Issue 61 of The Peckham Peculiar

SMALL TALK

PLEX APPEAL

ALLISON’S AIM

Meet the founders of Small Beer

Thirty years of Peckhamplex

Increasing diversity in children’s books

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Page 12

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A free newspaper for Peckham and Nunhead

Issue 61 November/December 2024

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Twin Brothers’ healing hub

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NEWS

DEAR READER, WELCOME TO ISSUE 61 OF THE PECKHAM PECULIAR, A FREE NEWSPAPER FOR PECKHAM AND NUNHEAD. The front page of this edition features the people behind local companies Royal Maroon Herbs, Small Beer Brew Co and Peckhamplex. The much-loved cinema is celebrating 30 years in Peckham, which is some achievement!

The cover also features Allison Parkinson, who is leading several local school events as part of the inaugural SE London BookFest.

This issue is dedicated to the wonderful Wendy Rother, a true local hero, who recently

passed away. Wendy was born and brought up just off Lavender Hill in Battersea, and moved to Astbury Road in Peckham in 1973.

She and her husband, Bill, have lived on the street ever since.

Wendy founded the Astbury Road Area Residents Association in 1995, which fostered a close-knit sense of community in her corner of Peckham.

She worked tirelessly to help her neighbours resolve all sorts of issues, from

a housing association tenant with a leaking roof that wasn’t fixed, to a man with problem builders who left his council house in a mess.

She produced a newsletter for her area, delivered Christmas presents and cards to elderly people and disadvantaged residents, held an annual garden competition with prizes, and organised community street parties and get-togethers for neighbours to meet.

Our thoughts are with Bill and the rest of her loving family. We will all miss you, Wendy.

The next edition of the Peckham Peculiar will be published in late February and will be available for two months. If you are a business or organisation that is interested in advertising in the paper, please email peckhampeculiar@gmail.com to find out more.

Finally, on behalf of the whole team at the Peculiar, we wish all our readers a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. See you in 2025!

Mark McGinlay and Kate White

Leaseholder residents from the Consort Estate in Peckham have raised serious concerns about the high cost of proposed major works, writes Luke G Williams.

On 5 September, leaseholders received letters from Southwark Council setting out a notice of intention to carry out major works under section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. As part of the consultation process, leaseholders had 30 days to provide their observations to the council.

Eighty-four leasehold properties affected were given estimates of between £16,000 and £49,000 each for the proposed two-year works programme – bills that would be in addition to their existing annual service charges. The level of charges varies depending on the estimated cost of works for each block and the size of each property involved.

Leaseholders have been informed that they will be able to pay for the works using a four-year payment plan, but because of the large sums involved, many fear they will have to remortgage or take out a variable-rate interest loan to cover the costs.

Residents have argued that it is in the council’s interests to thoroughly review the costing of the works, which have primarily been based on surveys carried out by the appointed contractor, A&E Elkins. The council is footing the bill for works on non-leasehold properties on the estate.

Leaseholders have identified several issues with the works. They argue that the costs involved are prohibitively expensive, and will exacerbate financial hardship for residents, particularly given that leaseholders have already been dealing with the fall-out from increased heating and hot water costs on the estate as a result of a controversial communal boiler system.

They say the works will have no material effect on the value of properties and that the nature and cost of the works proposed by the contractor have not been subjected to due diligence or adequate scrutiny by the council.

PHOTO BY ORLANDO GILI

Consort concerns

Hannah Swirsky (pictured), of the Consort Estate Tenants and Residents Association, told the Peckham Peculiar: “It’s clear to us that Southwark Council has totally failed to conduct due diligence of contractor costs, for which the council itself will have to pay the majority.

“As residents we have found countless examples of excessive and unreasonable work. My partner, who has no experience or expertise in this area, spent his day off examining the budget and noticed £28,000 for 10 mobile phones. The council then attempted to justify this to me in person before finally reducing the amount. If we

hadn’t raised it then it wouldn’t have been reduced.

“If the major works go ahead as proposed, this will have an extreme financial impact on leaseholders. As one example, a local teacher who owns a one-bed [flat] has received a provisional bill for £30,000. If it wasn’t down to us as residents coming together to examine and dispute these costs, there would have been zero scrutiny.”

Representatives from the tenants and residents association met with the local MP and energy minister, Miatta Fahnbulleh, to ask her to urgently intervene.

The Peckham MP said she understood the “huge stress” that the process was putting on residents and said she had asked the council for a full breakdown of the costs involved and an extended consultation period.

The council said the figures provided to leaseholders were estimates and has promised to look into residents’ concerns.

However, as the Peculiar went to press, it was understood that leaseholders had not received any response to their observations, and with works expected to begin in November, they feared that their concerns had not been addressed.

THE PECKHAM PECULIAR Editors Mark McGinlay, Kate White | Production Tammy Kerr | Photographers Lima Charlie, Julia Hawkins Subeditor Jack Aston | Features editor Luke G Williams Marketing and social media Mark McGinlay For editorial and advertising enquiries, please email peckhampeculiar@gmail.com peckhampeculiar.tumblr.com | @peckhampeculiar | @peckhampeculiar | @peckhampeculiar

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2024

THE PECKHAM PECULIAR / 3

NEWS

Marianne’s movie magic The actor Marianne Jean-Baptiste, who was born in Camberwell and grew up in Peckham, and the director Mike Leigh have reunited after almost 30 years.

Their new film, Hard Truths, premiered at the Toronto film festival in September. It has also been shown at the San Sebastián and New York film festivals.

Hard Truths had its British premiere at the London film festival last month and will be officially released in the UK in January.

Leigh and Jean-Baptiste previously worked together on the 1996 movie Secrets & Lies. The film received five Oscar nominations, including best director for Leigh and best supporting actress for Jean-Baptiste.

No British-born black actor had been nominated for an Oscar before (Jaye Davidson was nominated for best supporting actor for The Crying Game in 1992, but though he was raised in Hertfordshire, he was born in California).

