Putting together this issue has once again taken us to all corners of Camberwell, meeting lots of interesting and inspiring local residents and businesses along the way.
Anyone who frequents the Saturday market on Camberwell Green will doubtless be familiar with Breadwinners, a charity that has a regular stall at the market selling fresh bread and pastries.
The charity does fantastic work helping refugees and asylum seekers access training and employment opportunities and has worked with more than 270 people since it was founded. Read the full story on page 16.
We also chatted to Camberwell resident Catherine Hinwood, who received an OBE this year for her tireless work during the pandemic, which saw her help to secure more than £50 million-worth of funding per annum for domestic abuse and sexual violence services while working at the Ministry of Justice. Read our interview on page 13.
Also featured inside is a look at the life of celebrated Camberwell College of Arts alumnus Uzo Egonu. The Nigerian-born artist fused diverse elements from abstract art, caricature and photorealism to pop art and
cubism in his brilliant and bold works of art. Read all about him on page 14.
Florence Welch, the charismatic frontwoman of Florence + the Machine, famously grew up in Camberwell and has frequently referenced the area – including her favourite local pub the Joiners Arms – in her lyrics. Discover more on page eight.
We will soon be starting work on the next edition of the Camberwell Clarion, which is set to be published in April.
If you run a business or organisation or have an event you’d like to share with local people – and are interested in advertising it in our next issue – please get in touch via camberwellclarion@gmail.com to find out how we can promote what you do across Camberwell, Peckham, south-east London and beyond, both in print and online.
And if you have a story idea with a Camberwell connection – or if there is someone you would like to see featured on our pages – please get in touch at the same address. We are always looking for editorial ideas and would love to hear from you. Thanks for reading and we hope you enjoy the issue!
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Camberwell residents have responded in their droves to a wide-ranging public consultation established online by Southwark Council in order to elicit views and concerns on issues related to traffic, walking and cycling in the “North Camberwell Triangle”.
The council defines the triangle as the area between John Ruskin Street, Camberwell Road and Camberwell New Road.
“We think this area has some particular issues with traffic,” the council said when explaining the rationale behind the consultation.
“Lots of motor vehicles travelling from outside the area – ‘through-traffic’ – pass across it, creating unsafe walking and cycling environments for local people. This also contributes to air quality which can impact local people’s health.
“The latest census shows that only around 30% of households in the area actually have access to a car or van. So we are keen to look at ideas that will benefit the health and wellbeing of the majority of local residents.
“There is a high number of road collisions in the area, particularly involving young people, so creating a safer environment is a key priority.
The consultation period began in January and was set to end on 19 February. At the time of writing more than 1,000 responses had been registered via the Commonplace citizen engagement platform website.
The council also hosted an engagement event for the consultation outside the Camberwell Islamic Centre on Camberwell Road and has promised that once it has a “clearer picture of local people’s experiences” it will bring forward proposals for locals to consider.
Between March and June, the council will work on developing proposals based on the feedback it has received. The plans it develops are then expected to be presented to local residents for further consultation and comments from July until September.
Local resident and former SE5 Forum vicechair and board member Will Reeves, who has a wealth of knowledge concerning local transport and environmental issues, told the Camberwell Clarion that he welcomed the consultation and the opportunity for local residents to register their views.
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“There is a lot of potential in the area to create attractive walking and cycling routes connecting local amenities such as Burgess Park, local shops and community centres to other locations across Lambeth and Southwark.
“There is an opportunity to change the way we use our streets and introduce new public realm features that can encourage stronger communities, physical activity and calmer environments that help to improve physical and mental wellbeing.”
Traffic on Wyndham Road and John Ruskin Street has been particularly severe during morning and afternoon rush hour since the introduction of the controversial Low Traffic Neighbourhood zones (LTNs), the effectiveness and appropriateness of which seems to have bitterly divided local residents.
“The North Camberwell Triangle consultation is a welcome opportunity for residents to shape the future of how the public roads are used and can improve air quality,” he said.
“Since the pandemic traffic has increased on Wyndham Road and John Ruskin Street as a result of various Low Traffic Neighbourhoods in the area.
“There is a lot of potential in the area to create attractive walking and cycling routes connecting local amenities such as Burgess Park, local shops and community centres to other locations across Lambeth and Southwark.
“I look forward to seeing the proposals Southwark put forward, following the consultation, to improve local lives through better streets.”
To find out more about the consultation and read the responses from local residents, visit northcamberwelltriangle.commonplace.is
The 85-space cycle hub at Denmark Hill Station is set for a relaunch with a new and improved fob system, which it is hoped will encourage more cyclists to use the facility.
The hub originally opened in September 2021 as part of a transformative £7.5 million upgrade of the station, which also saw the creation of a new second entrance on Windsor Walk, making it easier for passengers to enter and exit, as well as additional canopies on platforms, new customer information screens, more seating and an upgraded PA system.
Better lighting and new public art and design elements to reflect Camberwell’s unique identity were also included in the scheme.
