins that had fallen down the back.
“It was a beautiful bit of furniture that had been left rotting, and we were so inspired by the story of where it had come from. It must have been part of a big, elaborate wedding in India, and somehow it’s ended up in Peckham.
“It got us thinking about the stories behind these pieces of furniture, and the ones we get excited about are the ones when we know where it’s from, and the history behind it.
“We’ve also got a 1960s desk at the moment, from a lady in Islington who used to work for a haulage company.
“They decided they didn’t want an office any more, so she worked from home in the early 60s and they made her a work-from-home station that pulls out into a mini office, with a special table and shelf inside the exact size of her Royal typewriter and a rack for all the rubber stamps. The old phone was still with it.”
It was only in November 2023 when the couple began to think that maybe they could turn their hobby and side hustle into a business.
Rachel says: “We started with tables, a set of drawers, mid-century stuff. Conrad is really good at making things look brand new again and I would sell them on sites like Etsy or eBay, or via our website.”
Then they found the perfect spot on Upland Road for their shop, moving into the space in October last year.
Previously the site was vacant, and had been a cafe before that.
Conrad says: “About 10 years ago there was actually a furniture shop in there. Before we rented it, it was literally just boarded up for about two years, which is what kind of piqued our interest. It’s such a good spot.
“It all just felt right. We got in contact and the landlords turned out
to be a lovely family – they gave us the keys three days after we asked!”
Now, Conrad restores their finds from a mini workshop at the shop and from the basement workshop in their home.
Conrad says: “These pieces are going on to a new chapter of their lives in a new home with a new family.
“Some really are sometimes saved from skips – we pick a piece of furniture up and we take it back to the shop and someone comes and falls madly in love with it and it’s going to have the next 20 years in their home.”
Rachel adds: “We’ve always had lots of really weird old stuff in our own house, big theatrical old stuff too, like big luggage, 1950s steamers, hat stands, signage from the 1920s – so the shop kind of feels like an extension of our home almost. It’s about finding really unique, lovely pieces ... It doesn’t feel like just selling furniture.”
Given their passion for homeware and furniture restoration, understandably they can’t help but fall in love with some of their stock –which can be a problem when your livelihood relies on selling it.
Rachel says: “We do get things in and we love them and then I’m kind of sad when someone buys them.
“We’ve got a really beautiful, huge mirror on a stand that’s Victorian. It used to be in a hat shop, and it rotates. It’s too big really, but it is just really beautiful – that’s my favourite thing in the shop at the moment. It’s so ornate.”
Even if they’re not in the market for furniture, people are also welcome to pop in just for a chat, and Rachel and Conrad sell Old Spike coffee too.
Rachel says: “I think that’s the reason we love having the shop so much as well, because we’re getting to meet so many people.
“Everybody who comes in is so friendly and shares the best stories about their lives.”
As well as the larger items, the shop – which is typically open from
WE’VE ALWAYS HAD LOTS OF REALLY WEIRD OLD STUFF IN OUR OWN HOUSE ... SO THE SHOP KIND OF FEELS LIKE AN EXTENSION OF OUR HOME
Wednesday to Sunday, 9.30am to 5pm – also exhibits local artists’ work, including pieces by the ceramicist Sophie Howard-Jones, art by Nico Garcia and hand-poured soy wax candles, also produced locally.
Come March, when their initial pop-up agreement is up, the couple will either remain in situ on Upland Road, or look for other premises in the area.
One thing is for sure, though –through Dulwich Antiques they have found their true calling and say they plan to continue restoring and selling classic items of furniture in the local area.
Conrad adds: “At the moment we are really happy with where we are. We really love doing this and we love the community – if we do move, we won’t go far.”
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JAMIE MOCKRIDGE’S
BY LUKE G WILLIAMS
It’s immediately clear from the animated enthusiasm in his voice that Jamie Mockridge is a man whose passion for food and flavours is – if you’ll pardon the pun – all consuming.
“I’m going to be cooking while we talk, as long as that’s OK with you,” Jamie tells me when I finally pin down the uber-busy but always amiable entrepreneur.
Jamie is a familiar face on the south-east London food scene as a result of his co-ownership of Arlo and Moe – whose Crofton Park and Hither Green cafes have proved such a hit over the past decade.
More recently, Jamie added the burgeoning and critically acclaimed fermented food business Jamie Ferments to his impressive culinary portfolio.
Jamie gives me a rundown of how Jamie Ferments came about, and his own food journey so far. “I’ve lived in south-east London for quite a few years,” he says.