“I don’t remember a lot of what happened that night,” Jean-Baptiste told the Guardian in 2015.

“You’re sat there, four rows from the front, Céline Dion is belting out a song louder than a f***ing trumpet, Goldie Hawn comes up to you and tells you she loves your work. You’re like, what work?

D’you know what I mean? And there’s Anjelica Huston and you’re just going, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!” Hard Truths centres on Pansy, a woman who seems constantly angry at the world and regularly gets into scrapes with everyone from shop

assistants to her dentist. The film follows Pansy as she navigates various everyday situations, with her attitude to life having a detrimental impact on her husband, son and sister, who love her but can only handle so much. On Mother’s Day, things come to a head as her family gathers together to mark the occasion.

Jonathan Romney, a film critic for Screen Daily, wrote in his review of the film: “No doubt there will be some debate over Leigh’s qualifications to portray this particular milieu, a middle-class and upper working-class sector of London’s AfroCaribbean community. But bearing in mind his famous collaborative working methods, it is clear

just how much the cast have contributed to the film’s cultural detail.

“While the dramatic premise is hardly specific to a black environment, the references and linguistic patterns feel bang-on – notably Pansy’s shifting between cockney and Caribbean inflections.”

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NEWS

Andre’s art BuildHollywood’s pocket sculpture garden in Camberwell has been transformed with its latest public artwork, a vibrant and bold intervention by the artist Andre Williams.

Williams’ commissioned 3D piece exemplifies his distinctive style, featuring striking typography, bright colour and enchanting graphic renderings of subjects ranging from everyday items to fantastical creatures.

The artist is part of the Peckham-based collective Intoart, an evolving alternative art school and pioneering studio programme that is committed to equity, visibility and social justice. It is led by the creative ambition of supporting disabled and autistic people to be artists and designers.

Let It Be Me is the first large-scale public sculpture by Williams, building on an established series of text-based artworks including Hard Labour, It’s a Disaster and Change Your Mind.

During his first site visit for the commission, Williams read out phrases, hearing them out loud and imagining their impact on people encountering the plinth for the first time. “Let it be me” and “what dreams may come” were the final two phrases that made it to maquette stage.

Choosing the more grounded “let it be me”, Williams explained: “I wanted to put myself on the plinth to be seen 24/7 on Camberwell New Road, as people walk by or look out from the number 36 bus. Let It Be Me is a happy place, to be excited by words, lettering and drawing and to share a joke.”

Williams reaches out to shake the hand of passersby, inviting them into a revelatory space alive with visual and textual associations that reverberate along Camberwell New Road and into the Brandon Estate.

Curated by Sarah Staton, the head of sculpture at the Royal College of Art and co-lead of the Spatial Value research group, the sculpture launch is the latest instalment of BuildHollywood’s continuing Your Space or Mine initiative, giving artists and creatives a unique platform for artistic interventions on the street. Williams’ work will be on display in Camberwell until autumn 2025.

The sculpture is accompanied by a series of colourful billboards installed across the borough of Southwark, extending the artist’s work into other local communities.

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NEWS

Aylesham campaign continues Campaigners are continuing their battle to oppose the plan by Berkeley Homes to redevelop the Aylesham Centre in Peckham.

The proposals include about 878 homes, as well as shops, restaurants and public spaces across 13 buildings of up to 20 storeys in height.

Berkeley is aiming for work on the first stage to begin in 2025 and be completed by 2029.

In its design vision statement for the site, Berkeley said the plan would deliver a “stepchange in architectural quality and compliments the unique identity and character of the town centre”. It added: “The introduction of new quality homes and jobs for Peckham will ensure that a long-term sustainable future for the community is achieved.”

However, local activists from Aylesham Community Action (ACA) have reiterated their opposition to the plans. The group’s Chris Allchin told the Peckham Peculiar: “Berkeley Homes is basically trying to build over 600 luxury flats above Peckham town centre. They admitted in public that many will become second homes.

“In return Peckham will get about 180 homes for social rent, and the developer is already complaining even this amount is not viable.

“The council’s target is for 50% of homes built to be affordable – building on a car park in a great location with a guaranteed tenant in Morrisons should be achieving this. We also think the lack of larger family homes and the excess of studios is in breach of council policy.

“What is still missing from what is the third or fourth set of plans for the site is some gen-

’Tis the season Theatre Peckham has announced the cast for the premiere of Pan! Peter’s Come Out To Play, a new Christmas show for 2024 conceived by the actor and writer Geoff Aymer and Suzann McLean, the artistic director and CEO of Theatre Peckham.

Based on JM Barrie’s character Peter Pan, this new contemporary retelling, which will run from 6-23 December, sets the much-loved children’s story to original music by the composer Jordan Xavier, with new lyrics by Aymer.

At the heart of Pan! lies Peter’s refusal to grow up, driven by the memories of his life in Peckham. The tropical Neverland becomes a symbol of freedom and escape for Peter and his lost boys, where they can revel in the joy of music and dance while avoiding the pressures of adulthood.

Meanwhile, Joy Productions has announced the return of its celebrated panto partnership with the Broadway Theatre, the Grade-II-listed art deco venue just a few train stops away in Catford. It has unveiled the principal cast and creative team for this year’s much-anticipated pantomime, Sleeping Beauty.

Building on the success of Jack and the Beanstalk, its inaugural 2023 show, this new, spellbinding production for all ages will be written and directed by the acclaimed panto legend Susie McKenna.

This year’s modern remix, a gothic fairytale with a 21st-century twist, will transport audiences to the magical kingdoms of Lewishtonia and Westminsteria.

Once at war, both places have now reached an uneasy peace. Our story follows Tahlia, the warrior princess of Lewishtonia, as she turns 18, discovers her true identity, faces the curse that the wicked Carabosse placed on her as an infant and confronts her true destiny. Along the way she meets an array of raucous, slapstick characters.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2024

Returning this year are some Broadway Theatre favourites: Wayne Rollins (Beauty and the Beast, Selladoor) as Denzil the Dragon, Durone Stokes (A Face in the Crowd, Young Vic; Dream Girls, West End) as Prince Gabriel and Ben Fox as King Eric the Undecided.