A new Paxton fob system has now been installed at the cycle hub to improve ease of access to the space. It is hoped the new system will increase the extent to which the cycle hub is used, as take-up thus far has been disappointing.
“[The hub] has been under-used since we installed it,” said Trudy Habgood from Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), who is station manager for the Catford Loop group of stations that includes Denmark Hill.
“I think there was a misconception that it is not free, which it is. I also think the process for gaining access previously was not communicated well. A key card had to be applied for, which was a complicated process.
The new fob system will be much easier. All you need is an email address and photo ID –and to own a bike, of course!”
The official relaunch of the cycle hub and the introduction of the new fob system took place on 20 February. Anyone who would like to obtain a fob can do so from the ticket office at the Champion Hill entrance to the station.
The fob is registered for 12 months, after which it can be reactivated at the ticket office. The same fob can also be activated at other cycle hub locations on the GTR railway network. Bicycles are locked as normal inside the hub, but only those with a fob can access the facility.
“We really want to spread the word that this is free to use and is available,” Trudy
said. “Having a secure area to store your cycle in Denmark Hill will mean there is no reason to secure it to railings and lamp posts, which is a hindrance to all, especially those with accessibility issues en route to the hospital.
“GTR has introduced cycle hubs at many stations and sees them as a real benefit for local communities.”
The critically acclaimed production of Sunny Side Up, written and performed by David Alade, is returning to Theatre Peckham.
Following on from its sold-out run at Peckham Fringe in 2022, this lyrical piece, blending drama and poetry, is transferring to the main stage for a three-week run. Based on a true story, Sunny Side Up is a coming-of-age drama set in the mind of Peckham-born David, looking at his younger self – Little D. The journey sees a young black boy go from childhood innocence through a harsh transformation into manhood, all leading up to the loss of his father, Sunny.
Told via spoken word and featuring a host of characters, this epic, playful and heartfelt play forces us to question how society shapes the vulnerabilities and masculinity of young black boys.
David is an actor and writer who trained at the Identity School of Acting and studied drama and theatre at Anglia Ruskin University. While there he wrote, starred in and directed his first play Fox Hunting, which was performed at the Courtyard Theatre. He later featured in the West End production of The Fishermen and his screen credits include Documentary Now! and Casualty. He was recently invited by Trix Worrell –creator of Channel 4 sitcom Desmond’s – to join his Distant Voices production company and is working on an exciting project with them.
Leading the creative team for Sunny Side Up is Theatre Peckham’s artistic director and CEO Suzann McLean, along with set and costume designer Natalie Pryce and rising star in sound design Rasaq Kukoyi, a recent cover star of our sister title the Peckham Peculiar who is championed by awardwinning sound designer Tony Gayle.
David said: “Excited is an understatement. I feel fulfilled to be able to tell this story, a story of family, love and grief. I’m super chuffed that following Sunny Side Up’s success at Peckham Fringe 2022 I get to bring back a newer, longer version in a bigger space with a wicked set.
“Working with Suzann and bringing our ideas together and giving life to what I’ve written is what has made this process beautiful. I can’t wait for people to meet Lil D.”
Suzann said: “Sunny Side Up rings true for all that Theatre Peckham is about, providing a space for the young people of Peckham to platform their own unique stories.
“David is an exceptional creative, both his writing and his performance are captivating, which makes the play so compelling for audiences. It’s a 70-minute wake-up call, a call for change in the way society shapes young black boys for the battle of life.”
Until 4 March, tickets via theatrepeckham. co.uk
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Hospitality trio Helen Hall, Luke West-Whylie and Ben McVeigh, co-founders of local restaurant and wine bar Peckham Cellars, have announced they will open a second wine bar – Little Cellars – in Camberwell this summer, following a dramatic renovation of the space.
Akin to its Peckham sibling, the new Camberwell bar will serve an eclectic mix of old and new world wines by the glass, alongside a top notch bar-snack menu devised by Peckham Cellars’ head chef Pablo Urain Alfonso. The interior design of the bar is currently a work in progress, but will mirror the look of Peckham Cellars.
The new corner unit site will offer 40 covers in total – comprising 24 indoor seats and a further 16 on the outdoor terrace. The trio have also acquired the adjacent property, which they will launch as the Cellar Next
Joe Swift of Gardeners’ World fame recently visited a Camberwell school.
The well-known gardener worked with local people and Mark Gregory of Landform Consultants to finish installing the Royal Horticultural Society’s Bee Garden at St George’s Church of England Primary School on Coleman Road.
The garden was viewed by thousands of people at the Chelsea Flower Show before more than 2,000 inner-London schools were invited to apply to rehome it.
St George’s was chosen after the panel of judges heard about pupils’ enthusiasm for their weekly gardening classes and desire to develop their garden to serve wildlife and the local community. The Bee Garden will take pride of place by the school entrance for everyone to see, replacing old decking and some grassy plots.