“My mum and dad actually came from Sydenham. They moved out in the 1970s and I’ve ended up back here [in south-east London]. I do my fermenting from the Hither Green Arlo and Moe cafe, so I’m running two businesses from there.”
Jamie trained as a baker in his teens before moving away from bakery and patisserie in his mid-20s because – as he says with a chuckle – it was “too many early mornings”.
After a spell working abroad in various restaurants, Jamie left the food industry for 14 years, before returning a decade ago when he set up Arlo and Moe with his business partner, Jules O’Neill.
His subsequent foray into fermenting came about by chance. “Around 2015 or 2016 I randomly met a guy in Deptford who talked to me about the health benefits of fermenting,” he explains. “He wasn’t in the food industry or anything, he was just a 60-year-old guy I was chatting to in the gym.
“But he got me thinking, so I started doing a bit of research and got interested in the link between the gut microbiome and general wellbeing. So then I started making my own kimchi at home. It was something completely new to me. I hadn’t even heard of kimchi!”
Jamie points out that fermenting – particularly vegetable fermenting – is a gastronomic art that has traditionally been overlooked in the UK. “We ferment cheese and alcohol but not really vegetables. But once I started fermenting kimchi for myself I definitely felt the health benefits from it.
“I now eat fermented foods on a daily basis and since I’ve done that
my instances of having colds – for example – have definitely dropped.”
Jamie’s explanation of the physical and mental health benefits of fermented vegetables is as lucid as it is convincing.
“Essentially what happens is that when you ferment vegetables you start pre-digesting them during the fermentation process. Therefore the carbohydrates start to get broken down, which is what the body struggles to do sometimes. The fermenting process also releases minerals and enzymes that you wouldn’t normally get.
“If you look at the countries with the highest life expectancy, they have a high proportion of their food being fermented – like Korea and Japan.”
Though he is an evangelist for the health benefits of fermented food,
Jamie is quick to stress that as far as his Jamie Ferments product line is concerned, taste is paramount.
“It’s important for me to say that even though I became interested in fermenting because of the health benefits, once I started eating kimchi and sauerkraut it was the flavour profiles that blew me away,” he says. “As a business I don’t go down the health route – I’m a food person, so for me it’s always about the flavour.”
Since it was established, Jamie Ferments has grown rapidly. “I was making kimchi for myself and at work when, in late 2018, one of my staff members said to me: ‘Jamie, you should put this in a jar and sell it, it’s that good.’ So I thought I’d give it a go.
“Because I’ve been a local business for so long I know a lot of independent shops, and they all started stocking
I BECAME INTERESTED IN FERMENTING BECAUSE OF THE HEALTH BENEFITS, [BUT] ONCE I STARTED EATING KIMCHI AND SAUERKRAUT IT WAS THE FLAVOUR PROFILES THAT BLEW ME AWAY
my stuff and it just grew from there. In July 2019 I expanded my range and I’ve now got two different kimchis – a classic kimchi and a vegan kimchi – as well as two different sauerkrauts, two pickles and a fermented hot pepper sauce.
“At any time if you come into my production area you’re going to see 400 to 600 kilos of vegetables either in the fermentation process or going into jars.”
Surprisingly, given the economic devastation wreaked by the pandemic, Jamie admits that it actually helped to drive sales and expand his business.
“We had to close the cafes but I continued fermenting,” he says. “All the local independent businesses became incredibly busy and my output going into butchers, delis and so on just went through the roof because everyone was buying locally and not going to work.”
Good sport that he is, Jamie is happy to share his recipe and process for kimchi – albeit with a few crucial timings omitted for product security purposes.
“There’s no one generic or specific method or recipe for kimchi,” he stresses. “I’ve never been to Korea, but my understanding is that every family would have their own way of making it.
“Through trial and error the way that I do it is: I chop up my Chinese leaf and I soak it in brine, for a specific amount of time – I’m not going to say how long! That gets the flavour of the salt into the Chinese leaf and kickstarts the fermentation process.
“Then I add carrot, mooli, spring onion, ginger, garlic, various seasonings and Korean dried chilli flakes, along with a thickener of glutinous rice flour. It is then packed into a fermentation vessel and left to ferment. I keep it quite young and once the pH level has dropped to a specific level that is safe to eat, I jar it and sell it.”
As well as being available in a wide variety of local shops in and around south-east London – including Proud Sow in Dulwich Village, Jones of Brockley in East Dulwich, Flock & Herd in Peckham and Gladwell’s in Camberwell – Jamie can often be found at local markets, or you can buy his products through his website.