Infused with McKenna’s signature knockabout comedy style, colourful characters and political wit, Sleeping Beauty promises to resonate deeply with today’s audiences, breathing new relevance into this well-known story.

The production will blend familiar tracks with dynamic original music to carry the audience on a journey through musical favourites, old and new, all the while championing a message of inclusivity and unity over division.

McKenna said: “It’s so wonderful to be returning to Broadway Theatre with so many of last year’s cast and creative team alongside our amazing new additions to the family.

I’m looking forward to celebrating Lewisham again and all it has to offer, including the diverse audience who are always up for a party.”

erosity and connection to the rest of Peckham.

The public space is basically access routes with trees, there is no meeting place like the arcade provides today, and no health, youth or elderly services are included. People really support this site being developed, but want it to actually help with the housing crisis and make living in Peckham better.”

Eileen Conn of Peckham Vision added: “The historic heart of Peckham is under enormous threat from these plans. The Aylesham site is so central and so large that its development in the proposed way will change Peckham as a place and profoundly affect the lives of the Peckham community and economy for decades to come.

“Into the low-rise historic environment Berkeley Homes propose to insert a massive new neighbourhood formed of buildings ranging from five to 20 storeys, rising up like a citadel that is out of scale with its surroundings and harmful to Peckham’s character.”

She urged residents who oppose the proposals to continue to make their voices heard. “It’s vital that many local people give their views on the plans, and if they think that they don’t benefit Peckham, give their objections,” she said.

“Getting comments to the council is the way to show widespread community rejection of this particular plan.”

ACA is holding public meetings at Peckham Levels, 95a Rye Lane, on 14 November and 11 December. Doors will open at 6.30pm for conversation, before the meetings at 7-8pm

A month of books The SE London BookFest is now firmly under way and will continue until 1 December.

Extra free tickets have recently been released for two events at St Giles’ Church in Camberwell, with local writer Mark Baxter, and Emma Barnett and her husband, Jeremy Weil (pictured).

Two new events have been added to the programme, too – with the authors Susan Allott and Helen Lederer both giving talks on their books at Canada Water Library on the last day of the festival.

Other venues taking part include bookshops such as Review in Peckham, Rye Books and Chener Books in East Dulwich, and Morocco Bound in London Bridge.

The festival founder, Mark McGinlay, said: “We’ve now sold in excess of 2,000 tickets but still have limited free places available for some events, par-

ticularly over the last weekend of the festival. And so far we’ve raised around £1,300 for Southwark Foodbank in donations, which is a real bonus.

“Also, we did lose a sponsor at the last minute, so we’re still looking for a bit of backing to break even.”

To book your free tickets, go to tiny.cc/seltickets or to contact the organisers, please email selbookfest@gmail.com THE PECKHAM PECULIAR / 7

PECKHAM PEOPLE

Medicine man

ROYAL MAROON HERBS IS A HUB FOR NATURAL HEALING – AND A TRULY SPECIAL SHOP. Owner Twin Brothers tells us how he grew up immersed in holistic health and herbal wisdom in Jamaica – and how he uses his knowledge to heal the people of Peckham WORDS AND PHOTO JULIA HAWKINS

In a peaceful corner of Rye Lane indoor market, Royal Maroon Herbs is a sanctuary for natural healing, offering relief for everything from flu and skin conditions to lack of libido and low energy.

Stepping inside the shop, I’m blown away by the wall-to-wall medicinal plants, tinctures and seeds, all with the most enchanting names – from bladderwrack powder to black soursop leaves to sea moss. There is even a powder called lion’s mane – an “all round cognitive enhancer”. I make a mental note to try it.

But I’m not here to shop, tempted as I am.

On this rainy October morning I’m talking to the store’s owner, Twin Brothers, who opened the shop here eight years ago and swiftly became a stalwart of the community.

I want to find out about his mission to heal the people of Peckham. But first, I need to clear up the mystery of Twin’s name.

“Ah, you see the store is run by me and my identical twin brother,” Twin says. “We are both called Twin Brothers! In Jamaica, people often call you by different names to the ones that are on your passport, so that’s what my mother called both of us, and it stuck.

“My twin works alongside me. People do get confused sometimes as it can be hard to tell us apart, but it works for us. We have a very special relationship.”

I ask Twin what his formative years were like.

“I was born in Nottingham in 1959, but three years later my parents took us on the cargo ship Begona back to Jamaica. Why? Because it’s paradise there! My father, all 6 foot 3 inches of him, was a coal miner in England. Times were hard. They knew life would be richer in Jamaica.

“My brothers and sisters and I grew up right next to the Rio Grande, one of the biggest rivers in Jamaica, in between the Blue Mountains and the John Crow Mountains.”

The name of the business is deeply significant.

The Maroons, Twin explains, were the freedom fighters who escaped enslavement and set up autonomous communities in Jamaica’s mountains and rainforest. They had nothing, but used seeds and plants to grow food and medicine.

After fighting the British army for 80 years, the freedom fighters, led by the legendary Queen Nanny, eventually secured a treaty in 1740.

It’s a history that is described by Twin as his royal heritage – and the Maroons’ holistic use of herbs and plants, passed down through generations, has directly informed his own extensive knowledge of natural products, which he uses to help heal people today.

“We lived a very natural life,” Twin says of his years in Jamaica. “We relied on natural healing and herbal wisdom, handed down to us by our ancestors and the elders of our community. The 8 / THE PECKHAM PECULIAR

nearest hospital was 12 miles away but we never needed it. We just used what was around us: what you can touch, hear, feel and smell.”

Twin’s journey from the Jamaican mountains to Peckham took him first to the United States in 1979, where he lived for two decades and ran one of Washington DC’s largest black-owned health shops.