With its eye-catching design centred around the silhouette of a bee’s wing, the garden aims to inspire people to consider the needs of pollinators, especially bees, when they are choosing plants for their gardens and outdoor spaces.
Door bottle shop, complete with a 25-cover basement tasting room that will also act as the hub for their online wine delivery business.
Speaking about the new site, Helen said: “We’ve had our eye on the site in Camberwell for some time, after spotting it last year. We knew we wanted to grow the business and open a second site ideally somewhere in south-east London again, as we’ve built up such a loyal customer base here with Peckham Cellars so it made sense for us to look into options not too far from Peckham.
“Once the licence application went in with our names on it we immediately began receiving DMs and emails from eagle-eyed locals excited to find out when we would be opening.
“After we’d put in our initial offer for the Camberwell site, we were then offered the
space next door, which connects via the basements under the two buildings, which was a complete stroke of luck.
“We want Little Cellars to emanate the relaxed, fun environment that Peckham Cellars has become known for; a space for
The London Arts Board has just unveiled its latest exhibit.
Once a disused municipal notice board on the corner of Peckham and Vestry roads, the miniature gallery – which is one of the smallest galleries in London if not the smallest – is dedicated to giving emerging artists the chance to have a solo exhibition in London.
The current artist on display is Ruby Dickson, who has a work titled Maybe the Real Art is the Friends We Made Along the Way on show until 3 April.
Curator and Royal College of Art alumnus Liza-Rose Burton said: “Displayed in a procession, the format of three identical prints can be likened to campaign images,
usually found frantically pasted all over the city, overlapping and repeating the same message, promoting raves, park runs or missing cats.
“Ruby’s triptych however is raw and emotionally charged – the repetition only accentuating the intense expression of the figure.”
Ruby, who was born in 1996, has exhibited in locations all over London, from Harlesden to Hackney Wick. According to the London Arts Board, her paintings “attempt to situate frenetic feelings around our ephemeral lives and their inevitable end”.
people to enjoy great wine and delicious food while receiving some of south-east London’s finest hospitality.”
Little Cellars wine bar and the Cellar Next Door bottle shop will open on Camberwell Church Street in June.
The inaugural event for the newly launched Camberwell Ceilidh Club took place last month.
The evening, which was held at St Giles Parish Hall on Benhill Road, was a huge success with a sell-out crowd.
Co-founder and local resident Jordana Leighton said: “We hope to be hosting these events every couple of months with the next one currently being planned for 25 March. Please make sure you are signed up to the Music at St Giles newsletter.”
As a consistent evangelist for the joys of Camberwell, few can match the voluble enthusiasm and advocacy of singer-songwriter Florence Welch, the charismatic frontwoman of pop giants Florence + the Machine.
Born in King’s College Hospital on 28 August 1986, Florence Leontine Mary Welch is the daughter of advertising executive Nick Russell Welch and Harvard-educated New York art historian Evelyn.
Welch was – to use her own description – a “highly imaginative and fearful child” who admitted that she later “learned ways to manage that terror – drink, drugs, controlling food”.
The youthful Florence’s love of singing and performing was encouraged from an early age by both her parents, as well as by her paternal grandmother Cybil Welch, who later served as the inspiration for several tracks on Florence + the Machine’s smash-hit debut album Lungs, which was released in 2009.
Growing up, Welch developed a fascination with the gothic and the macabre and what she termed “the beautiful and the sinister”; she drew crosses on her bed to protect herself from the werewolves and vampires she was convinced were real and would spend weeks at a time focused on imaginative play as “a witch, or a fairy warrior, living in trees”.
Welch’s parents divorced when she was 13 and her mother subsequently remarried professor Peter Openshaw, a renowned immunologist who was also the family’s next-door neighbour. As Welch adjusted to being part of a new step-family, she immersed herself in the music of Hole, Green Day, Nirvana, Kate Bush, Annie Lennox and the Velvet Underground among others, attending as many gigs as she could and developing a penchant for crowd-surfing “or doing handstands up against the wall”.
Despite being diagnosed with dyslexia and dyspraxia, Welch excelled academically at Alleyn’s school in Dulwich, achieving a string of As in
her GCSEs and A-levels, before going on to study illustration at Camberwell College of Arts while also working at local pub the Old Dispensary, where this writer remembers well her sunny disposition, as well as her competence at pouring a pint.
“I was just bumming around Camberwell working at a bar and thought that I should start doing something with life,” she later commented of those days.
Music remained Welch’s passion and her voice and style were evolving fast – early bands she fronted included the intriguingly named Toxic Cockroaches and Ashok and she soon decided to drop out of art school to pursue a musical career, intending to return 12 months later if things didn’t work out. “I wanted to see where the music would go… then it started going somewhere so [I] never went back,” she later reflected.
In December 2006, Welch cornered well-connected indie music maestro Mairead Nash at a party. Nash subsequently became her manager and not long after Florence + the Machine were born, evolving from a previous band called Florence Machine/Isa Machine, which Welch had formed with her good friend Isabella Summers.