“Since I started going to the local markets it has been lovely,” he says. “So many people have come up to me and said: ‘Oh, you’re Jamie, we buy your stuff and we love it. We’re addicted to it!’
“So, yes, the local reaction has been great. I think people like the idea that it’s a local product, but above all else it’s a quality product. I mean, if you look at my ingredients, there’s nothing added or artificial – I let nature do the work.”
Dulwich dwellers are fortunate to have been surrounded by some great local places to enjoy a glass of wine over the years, including Franklins on Lordship Lane, which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary.
There have been a few new arrivals in SE22 recently, including Dynamic Vines and Planet of the Grapes. Our photographer also visited some relatively new additions a bit further afield, including Bar Levan and the Sourcing Table.
BY SUSAN ALLOTT
Have you ever wondered what happened to the lost River Peck? I know I have. I wondered about it in a slightly obsessive way for a couple of years during the strange era of Covid lockdowns, when the highlight of my day was a looping circuit of Peckham Rye Park and Common. I found, as the world was forced to pause, that it was easier to imagine a quieter time, before there were roads and buildings and cars and trains, and planes always passing overhead. History was closer than it used to be. Which is how I became fixated by the Peck, and where it went.
I’d known for a while that Peckham got its name from the river – “village by the Peck” – and that rye means “watercourse”. I knew that a small section of the Peck still ran through Peckham Rye Park. And I’d heard that the river had once run across what is now Peckham Rye Common. I wondered what course it took across the common, and where it went from there. Was it lovely? Was it deep or was it more of a trickle? When and why was the decision made to deprive Peckham of its river?
I found an excellent book called London’s Lost Rivers: A Walker’s Guide, by Tom Bolton, which maps out the Peck’s original course. The Peck, Bolton explains, originates as an underground stream at the top of One Tree Hill and flows downhill through what is now the Honor Oak Reservoir, down through the site of Harris Girls’ Academy and into the park – today the Peck can still be seen emerging from a grille under Homestall Road. The Peck’s channel through the park is more or less the same as it was when the land was in its natural state, according to Bolton.
Today the Peck disappears into a pipe at the base of the ornamental pond near the large oval flowerbed,
but it would have run past a farmhouse – Homestall Farm – on the bend of what is now Straker’s Road, tracing the boundary between the common land to the north and the farmland – which is now the park –to the south. Some old maps show a tributary of the Peck originating on Dawson’s Hill, where the Dawson’s Heights flats are today. This tributary ran along the land that now forms the western edge of the park, and met the One Tree Hill branch of the Peck at Homestall Farm.
The river would then have run across the common from the site of the main park gates, cutting across the low-lying land and meeting East Dulwich Road roughly where the carved totem pole is today. It then ran through the grassy area where a derelict blue fountain remains as a reminder of Peckham Lido.
The river continued due north, then veered gently east at the turning by the Nags Head. It meandered through what is now a railway arch on Consort Road, onwards to the Old Kent Road, through what is now Millwall Football Club, where it met the Earl’s Sluice, and finally on to join the Thames at Rotherhithe.
My husband and I walked this route on a cold lockdown afternoon, and we tried to imagine it as a journey through market gardens beside a babbling brook, rather than the paved industrial landscape it has become. There was something eerie about this lost river, which I’d learned was still there beneath the tarmacked surfaces of the city, channelled into Victorian sewers.
But I still had questions. I should explain that by this point I was several drafts into a novel about a house on Peckham Rye, set partly in 1843 when the house – as I imagined it –would have looked out on to the River Peck. Everything I’d learned told me the Peck would have been an open
sewer in 1843; it would have become less lovely by the year as bathrooms were installed in those middle-class houses, and early Victorian drains, designed for stormwater, failed to cope. I had invented a character called Horatio who complained obsessively about the miasma from the river, and wanted it buried. But my research had hit an obstacle, and it was troubling me.
A quick Google search will tell you that the River Peck was enclosed in 1823. This date pops up everywhere, in newspaper archives and online, and it can be traced back to one source: Nicholas Barton, who says in The Lost Rivers of London (first published in 1962) that “the main part of [the Peck] was enclosed as part of the Earl Main Sewer in 182023, but the section nearest to the Old Kent Road remained open until 1831”. Barton doesn’t provide any sources or footnotes, or clarify which part of the Peck he considers the “main part”.