However, when Twin came back to England some 25 years ago, natural remedies were still not mainstream in the UK and there was little appetite for a holistic approach. Instead he focused on exporting fresh produce from Jamaica: mangoes, yams, sugarcane and the like. Then, herbs started to catch on.

“I was selling my produce in the market in Nottingham six or seven days a week back then,” he says. “Then I started selling at Vauxhall market too. I decided to try to introduce herbs to people, little by little – and they started selling. I ended up selling more herbs than fruit.

“I kept building things up slowly. I started doing social media, and more people started to find out about us. We’re now on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.” Watching some of Twin’s TikTok videos, it is no surprise that they are popular – his energy and humour effortlessly cut through the online noise.

It’s clear that as the world has changed, Twin has adapted to it, and is now riding the wave

of huge increased interest in natural foods and remedies that has arisen over the past decade or so.

Royal Maroon Herbs’ current bestseller is sea moss, an algae containing 92 of the 102 trace minerals found in the human body. “You could add it to anything,” says Twin. “To your skin, to your hair, to whatever you like.”

But while the shop has attracted legions of loyal customers over the years, Twin is far more than a canny businessman. He’s on a mission to mobilise the community.

“The problem is, in our modern world we spend all the time focusing on what happens outside of the body,” he says. “But we have no sense of what is going on inside. To me that’s suicidal.

“Look at what fast food is doing to us. If you look at maps of where fast food is available, you see such a strong correlation with diabetes, high blood pressure, prostate problems, cancer... the list goes on.

“What prime minister is going to change that?

Which mosque or church is going to change that? We have to change ourselves!

“I never charge anyone to have consultations with me. Maybe there’ll be a time when I have to start doing so, but I hope not. I’m not that greedy. I only eat one plate of food a day. I discipline myself.

“If you want to change a community you have to take care of the sick first. You can’t just feed rubbish to them.

“We should feast together, we should cry together, we should hug together. That’s what community is all about and that’s what I’m here for.”

There is so much passion in Twin’s voice – it is evident he dreams big. “My vision is to put holistic health education into the national curriculum,” he says. “So when children finish school they understand all about their joints, their organs, and what their main functions are.

“If you don’t know how a device works, how are you going to be able to use it properly? It’s the same thing with the organs of our body. I want to bring that understanding to the four corners of the world.”

It’s a slow walk from Twin’s office back to the store, as he greets his fellow stallholders setting up for the day. He even bumps into one of his mentees, a woman who gives Twin a huge hug and then gushes to me about how much she has learned from him over the years.

As Peckham, and the rest of the world, continues to change around him, I have no doubt that Twin Brothers will be a passionate guardian of traditional knowledge for a long time to come. And that he will never forget his royal roots.

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FOOD AND DRINK

Small wonder

SMALL BEER TASTES JUST LIKE REGULAR BEER BUT WON’T GIVE YOU A HANGOVER. The trailblazing twosome behind Small Beer Brew Co tell us more WORDS LUKE G WILLIAMS

Fresh-faced, humorous and affable, James Grundy and Felix James are – at first glance – somewhat unlikely beer industry “disruptors”.

However, the impact that the enterprising Peckham and Catford residents have made since launching Small Beer Brew Co in 2017 has been undeniable.

Small beer is beer with an alcohol content of between 0.5% and 2.8%, and a drink whose roots extend back to the days of Chaucer and Shakespeare, when the untrustworthy and downright dangerous nature of most drinking water meant that small beer was the drink of choice in households and workplaces across the country, as well as in schools.

As the quality of sanitation and drinking water improved throughout the 19th century, small beer gradually became a thing of the past – until James and Felix, who have a combined 34 years of experience in the drinks industry and met when they were working for Sipsmith gin distillery, teamed up to resurrect the concept.

The benefits of small beer are succinctly and persuasively summarised by Felix. “The reason that 2.8% is the upper alcohol limit for small beer and always has been is because it is the human diuretic limit,” he explains.

“If you drink above 2.8% you are dehydrating as you drink, and if you drink below 2.8% you’re hydrating as you drink. In fact, you’re actually hydrating better than if you were drinking water, because beer is isotonic.

“So if you drink our small beer, you can enjoy your evening and the next day, you wake up with no hangover, you can remember the conversations you’ve had and you haven’t made a fool of yourself!”

Small Beer Brew Co was partly born out of James’ and Felix’s own life experiences. James says: “Having both reached a certain age and having young families and busy work schedules, we were at a stage in our lives where we still wanted to find the time to drink great beer without the fallout, and hangovers, you get from a high [alcohol] beer. But there was nothing out there – the options at the time were 0%, 5% continental beers or the far stronger American craft-inspired beers.”

Despite the clear gap in the market, Felix agrees that launching Small Beer Brew Co was a considerable risk. “We knew the huge potential of the idea, but there were good reasons why no other brewers had done this before,” he says.

“It’s technically very tough to get small beer tasting like the premium 4% or 5% beers we know and love. There are more non-alcoholic beers out there now than when we began, and they’ve been gradually improving, but they still don’t quite taste like the real thing.”

Small Beer Brew Co beer, however, as this writer can happily attest – having manfully cracked open a can or two during the writing of this article – does indeed taste like the “real thing”.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2024

So how did James and Felix do it? “Felix designed this incredible kit for the production of mid-strength beer,” James says. “When we took it to the people we wanted to build it for us, people who had built for all the major breweries, they said they had never seen anything like it before. They said: ‘You won’t be able to brew beer with this.’ We replied: ‘You’re right, we won’t be able to brew big beer, but we will be able to brew the best small beer anyone has ever tasted.’”

A bit like an old married couple who endearingly finish each other’s sentences, Felix seamlessly interjects to continue the story. “We use the same production method as if we were going to brew a big beer. We don’t remove any alcohol, we don’t add anything unnecessarily – we’re very distinct from non-alcoholic beers in that respect, which is why our beer still tastes like beer. It’s tricky to get a beer that is full bodied and gives the full experience you get when you drink a great beer with the usual alcohol content.”