Keyboardist Summers remained a part of the new band, while there were further additions to the line-up in the form of Rob Ackroyd on guitar, Tom Monger on the harp, Chris Hayden
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on drums and percussion and Mark Saunders on bass.
Florence + the Machine’s debut album Lungs was a worldwide smash, staying in the top 40 of the UK album charts for 65 consecutive weeks and snaffling a Brit award for best British album. It also made the top 10 in the United States, and would go on to sell more than three million copies worldwide.
The sound that Florence + the Machine produced was eclectic and highly original – defying categorisation at every turn and fusing elements of rock, soul, pop, folk and baroque among other genres. Welch’s vision was as unique as it was arresting; she described Lungs as “a wave of sound that would envelop, something that was soaring, slightly church-like and then doom-like”.
As a frontwoman, Welch’s eccentric charisma inevitably saw her compared to other musical icons of the past, although truth be told, she was – and remains – a new, vital and overwhelmingly original artistic voice.
Leading American music website AllMusic stated of Welch and Lungs: “With an arsenal of weaponry that included the daring musicality of Kate Bush, the fearless delivery of Sinéad O’Connor, and the dark, unhinged vulnerability of Fiona Apple, the London native crafted a debut that not only lived up to the machine-gun spray of buzz that heralded her arrival, but easily surpassed it.”
Meanwhile, in the estimation of the ever-entertaining Rolling Stone magazine, the experience of listening to Welch sing was akin to “being chased through a moonless night by a sexy moor witch”.
Subsequent albums Ceremonials (2011), How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful (2015), High as Hope (2018) and Dance Fever (2022), proved that Florence + the Machine were no flash in the pan, while also solidifying
Welch’s status as a post-millennial musical icon.
In 2015, after Dave Grohl broke his leg, forcing Foo Fighters to pull out of headlining the Glastonbury Festival, Florence + the Machine stepped in and – as a tribute to Grohl – Welch included a cover of his iconic song Times Like These as part of her Glastonbury set, a gesture whose kindness reduced the former Nirvana drummer to tears. It was the sort of human touch for which Welch is loved and adored by her many fans.
For Camberwellians and die-hard south Londoners, Welch’s devotion to her local area is also part of her unique charm. Florence + the Machine’s fourth album – 2018’s High as Hope – was an unashamed love letter to Camberwell and south London, peppered as it was with references to both. Camberwell was directly referenced in the song Grace, which Welch wrote in tribute to her younger sister, and sang: “I don’t think it would be too long before I was drunk in Camberwell again”.
Meanwhile, in the track South London Forever, Welch referenced an iconic Camberwell pub in the immortal lyric “young and drunk and stumbling in the street, outside the Joiners Arms like foals unsteady on their feet”. It’s not the only time that Welch has referenced her beloved Joiners Arms – in a July 2018 interview with the Evening Standard she nominated the legendary boozer as her favourite pub, declaring: “The Joiners Arms in Camberwell was where the art students always used to put on club nights. That’s where I got a lot of my first experiences of music. It’s also where I first fell in love.”
The same month, as part of the pre-launch publicity blitz for High as Hope, Florence + the Machine played a memorable gig at the Joiners for an intimate audience of around 100. The event was only announced earlier the same day, with fans admitted on a first-come, first-served basis to the limited capacity venue and the proceeds from ticket sales being donated to local charity South London Cares.
With potent incense burning around the pub and buckets of flowers decorating the stage, the sense that Welch was revelling in being “at home” in Camberwell was palpable.
In between songs she entertained the crowd with anecdotes about growing up in the local area.
Concluding the gig with a rapturously received rendition of South London Forever and her iconic hit Dog Days Are Over, Welch told the crowd proudly: “After 10 years I’ve finally made it – I got to play the Joiners Arms!”
See what I mean? Camberwell through and through!
After 10 years I’ve finally made it – I got to play the Joiners Arms
The Camberwell Winter Art Market, which was organised by the Camberwell Arts Festival and took place alongside the weekly farmers’ market on Camberwell Green, was brimming with local art, handmade crafts, unique gifts and cards and lots more. The Royal Steel Pan Orchestra provided the perfect soundtrack for a special day.
My personal highlights included chatting to Luke Bateman from the London Lavender Company, enjoying a portion of fresh mushroom and chestnutfilled tortelloni from La Tua Pasta (grazie mille, Giuseppe!) and meeting Lydia Wood, who creates bespoke pencil drawings for all occasions.
I also picked up a few tips from knitting teacher Deshaun Smith, who has been stitching and purling and a lot more besides since he was just seven. You can find Deshaun on Instagram @mr.dwoolenshand.
And it was great to catch up briefly with Annette Cauneen, director of the farmers’ market. “Camberwell Green is absolutely buzzing today!” she said. “With the Camberwell Winter Festival running alongside our weekly Camberwell market, there are over 60 stalls full of creative talent, hot food stalls, new and familiar local traders and live music too. It’s great to see so many people enjoying the event and supporting local businesses.”