A deeper search suggests the people of Peckham lived alongside the River Peck for a few decades beyond the much-quoted date of 1823. The Dewhirst map shows the Peck running across Peckham Rye Common and northwards in 1842. There are paintings and Ordnance Survey maps that show a waterway crossing Peckham Rye Common until the early 1860s. And an intricate line drawing from the Illustrated London News (dated November 1861), titled Southern High Level Sewer at Peckham, shows workmen digging out a trench at a spot that could well be Peckham Rye. This is the engineering moment when Joseph Bazalgette’s sewers were constructed. It is also, I believe, the moment in which the River Peck was lost to Peckham, channelled into a sewer that met the Thames via the Earl Pumping Station.
But I’m not a historian. What if I was wrong about the dates? My novel had
sold and was being edited, and I was a bag of nerves.
Eventually I got in touch with Jon Newman, a local historian and author of several books on London’s lost rivers. He pointed me towards a set of minutes for the Metropolitan Board of Works from 1859, which record that local residents were petitioning for the Peck to be covered over because of its offensive smell. (The board apparently refused their request, and provided deodorising agents.) It was validating, and slightly spooky, to see my imagined world reflected in this nugget of history. It seemed a version of Horatio may well have existed in Victorian Peckham.
A few years on, I’ve kept up my habit of a near-daily circuit of Peckham Rye Park and Common, and I’ve been watching with interest the work in progress by Southwark Council to prevent flooding. As locals know, the common is waterlogged after heavy rain, as stormwater rushes
EVERYTHING
I’D LEARNED TOLD ME THE PECK WOULD HAVE BEEN AN OPEN SEWER IN 1843; IT WOULD HAVE BECOME LESS LOVELY BY THE YEAR AS BATHROOMS WERE INSTALLED IN THOSE MIDDLE-CLASS HOUSES, AND EARLY VICTORIAN DRAINS, DESIGNED FOR STORMWATER, FAILED TO COPE
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: THE RIVER PECK FLOWS THROUGH PECKHAM RYE PARK AND COMMON; AN ENGRAVING OF PECKHAM RYE, 1863; DAWSON’S HEIGHTS
along the route of the lost River Peck. Bazalgette’s sewer network can’t cope with the volume, it seems. The council’s website says: “Underground drainage and flow control devices will lower the rate of floodwater before it joins the existing sewer networks, improving sewer capacity.”
We may soon be able to walk across the common in winter without waders. It feels like the end of an era. More than 160 years after the River Peck was buried, it is lost but not forgotten.
The House on Rye Lane by Susan Allott (Borough Press) is out now in paperback
INGREDIENTS
1 corn on the cob per person, husks removed 1-2 limes, sliced (optional)
FOR THE SCOTCH BONNET BUTTER
250g vegan butter
4 garlic cloves
THIS SPICY SHARING DISH IS A GUARANTEED CROWD
The majesty of a good corn cob is not to be sniffed at. Super sweet, but also pleasingly rich and savoury, it’s best eaten as fresh as possible.
If you can find a pick-your-own farm that grows sweetcorn, I really recommend picking it yourself and eating it that day. The flavour of freshly picked corn is just so special.
Obviously any kind of butter is nice with sweetcorn, but in this case I’m suggesting the addition of scotch bonnets. The slow, intense heat they contain, and their almost tropical-fruit pepperiness, is perfect when paired with the natural sweetness of the corn. If you make this on a hotter day, the corn will also barbecue very well from raw, and can be dressed after it’s taken on a good char.
A final note: in the UK, the cut-off for fresh sweetcorn is usually around the end of September, so bear that in mind. I wouldn’t recommend buying the cobs out of season; they will have travelled far and, quite aside from the environmental and ethical quandaries that presents, the sweetcorn will be nowhere near as nice.
METHOD
1. Put all of the ingredients for the scotch bonnet butter in a pan and cook over a low heat until the garlic and chilli have completely softened.
2 scotch bonnets, halved and seeds removed (use gloves!)
1 heaped tbsp sweet smoked paprika Salt and black pepper
INGREDIENTS SERVES 4
3 tbsp vegan butter or margarine
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 litre vegetable stock
2. Allow to cool (if it’s still warm, that’s fine) and blend until the butter is as smooth as your blender will allow.
3. Taste the butter and add a little salt and black pepper if needed. Vegan butter is often quite salty so bear this in mind when seasoning.
4. Put the flavoured butter in a container with a lid and allow to cool completely before use. Stored in the fridge, it will keep for up to 5 days.
5. When you’re ready to serve your corn, bring a large pan of water to a rolling boil. I personally don’t season the water when boiling corn because I like it just as it is. Simmer the corn until tender, for approximately 5 minutes.