Since they began trading, the Small Beer Brew Co empire has expanded rapidly, overcoming the scepticism of the industry as well as the challenges of Brexit and Covid along the way.

The company’s HQ on Verney Road, south Bermondsey, doubles up as a popular tap room, with tables and benches for patrons placed against the arresting backdrop of striking, silver brewing tanks. As well as doing a roaring trade in small beer and snacks, the tap room hosts a dizzying array of special events – from private functions to live music.

The beer they brew in Bermondsey can be found in Waitrose and Majestic, on the virtual shelves of Ocado and in a host of independents.

Small Beer Brew Co has even reached the east coast of the United States, where its beers can be found in the mega-chain Whole Foods. “We’re unique not only in the UK but also globally,” Felix says. “There isn’t another brewery in the world that just specialises in mid-strength beer.”

Despite their increasingly global profile, however, Small Beer Brew Co remains firmly

rooted in the local community. “You’ll find us available locally, in the butchers and the greengrocers and delis and in many of the great spots along Bellenden Road,” says Peckham resident James. “We also work closely with Dulwich Hamlet football club, where I love to take my daughters. We’re frequently in and around Peckham flying the flag for small beer.”

Sustainability is also a huge part of the Small Beer Brew Co story, with the brewery the first in London to have been awarded B Corp certification in recognition of its high level of social and environmental performance. It is also the first to operate a dry floor policy, saving millions of litres of water.

“We’ve both got strong ethics and beliefs in that area,” Felix says. “We’ve both had experience of observing the huge waste that exists in the drinks industry, particularly of water. What allows us to sleep well at night is that we’re doing far better in the area of sustainability than our competitors.”

James adds: “We hope we are inspiring others and can be a beacon for others in our industry.

Traditionally, creating a pint of beer can take eight to 10 pints of water, which is insane, but that’s how it’s always been done. We’ve managed to reduce our water usage to 1.3 pints per pint of beer and the industry average has come down to between five and six, partly we like to think because we’ve been banging the drum for positive change.”

As well as having saved 6.5 million litres of water, Small Beer Brew Co is run using renewable energy sources, and all its products use fully recycled or recyclable packaging.

Given all they have achieved, the final question I have for James and Felix is when do they get to sleep? “That’s a good question,” James smiles ruefully, before turning to Felix, who quips: “The quality of our sleep is very good though. Small beer really does help with that!”

THE PECKHAM PECULIAR / 11

PECKHAM IN PICTURES

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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2024

PECKHAM IN PICTURES

Picture perfect WORDS JACK ASTON

Peckhamplex – the much-loved multiplex on Rye Lane – celebrated its 30th birthday in September with a special anniversary party.

The cinema boasts six screens that show a hugely varied array of films across mainstream, independent, foreign language and arthouse genres.

While Peckhamplex has a loyal local audience, increasingly people come from across London to watch films at the venue, attracted by its affordable tickets: £5.99 all day, every day.

The programme includes screenings for the hearing-impaired, autism-friendly events and showings for parents and babies.

In 2016 Peckhamplex was awarded a Southwark Civic Award, the first time it was ever presented to an institution rather than an individual.

John Reiss, the chairman of Peckhamplex, said: “I am thrilled to be celebrating the 30th anniversary of Peckhamplex alongside our thousands of customers and our wonderful team.”

As part of the celebrations, the cinema has been screening films it showed 30 years ago, including Forrest Gump, Speed and the 1992 film Reservoir Dogs.

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THE PECKHAM PECULIAR / 13

PECKHAM IN PICTURES

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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2024

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BOOKS

When life gives you lemons...

WE MEET LOCAL COMEDIAN HELEN LEDERER, WHO WILL discuss her memoir, Not That I’m Bitter, at the SE London BookFest WORDS LAWRENCE DIAMOND

I am sitting opposite the writer, actor, comedian and self-confessed wine enthusiast Helen Lederer at 9.30am on a cold autumn morning.

Despite the unsociable hour – too early for either of us to contemplate reaching for the corkscrew – and the seasonal chill in the air, it is clear from minute one that Helen is going to be warm and friendly company.

She is a great conversationalist and is honest, insightful, funny and engaging. So it is no surprise that her new book, Not That I’m Bitter – a 288-page memoir that was published earlier this year – has received rave reviews from critics and comedians alike.

Ben Elton wrote: “Helen’s book is funny, wise, brilliant and brave, just like its author. A fascinating trip through the life and times of one of the early (and not sufficiently recognised) heroes of alternative comedy.”

Helen was born in Wales to an English mother and a Czech father and was raised in Eltham, south-east London. She became a social worker before studying drama and venturing into standup comedy, and was one of the rising stars of the alternative British comedy scene in the mid-1980s.

She established a standup act at the legendary Comedy Store in Soho and appeared in minor parts in The Young Ones, which had been written by her Comedy Store contemporaries Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer. A recurring role as Catriona in the BBC’s seminal sitcom Absolutely Fabulous came in the early 1990s.

Today, Helen is a respected author and comedy writer for the stage and television, as well as the founder of the Comedy Women in Print prize.

But right now she is on the road promoting Not That I’m Bitter at literary festivals around Britain – and will be giving a talk at our own SE London BookFest in December. How does the literary festival scene today compare with the London comedy club circuit of 40 years ago?

“I remember when I was doing a tour of a onewoman show, and I remember the roadie who would put a bottle of wine in the car with some cheese nuts,” Helen says. “That was how I got through that tour. But with literary festivals, it’s a very different vibe. It’s slightly more civilised.”

The book covers Helen’s early days on stage with future household names of British comedy, including Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French and others. It also discusses her struggle with the feeling that the success of her contemporaries didn’t quite reach her, and how she went on to establish a successful career of her own as a renowned comedy writer.

The book is part self-help guide, part social history; a handbook on how to be (or not to be) a world-famous comedian, and perhaps most importantly, as Lumley put it, a “wildly entertaining” read.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2024

“I thought there was a law that said anything you wrote in a memoir had to be the truth,” Helen says. “So it’s all truthful, and because I am a heart-on-sleeve person, I didn’t know how to do it and leave bits out.