I couldn’t agree more. As the cost of living crisis bites, many of us are having to be very careful with how we spend our money. Buying from local artists and producers is one way we can choose unique, affordable gifts for our loved ones, while supporting Camberwell’s small businesses at the same time.
And of course, the farmers’ market is there every Saturday. Regulars include Roka Brings Flowers, Old Hall Farm’s fruit and veg, Juice Da Cruz’s fresh juices and Rose & Herb’s luxury home fragrances. What’s not to love?
Whether it be a request to confirm your bank details, pay the excess import tax on a parcel, or even a notification that your iPhone has been hacked, we have sadly all become far too aware of the perils of scam emails.
So when Catherine Hinwood received an email purporting to be from the office of none other than King Charles III, she understandably assumed it was spam. “But then I went, ‘Oh, hang on, I’ve worked in government. I know there’s something kind of official here’. So I looked again.”
It was a good thing she did, because the email was real, and attached to it was confirmation that she was to receive an OBE for her work during the pandemic, when for 18 intense months she led the government’s response to the impact of Covid on victims of domestic abuse as chair of the Covid-19 Victim and Witness Silver Command Group.
After realising the email was legitimate, her reaction was one of confused elation. “I sent it to my sister to check and asked, ‘Have I read this correctly?’ And then I was just praying for the train journey to end so I could jump off and ring my mum.”
Sharing that moment with her mother was especially important for Catherine and one of the drivers behind her accepting the award, despite her acknowledgment of the charged nature of such gongs.
“My mum grew up for part of her life in the care system in England and I was aware of how she had been let down by multiple systems. For her to be able to come full circle and stand proudly in Buckingham Palace with me – that would mean such a huge amount to her, and I wanted to be able to give her that opportunity.”
It may have been overwhelming for Catherine to receive that email on an intercity train bound for Manchester, but the important work that she and her team were involved in was more than deserving of such an honour.
In her role at the Ministry of Justice, where she was deputy director of family and criminal justice policy, heading up the victim and witness policy unit, Catherine was responsible for most government policy relating to victims of crime in England and Wales, with a £140 million annual budget for victim and witness services.
I ask her to run through what her world looked like as the pandemic began and she started to realise the impact it was going to have on those people her teams supported – namely victims of crime and their families.
”Very early on, even before full lockdown, a lot of the providers that I used to speak to were saying, ‘There’s a real problem here, we’re getting loads and loads of phone calls and
people are really triggered. And also, we’re not set up to provide counselling services online. Furthermore, for those experiencing domestic violence we just saw a huge spike in the need for services.’”
Immediately Catherine kicked into action, calling on as many providers as possible to offer more services, or facilitate a different way of providing them.
“I just called up a host of third sector providers and said, ‘What do you need?’ It could be things like helping them move counselling services online or getting funding to ensure helplines were open longer hours, or indeed 24 hours.”
Alongside this she oversaw a huge project to address the problem on a more macro level, creating systems to gather data from as many sources as possible, as often as possible, to ensure that an accurate picture was being created that would make very clear to the major stakeholders –mainly government – the scope of funding that was needed and the urgency with which it was required.
“After a few sleepless nights, I thought, ‘We’re going to have to do something different here’. So I called a meeting and said, ‘Right, we have to start a data collection process. And you’re going to have to send me data every week. And we’re going to have to meet every second day just so we can try to understand what that data is telling us.’”
The evidence Catherine and her team provided helped to secure government funding of more than £50 million a year for domestic abuse and sexual violence services during the pandemic, ensuring vital service provision despite demand increases of up to 200%.
“It was great. Because I had the data I was able to say, ‘This is going on, this is what we need and this is why it is important.’ We were able to distribute it out to the charities really quickly too. It was really, really amazing.”
When Catherine describes her work schedule of 18-hour days to ensure the message was getting through, the money was being obtained and those in need were getting it, it doesn’t feel trite to say that most heroes don’t wear capes. The toil of Catherine and her team in those early weeks and months undoubtedly saved lives, while also setting up models and structures that would then assist the government and other agencies to deliver funding and help through the full stretch of lockdown, and to an extent beyond.
That the government took her findings so seriously was in itself – separate from the accolade bestowed on her in the King’s new year honours list – validation that the
work Catherine had been doing since she came to the UK from her native Australia in 2003 was worthwhile. And further, that work in this sector in general – of helping people who have suffered abuse or violence, as well as those who are at risk – is rewarding, important and needs to be recognised as such by the world at large.
“I’ve had a lot of people, generally women, but also a lot of men, who have wanted to work for me or have wanted to work in this space. And they’ve been discouraged, as I was, on the basis that it’s a career-limiting option. You become labelled as an activist or some such. So this award has helped give the work the profile it deserves.