6. Put the cobs in a mixing bowl and dress with plenty of your scotch bonnet butter. It might be nice to add lime juice and/or zest, but there are so many things you could add, and I know this will be delicious just as written.
7. Serve the corn immediately with plenty of napkins, encouraging the use of fingers.
This recipe is from Cooking for People by Mike Davies, chef and owner of the Camberwell Arms. Published by Pavilion, it costs £30 and is out now
FULL OF GOODNESS, THIS DELICIOUS VEGAN BROTH IS QUICK AND EASY TO MAKE, AND IS PERFECT FOR WARMING UP ON A COLD WINTER’S DAY
It’s genuinely hard to overplay just how satisfying this simple bowl of kale and chickpeas really is. What holds this perfect dish together is the miso broth, which is like a warm hug of deliciousness and is the ideal vessel for dunking a warm garlic butter baguette. Utterly divine.
METHOD
1. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a large pot on a medium heat and fry the onion for 5 minutes.
2. Add the stock, miso paste, kale and chickpeas. Bring the broth to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 5-6 minutes, until the kale is soft.
3. While the broth is simmering, toast the
2 tbsp miso paste (we use white miso)
150g chopped kale
2 400g tins of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
½ a large baguette
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
Salt and pepper
EQUIPMENT
Large pot
Griddle pan or large baking tray
Small bowl
slices of baguette in a hot griddle pan or place them on a large baking tray and put them under the grill for 1-2 minutes on each side, or until golden.
4. Meanwhile, in a small bowl combine the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter with the garlic and a pinch of salt and pepper. Then spread the garlic butter all over the warm toasted bread.
5. Stir a ½ teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper into the broth, and serve in bowls with slices of garlic bread. Top each bowl with extra black pepper.
This recipe is an extract from Easy, a cookbook by local vegan couple Roxy Pope and Ben Pook, founders of the cookery platform So Vegan. Published by Penguin, it costs £22 and is out now
14 Newspaper, 16 Heedless, 18 Tailing, 21 Wander, 23 Decent, 25 Coal, 26 Eton.
24 Alicante, 27 Impact, 28 Scaremongering. DOWN: 1 Bullet, 2 Icon, 3 Flimsy, 4 Beer, 5 Restless, 7 Wonderful, 8 Cottage, 12 Yield,
ACROSS: 6 Dulwich College, 9 Planet, 10 Numerate, 11 Therapy, 13 Yonder, 15 Chef, 17 Elect, 19 Wish, 20 Bellow, 22 Dripped,
6 Across is a local institution.
WILLCOUCHLEDGE (ANAGRAM) (7, 7)
MARS, VENUS, EG (6)
AT MATHS (8)
WELLNESS TREATMENT (7)
OVER THERE (6)
CONSEQUENCES, EFFECT (6)
CAUSING UNNECESSARY FEAR (14)
TWITCHY, FIDGETY (8)
FOSSIL FUEL (4)
FAMOUS PUBLIC SCHOOL (4)
Quade Taylor is an English footballer who plays for Cray Wanderers.
Taylor joined Dulwich Hamlet’s youth academy in the summer of 2010 before joining Crystal Palace in 2011.
In 2012 he signed a two-year professional contract with Crystal Palace, then joined Championship side Bolton Wanderers in 2014. He became a regular in the reserve side and made his first-team debut on the last day of the 2014-15 season against Birmingham City.
After his release from Bolton, Taylor signed for National League side Braintree Town in August 2016. Shortly after he arrived at the club, his contract was terminated and he had a short spell out of the game.
In October 2016, he returned to former club Dulwich Hamlet on a free transfer and went on to make 169 appearances.
For more on the history of the Hamlet, visit thehamlethistorian.blogspot.co.uk
Dulwich Wood Park after a heavy snowstorm in 1981.
Iain Glen is a Scottish actor who lives locally with his wife and three children.
He was born in June 1961 in Edinburgh and was educated at the Edinburgh Academy before attending the University of Aberdeen.
He then trained in acting at Rada in London and successfully graduated in 1985.
He is perhaps best known for his screen appearances as Dr Alexander Isaacs/Tyrant in the Resident Evil film series and as Jorah Mormont in the hugely successful television series Game of Thrones.
He is also an accomplished stage actor and has played the titular roles in Shakespeare productions including Hamlet, Macbeth and Henry V.
He received three Laurence Olivier award nominations for his performances in the musical Martin Guerre, the West End production of The Blue Room and the 2006 West End revival of The Crucible, in which he portrayed John Proctor.
He is a keen cricketer and has played for the Actors XI.
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