“The biggest thing for me was to make the narrative funny. The joy I’ve received is that people have actually laughed when they read it.

That was just music to my ears.”

What else is clear from reading the book is how the world of comedy has changed for the better. I ask Helen if, back in the 80s, she was aware that, as a female comedian, she was breaking boundaries – and whether she feels any sense of bitterness about the difficulties of forging a career in what was then a very maledominated industry.

“You know, I’m not the sort of person to look at it like that, but I also don’t think we questioned things in the way that things are questioned now,” she reflects. “The behaviour of men and women in those times seems shocking to someone reading the book now, whereas for me that was just normal.

“And yeah, it was the first wave of feminism, certainly, but you only react to your immediate social environment, because you cannot anticipate how it’s going to be in the future. So I don’t remember feeling it would change or [that] it was changing.

“I do remember some other feminists decided I was vulnerable because I would do anecdotal stuff, and that p***ed me off because I’m not vulnerable. I get myself to the gig, I write my material. You know, there ain’t anything vulnerable about my job. But comedy has different styles and you’re never going to make everyone happy.”

The book looks at how comedians can deal with the unique stresses, strains and joys of the job – and as such, it has proved popular with others in the industry.

Helen says: “Robin Ince confessed that he just loved it, reading it as a fellow comedian, because it helped him understand the kind of psychological stuff that one goes through before gigs or that whole thing about comparing yourself with other people, which we all do. And that in the end you have to go: ‘Well, they’re not me.’”

One of Helen’s other achievements is launching the renowned Comedy Women in Print (CWIP) prize, described as “the UK and Ireland’s first comedy literary prize dedicated to celebrating witty women’s writing”. The event has previously been partnered by the likes of the i newspaper and HarperCollins.

I ask Helen what it’s like taking on a different sort of role in the industry she knows so well.

“You become a different kind of person,”

she says. “You need to raise funds and host meetings, but the achievement is great. If you look at the testimonials on our website, there are at least 30 women authors who have become career writers who wouldn’t have done if they hadn’t been longlisted for CWIP. They got agents and what have you directly because of it.”

Helen’s debut novel, Losing It, is set in East Dulwich and was inspired by the erstwhile Lordship Lane wine bar House of Tippler. It is proof that south-east London, which she has now called home for many years, has had an impact on her creative life. However, it seems it’s the peace and quiet that makes it her ideal location in which to work.

“I hate noise when I’m writing, so I have a room at the house where I’ve got a big window and it’s just somewhere I can shut the door and completely focus,” she says.

That her next book festival appearance is here in south-east London also raises a smile. “I don’t know if I have any local fans, but we’ll have a laugh,” she says. “Hopefully they’ll like the book and ask me some questions. And if they don’t, then I’ll ask myself the questions and I’ll just keep cracking on.”

Helen Lederer will appear at the SE London BookFest on 1 December. To book, visit tiny.cc/ seltickets THE PECKHAM PECULIAR / 17

BOOKS

A book for everyone ALLISON PARKINSON PUBLISHED HER FIRST CHILDREN’S BOOK IN 2019 IN AN ATTEMPT TO ADDRESS THE LACK OF DIVERSITY IN CHILDREN’S LITERATURE. The news reporter turned author and illustrator, who will be hosting events at local schools this month as part of the SE London BookFest, tells us more about her work AS TOLD TO MIRANDA KNOX

The main character of Laurella Swift and the Keys of Time, my children’s book that was published three years ago, is very close to my heart, because she is based on my two daughters.

I was inspired to start writing stories when they were younger because we found it so hard to find books with a mixed-race central character that looked like them – especially in chapter books.

Laurella is a 10-year-old mixed-race schoolgirl from Catford, and the idea to write the book first popped into my head about nine years ago.

My daughters had always loved World Book Day, and their primary school would always encourage them to come to school dressed as their favourite book character, which they really enjoyed.

One particular year, we were trying to think of a book where the main character looked like them – and we couldn’t think of any.

Suddenly the penny dropped. It dawned on me how mad that was, considering how diverse the UK is now. It got me thinking: if you can’t see yourself reflected in the characters in children’s books or on TV, how can you feel you’re part of the story?

I felt that something needed to be done, so I decided to write my own story for my daughters, so at least they would have something that was about them.

It was just for them initially. Then friends started saying I should look into getting it published, and I started researching how many books there were out there that represented society in all different ways.

Every year, an organisation called the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education produces a Reflecting Realities report. In its inaugural report in 2017, out of all the children’s books that were published in the UK, it found that just 1% had an ethnic-minority main character – despite the fact that black, Asian and minority-ethnic children make up over 30% of the primary school population in England.

The report looking at books published in 2019 showed that there were more than 6,000 children’s books published in the UK that year, and out of that number, 5% featured a main character from an ethnic minority. So things are improving and there have been some lovely 18 / THE PECKHAM PECULIAR

books published in recent years, but there’s still a long way to go.

There are now three Laurella stories in the series. In the books, Laurella makes an amazing discovery: she can travel through time and dimensions.

In the first story, Laurella’s mum picks up a rug from a charity shop for her bedroom, which was inspired by a rug that I found in a charity shop in Penge.

Threads from the rug transport Laurella back to the heart of ancient Persia, where she befriends a boy called Artafarnah and his pet lion cub, Zareen.

Artafarnah is the son of Pantea, one of Persia’s greatest female warriors, but he falls into the clutches of a murderous enemy, and only Laurella can save him.

By imagining how a modern girl would attempt to make sense of an ancient and opulent world, readers are invited to share Laurella’s emotions, consider issues such as gender equality, racial identity, friendship and mortality, and explore abstract concepts such as perpetual existence.

The second book, Laurella Swift and the Voyage of Discovery, takes Laurella back in time to New Zealand. This story idea was triggered by a beautiful seashell from New Zealand that I found in a charity shop in Catford.