“There are so many people who work so tirelessly to try to bring this agenda to the forefront of people’s minds, which is really hard. This [the impact of domestic abuse] costs the healthcare system alone £2 billion a year. So why are we not as a society doing more to try to tackle it? And for conversations about how we do that to have taken place at the highest levels, I think is incredibly important.”
After 14 years at the Ministry of Justice, in July 2022 Catherine was appointed NHS England’s senior lead for domestic abuse and sexual violence. She is heading an ambitious programme to improve the way the NHS responds to domestic abuse and sexual violence for both patients and staff.
The programme considers these crimes through a public health lens, looking at prevention, early intervention and resulting health inequalities, as well as improving support for victims.
Away from her day job it’s the creative side of south-east London – and nights at local jazz hotspot the Crypt – that provide some vital downtime. And while she helped create deep and wide support networks for thousands of people across the UK during the pandemic, her support network locally is slightly more, shall we say, homespun.
“I made two of my best friends during the pandemic. Our balconies faced each other and we would throw yeast over the balcony to each other. And my dry cleaner [on Southampton Way]. I love my dry cleaner. I go in to say hello to them all the time and just chat. And I know I can always get my copy of this newspaper from them too.”
For anyone who may have experienced domestic abuse or sexual violence, you can find information about available support at gov.uk/guidance/victim-and-witness-services and via yellowdoor.org.uk/start-here/immediate-help
For those experiencing domestic violence we saw a huge spike in the need for servicesAbove: Catherine Hinwood PHOTO BY LIMA CHARLIE
Nigerian-born but based in England for the majority of his life, Uzo Egonu – who studied at Camberwell College of Arts –merged African and European artistic traditions and influences into a body of work that was as visually arresting as it was eclectic and thought-provoking.
On Egonu’s death in 1996, his fellow artist Rasheed Araeen declared: “It would be a mistake to see him only as an African artist… Egonu was an artist who challenged the impoverished western myth of the naive African artist because the complexity of his work is firmly located within the tradition of modernism.”
Born on 25 December 1931 in Onitsha, a port on the banks of the River Niger, Egonu developed a love for painting and drawing while a schoolboy at Sacred Heart College in Calabar. An early success saw him win a national junior art competition aged 13 and – not long after – Egonu’s father, Henry Chukwuma Egonu, a civil servant in the British colonial administration, sought to encourage his son’s precocious talent by arranging for him to move to England and complete his schooling in Norfolk.
Egonu would return to his homeland on just one occasion before his death – an abbreviated two-day stay in the 1970s – and a sense of separation and nostalgia for the Nigeria he left behind at such a young age would become one of the abiding themes of his work, which would remain deeply influenced by his Nigerian and Igbo heritage for the entirety of his life and career.
Egonu studied fine art, design and typography at Camberwell College of Arts from 1949 until 1952. After graduation, he based himself in a studio in West Hampstead and became a working artist, building his skills and reputation slowly but surely over the next decade, turning his hand to book cover design and illustration, as well as working in oils and experimenting with printmaking and textiles.
At times, Egonu eked out a living via somewhat unconventional artistic means, such as in 1961 when he was commissioned by a British brewery to produce a piece of art for its annual calendar and contributed a wondrous painting of a Lagos marketplace.
From the mid-1960s onwards, Egonu’s profile rose, largely thanks to a variety of striking and acclaimed series of works in which he painted notable London landmarks, beginning with St Paul’s Cathedral in 1965, and followed by renderings of Westminster Abbey and Piccadilly Circus in 1966, Trafalgar Square in 1968 and Tower Bridge in 1969. The bold colours of
these works, which blended tropes from schools as varied as abstract art, caricature, photorealism, pop art and cubism, as well as Nigerian-influenced ornamentation and flourishes, signalled the arrival of a unique and singular talent.
Egonu was particularly distressed by the horrors of the 1967-70 Biafran War in his homeland, a conflict which directly affected many members of his family. His artistic response to the conflict was unashamedly political and typically heartfelt – in 1968, he mounted an exhibition of his work influenced by the conflict at the Upper Grosvenor Galleries in central London.
One of the exhibits – titled Blind Eye to Tragedy – formed a coruscating attack on the limp response of western governments to the Biafran crisis, picturing as it did a mother skeleton carrying a baby skeleton on her back trapped in a visual representation that was half-eye, half-cage. The work made a splash in the national press and featured in the Daily Mirror, bringing the 37-yearold Egonu to wider attention.
Displaying an insatiable hunger for artistic improvement, Egonu attended the Working Men’s College in Camden in 1970 in order to update and refine his printmaking techniques. Thereafter printmaking, rather than painting, would become his preferred medium. Inspired by the Working Men’s College’s emphasis on exploring social issues, Egonu produced a series of hard-hitting lithographs titled Addictions, which examined issues affecting Londoners such as smoking, gambling and drug abuse.
The 1970s saw Egonu win widespread acclaim and a string of international awards and prizes – including Les Arts en Europe in Brussels in 1971, the cup of the city of Naples in 1972 and the Unesco prize in Paris in 1976. Sponsorship from multinationals such as Whitbread and Unilever also played a vital role in enabling him to continue to pursue his artistic career.