In the third book, Laurella Swift and the Ocean of Mystery, which was published at the end

of 2022, a china pot transports Laurella to an ocean liner in 1930, where she befriends a young passenger called Elsie and the ship’s bell boy, Bintang. She soon finds herself at the centre of a new and dangerous adventure.

The sea is pivotal to my family history, with lots of us – including me – crossing seas to start new lives.

I have now lived in Catford for more than 20 years. The area feels like it still has its own character. It feels like it wants to keep that, and it features in the books, too – the Catford cat is referenced, and I’d love local young readers to see themselves as Laurella, or want her to be one of their schoolfriends.

I do all the illustrations for the books myself, and I’ve also published picture books: the Zarif the Tiger picture-book trilogy, which began with Tiger Tale, and Tick-Tock. Tick-Tock is a book to help children tell the time, and the illustrations are based on photos of my daughters when they were younger.

I’ve had some lovely comments from children.

One reader told her mum she loved the book because when she read it she pictured herself in the story. She saw herself and that made me feel it was all worthwhile.

I did a festival at Blythe Hill when I had just published the first Laurella story. A little girl who was mixed race came over with her mum. I was telling her about the book and you could see her eyes light up. It was just a wonderful feeling.

I hope I have written something that all children will be able to identify with and enjoy.

While writing children’s books is quite new to me, I’ve always written in some form in my professional career, first as a journalist and then later working for the cancer charity Marie Curie for over 15 years.

I was born in Jersey and my first job was working on the Jersey Evening Post. I then moved to London in 1990 when I was 25, and worked as a news reporter on the South London Press.

It was a real eye-opener – I had come from a tiny island that didn’t even have roundabouts to working in south London. You hit the ground running and I was thrown into the deep end working on so many big stories.

As soon as I joined, the borough I was covering was Lewisham, so that was my first taste of London. I’ve always had a soft spot for the area as a result.

Now I work as a freelance writer, and juggle running my own PR company, helping businesses and charities tell their stories, with writing and illustrating children’s books.

Writing books is a completely different ballgame however – I used to struggle to write a letter as I was used to writing short, concise sentences for the newspaper.

By basing many of my stories and illustrations on my daughters, I hope to do my small bit to help more children see themselves in stories.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2024

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BOOKS

What’s cooking?

MASTERCHEF GUEST JUDGE JIMI FAMUREWA WILL TALK ABOUT HIS BRILLIANT BOOK Settlers: Journeys Through the Food, Faith and Culture of Black African London at the SE London BookFest WORDS JUMOKÉ FASHOLA

Jimi Famurewa is a south Londoner through and through. Despite being born in Edgware and initially living in Wembley, where his family first settled when his mum came to the UK, his formative years were spent south of the river.

“I went to primary school in Plumstead and all my youthful childhood memories are of Deptford Market and Woolwich,” he says. “And now I literally live 20 minutes away from where we grew up and went to school.”

An award-winning journalist and podcaster, Jimi will no doubt be a familiar face to many.

The former chief restaurant critic at the Evening Standard, he is also a regular guest judge on the BBC’s MasterChef.

He has written for a whole host of other publications too, including the Guardian, GQ and Empire, interviewing film stars such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and fellow south-east Londoner John Boyega, bands such as Arctic Monkeys and sports stars including Andy Murray.

Refusing to be pigeonholed either as a journalist or a critic is something he feels strongly about. “I’ve done so many different forms of journalism throughout my career, and I still do to be honest, but it’s rare. You can’t be blind to the fact that you’re often the only person that looks like me from my background.

Representation matters. But things are kind of improving.

“I think back to the first filming I did for MasterChef, and broadcaster Amol Rajan [Radio 4’s Today programme presenter and University Challenge quizmaster] was there too. There are always people who have blazed a trail a little bit before you, and I think the battle is to always go in there and be yourself.”

Jimi’s early love of drama helped him overcome some of the challenges of appearing on a show such as MasterChef. “I always loved improv and that kind of slightly high-wire aspect of performing,” he says. “When I was in sixth form, we performed at the Edinburgh festival and I felt I thrived with those challenges. So to find myself all these years later in these situations where I’m sort of being asked to improvise, that background gave me the confidence to be able to articulate my thoughts swiftly.”

Jimi’s interest in food also began at a young age and was inspired by his west African roots.

“At home it was never just one meal,” he says.

“Food was such a huge part of how we lived, how we interacted, celebrated, soothed ourselves and welcomed people. It was all about food.”

The youngest of three brothers, he talks fondly of his mum, who would return home after working hard all day in her job at the Commonwealth Office. “Ah, my mum! I vividly remember she’d get in after work and my one task would be to get her slippers ready for her, so she could kick off her work shoes, get straight into her slippers and without breaking a stride, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2024

go straight to the kitchen to prepare food for us.

That was how I knew how important it was to her that she was cooking for us and that we were having fresh, homemade meals.”

Having said that, Jimi and his brothers were not averse to a takeaway treat from McDonald’s or KFC. “We were real latchkey kids, because Mum was at work. And particularly in the summer holidays, we were left to our own devices.”

It meant the three siblings gained a sense of independence early on, though there were some mishaps along the way. “My mother has got very funny stories about me trying to cook frozen burgers and frozen pizzas in the toaster and causing all manner of damage!” Jimi laughs.

Now a parent himself, he reflects on how different his approach to food is with his own children. “You go through that whole sort of rigid regimen of, OK, this is when their breakfast is and this is when dinner time is and we have to get lunch down, because you’re trying to introduce steady routines with sleep and stuff.

“But I just realised that I grew up very differently. There was not one set mealtime when you’d eat. There were little snacks around, always someone ready to fry something up. And

food was everywhere and everything. It was such a huge part of growing up.”

Though he was brought up surrounded by spicy Nigerian food, Jimi guffaws when asked how hot he goes. “Listen! There’s a growing body of video evidence of me sweating when people have served me hot dishes. I always maintain that I love heat but I don’t think it likes me as much as I like it! I love it so much that I’m on the verge of carrying a bottle of hot sauce with me everywhere!”