Egonu was also a founder member of the Rainbow Art Group, a collection of London-based artists from ethnic minority backgrounds, which was formed in 1978 in response to the difficulties that many such artists had in getting their work recognised through what the group referred to as the “established channels”.
In 1977, Egonu was selected as one of the artists whose work represented the UK at Festac 77 (otherwise known as the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture) in Lagos in his native Nigeria, while in 1983 the International Association of Art appointed him as a lifelong adviser – a prestigious honour that had also been afforded to Henry Moore and Pablo Picasso among others.
By the 1980s, Egonu’s work could be found in more than a dozen national galleries worldwide, as well as in permanent collections in the V&A and at Bradford’s civic art gallery Cartwright Hall. In 1986 he exhibited at the Royal Festival Hall and his work featured in major retrospectives devoted to black artists, including the 1989 Hayward Gallery exhibit titled The Other Story and the 1996 exhibition Transforming the Crown in New York.
By then, however, Egonu’s health was sadly fading. His eyesight had begun to fail, probably due to repeated exposure to chemicals used in the etching process he so loved, and he also suffered from two heart attacks.
Egonu died suddenly on 14 August 1996 aged just 64 after another heart attack. His passing – cruelly – was just a few days before he had been due to celebrate his 25th wedding anniversary to his beloved wife Hildred.
On his death, Egonu’s work and influence was widely praised. Nevertheless, for all his achievements,
ILLUSTRATION BY JESSICA KENDREW
there remained a lingering sense that he had always been regarded within the traditional and white-dominated art establishment as something of an outsider, his name never receiving the high profile with the wider public that his talents warranted and deserved.
In Olu Oguibe’s definitive work on Egonu’s career – the 1995 book Uzo Egonu: an African artist in the West – the writer declared: “Egonu remained a solitary, isolated figure, partly from personal inclination, partly from the invisibility imposed by an intransigent British art establishment.”
Above all else, however, it was Egonu’s humanity that remained perhaps his most abiding characteristic and most remarked upon quality. Susan Okokon, who acted as his agent for 25 years and was also a close friend, observed movingly of Egonu soon after his death: “He was like a saint – so lovely, compassionate and peaceful. Although a quiet man he would give to other people all the time, and he nurtured a lot of young artists, so his memory will live on.”
His work would remain deeply influenced by his Nigerian and Igbo heritage for the entirety of his life and careerAbove: Uzo Egonu
Founding
If you’ve been to Camberwell Green Market on a Saturday, chances are you’ve noticed a stall laden with fresh sourdough loaves and pastries. It’s run by an affable teenager called Mohammad Golkar, always smiling in his bright orange hat. We may be spoilt for choice for sourdough spots in south-east London, but there’s something special about this one.
Mohammad works for Breadwinners, a not-for-profit social enterprise and charity which supports refugees through employment and work experience programmes. Founded by Marika Wilkinson in 2015, it now has 14 market stalls across London and Brighton and is hoping to expand into other cities.
Martin Cosarinsky Campos, CEO of the charity, tells me that Breadwinners “gives young refugees their first job in the UK, helps to change negative perceptions of refugees and inspires other organisations to offer them further employment opportunities.”
The charity supports refugees and asylum seekers from countries across the world including Syria, Afghanistan, Iran, Somalia, Sudan and Eritrea, and has worked with 273 refugees and young people seeking asylum so far.
In his native Iran, Mohammad was a political activist. “If I return to Iran, I am sure that I will be killed,” he tells me. As well as the risks to his safety, there were few opportunities to get a good job, so he made the difficult decision to leave. But after arriving alone in England, Mohammad was depressed.
“There were new streets, new buildings, new transport, and I didn’t speak the language. Imagine how that feels. ‘Where can I buy a new sim card? How can I meet people if I can’t communicate?’ It was crazy.”
One year later, and he’s chatting confidently with me in a cafe after his latest shift at Camberwell Green Market. Despite his long day working in the cold, he is keen to talk and his face lights up when I ask him what he enjoys about working in Camberwell.
“The best thing is engaging with people. If I stay at home and I think about my past and my situation, I can get depressed. But I like coming to the stall to speak to new people here.”
Martin agrees that Camberwell Green Market has a particularly positive atmosphere. There is “a beautiful community of traders and organisers”, he says, adding: “We support many young people living near the area and many Camberwell customers have ended up volunteering as mentors to the young people we support.”
Mohammad will work on the stall as a market manager for six months and can then move on to the charity’s Proofers Programme, working in the office selling bread to other businesses and learning new skills. When he’s not working on the stall at weekends, he also attends college and eventually wants to go to university to get a degree and begin a career.