Jimi has always loved cookery shows. “I really got into TV cooking shows as a teenager, attempting little things like baking some fish in a little foil parcel. I remember watching Jamie Oliver and it was a huge moment in my life to see cooking presented on TV as something that was achievable and cool. I find it very surreal now, to have worked with Jamie as a judge on The Great Cookbook Challenge on Channel 4.

“Cooking-wise, I started trying things almost independent of my mum and my family’s obsession with Nigerian food. I kind of gravitated towards food that was influenced by European cooking. So that was my route into cooking.”

Jimi has always been fascinated by stories of the African diaspora in London and the UK

as a whole – particularly those of west Africans and Nigerians – which led him to write his book, Settlers: Journeys Through the Food, Faith and Culture of Black African London.

“It felt like a compulsion, like I had to write it,” he says. “I’ve always had an interest and curiosity in the culture that I was brought up with, and how that connects to the notion of being African as a whole, which in itself is problematic in some senses, because there’s huge divergence in one city in Africa, let alone across different countries.”

The book explores the joys, the triumphs and the tensions that exist within those communities.

He sees it as a way to join the dots when it comes to the varied experiences of the African diaspora in London.

“Throughout my life I’ve naturally gravitated to these tales, because they spoke to my own personal story. I just wanted to delve into it and explore it a little bit, and learn more about that fascinating part of history – the kind being talked about within those communities but which hadn’t really been written about.”

Jimi Famurewa will appear at the SE London BookFest on 23 November. To book, visit tiny.cc/ seltickets THE PECKHAM PECULIAR / 21

PECULIARITIES

Jollof spaghetti PECKHAM LOCALS JO AND JESS EDUN SHARE A RECIPE FROM their new book, The Flygerians Cookbook, which is out now back to our childhood and all the shared meals we had with our siblings.

INGREDIENTS Serves 2-3 fly people 1 tablespoon olive oil 250g dried spaghetti 3 tomatoes 3 red peppers 3 tablespoons tomato purée 2 onions (1 chopped and 1 cut in half for blending) 1 small scotch bonnet chilli (or to taste) 3 tablespoons vegetable oil 3 garlic cloves, crushed 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger 1 teaspoon paprika 1 tablespoon Jumbo chicken stock powder or Bouillon vegetable stock 1 teaspoon curry powder (mild, medium or hot) ½ teaspoon dried thyme ½ teaspoon dried basil (optional) Salt and freshly ground black pepper Chopped fresh parsley, to garnish (optional)

METHOD START WITH THE SPAGHETTI Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil and add the olive oil. Add the spaghetti and cook according to the packet instructions until it is al dente. Drain, reserving 150ml of pasta cooking water. Put the cooked spaghetti in a large bowl and set aside until needed.

MAKE SOME FLAVOUR Put the tomatoes, red pepper, tomato purée, the halved onion and the scotch bonnet in a food processor or blender and blend to a smooth texture.

Growing up, we used to ask our mum for spag bol – and this is what she produced. Rather than an Italian blend of flavours, the spaghetti we used to eat tasted like jollof.

With the surge of the internet, Nigerians born in the UK began to realise that most of our parents’ spaghetti tasted just like jollof.

And what was once a funny joke we used to laugh about has now become a staple dish cooked in our home. This recipe brings us

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LOOSEN IT UP Add the drained spaghetti to the pan along with the reserved pasta water, adding it gradually to loosen as needed. Gently turn and massage the spaghetti through the sauce, making sure the pasta is fully covered in your delicious jollof sauce. Season to taste with salt and pepper and garnish with parsley, if using.

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DOWN ONLYTOGERMANY (anagram) (6, 7) Social rejection (4) Fair, just (9) Change one’s mind repeatedly (4-4) Scandal, outrage (6) Depict (7) Bravery (7) Austria’s capital (6) Martin ____, US film director (8) Flat (9) Arrive (4) Doctor of childhood diseases (13)

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Tube-shaped pasta (10) Attack with a knife (4) Poorly (6) Stick out (8) Wheel cover (4) Bad-tempered (6) Painstaking (9) Strong ruler (9) Evaluation, appraisal (10) Slaughterhouse (8) State strongly (6) Set of clothes (6) European mountain range (4) Metal money (4)

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SOLUTION ACROSS: 6 Antony Gormley, 9 Snub, 10 Equitable, 11 Flip-flop, 13 Uproar, 15 Portray, 17 Heroism, 19 Vienna, 20 Scorsese, 22 Apartment, 23 Come, 24 Paediatrician. DOWN: 1 Cannelloni, 2 Stab, 3 Unwell, 4 Protrude, 5 Tyre, 7 Grumpy, 8 Laborious, 12 Potentate, 14 Assessment, 16 Abattoir, 18 Assert, 21 Outfit, 22 Alps, 23 Coin.

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CREATE THE BASE Heat the vegetable oil in a deep saucepan, and sauté the chopped onion, garlic and ginger for two to three minutes.

Pour in the blended mixture and season with the paprika, chicken or vegetable stock powder, curry powder, thyme, basil and salt to taste. Let it cook for a further three minutes over a low heat.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2024

20–24 NOV FSC & WOOLWICH CONTEMPORARY PRINT FAIR

Get your tickets now!

As lead sponsor for this year’s Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair, FSC will be bringing our ‘Creative for Good’ vision to the fair through the FSC Lounge. Our lounge is a specially curated space that includes exclusive DJs, live music, art works and special guest talks from community leaders & founders who are using creativity to make social impact.

Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair is the leading international art fair for original contemporary print, with a unique alternative model that is disrupting the traditional art market, and revolutionising the art fair to make art more accessible for everyone.

FSC is a Peckham based Creative Agency partnering with some of the biggest brands in the world to deliver global marketing campaigns and transformational consultancy – and then investing the profits directly into charities and community initiatives that drive prosperity and social cohesion. futurestrategy.club

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2024