Breadwinners is clearly having a positive impact on the lives of young people like Mohammad and Martin
Breadwinners stall at Camberwell Green Market helps refugees and asylum seekers access training and jobs. We find out more
tells me that 94% of participants report an increase in wellbeing after completion of the Breadwinners programme, while 90% have gone on to secure further paid work.
Asked what they go on to do, he says: “We have future doctors studying at university, charity workers, IT consultants and many people in hospitality and services who will continue to grow and develop.”
One of the volunteers who supports the Camberwell market stall is Jessica Cruse. Jessica, 33, works in international development and volunteers with Breadwinners for a few hours each week. “I wanted to use some spare time to help a great cause and see what I could do to make a difference to the life of a refugee or an asylum seeker,” she says.
Mentors like Jessica are trained in safeguarding and communication skills before being paired with a mentee. Over three months, they attend the weekend markets where they coach their mentees from the sidelines to allow them to build the confidence to lead and engage with new people.
Volunteers and mentees also meet once during the week to track progress and goals. And Jessica likes to arrange light-hearted activities like hanging out at the park, visiting the local library and playing cards.
“You wouldn’t believe that a couple of hours a week could make such a difference. But it’s transformative,” she says. “Some of these young people have just arrived here and irrespective of how they have been treated, they want to contribute positively to society. It has completely changed the way I feel about our society and the people who arrive here.”
For some people, Breadwinners is their first taste of volunteering. But Jessica says that mentors are well looked after. “I would argue that you gain just as much as the people you support. I’ve learned so much from
each of the mentees I’ve met. It’s a powerful experience. You’re giving up a couple of hours a week, and you get to be part of a big family and make a difference.”
But there are challenges to volunteering as a mentor to refugees and asylum seekers. “It’s difficult for our mentees to understand our legal and bureaucratic systems. Some of them are completely in limbo,” Jessica
says. “There are times it gets really frustrating when you’re just waiting for paperwork or a phone call. But it’s my role to support them through that.”
Jessica explains that mentors can’t help with the legal side of asylum cases. “You have to humble yourself because you can’t fix everything. Sometimes I come away from sessions feeling deflated and upset with the
UK’s systems and structures. But I have to challenge myself and focus on the impact that I can have.”
As Mohammad and I finish our coffees and the conversation turns to more light-hearted topics, like British clothes and how many pastries he thinks he’s consumed since arriving, his face becomes more serious.
He gestures to my notebook and tells me: “Please write this down before we go. Young asylum seekers and refugees want to engage with society. We have lost everything and we come here with nothing. Give us any opportunity to stay and work for your country. We are not able to make ours beautiful anymore, so let us help you to make your countries beautiful.”
I tell Jessica about my chat with Mohammad and his desire to make a positive contribution to society. She nods in agreement and her eyes fill with tears. She apologises for getting emotional and tells me: “Breadwinners is amazing, the mentors are amazing, but the superstars are the mentees. Their resilience and their strength. We have all these myths about refugees. But no, they don’t want our jobs –they just really want to learn and study and be a part of society and Breadwinners gives them a taste of that. They get to sell bread, speak to local people and do something valuable.”
So, on Saturday, why not head down to Camberwell Green Market and bag yourself a sourdough loaf or a fresh croissant? Mohammad and the rest of the Breadwinners team would love to see you there.
Young refugees and asylum seekers want to engage with society. We have lost everything and we come here with nothing. We are not able to make our countries beautiful anymore so let us help you to make yours beautiful
PHOTOS BY JULIA HAWKINS
6 Across is a street in Camberwell.
ACROSS
6 MILKHANDLER (anagram) (7, 4)
8 Give off, radiate (4)
9 Loosen, untie (4)
10 Newspaper piece (7)
11 Charitable gift (8)
12 Referee (6)
14 Enchant, entrance (7)
17 Barren, lifeless (7)
19 Main meal (6)
20 PM’s country retreat (8)
23 Doubtful (7)
24 Arm bone (4)
25 Lazy, workshy (4)
26 Innocently (11)
DOWN
1 Modernisation, progress (10)
2 African wildlife holiday (6)
3 Travelling on ice (7)
4 Money off, reduction (8)
5 Escape, run away (4)
6 Australian wild dog (5)
7 Word-for-word (7)
13 Brazilian language (10)
15 Part of a story (7)
16 Of the brain, intellectual (8)
18 Small motorbike (7)
21 Spring festival (6)
22 Thin, watery (5)
23 Money owed (4)
Chequers, 23 Dubious, 24 Ulna, 25 Idle, 26 Blamelessly. DOWN: 1 Innovation, 2 Safari, 3 Skating, 4 Discount, 5 Flee, 6 Dingo, 7 Literal, 13 Portuguese, 15 Episode, 16 Cerebral, 18 Scooter, 21 Easter, 22 Runny, 23 Debt.
ACROSS: 6 Denmark Hill, 8 Emit, 9 Undo, 10 Article, 11 Donation, 12 Umpire, 14 Bewitch, 17 Sterile, 19 Dinner, 20
SOLUTION
This drawing shows the new circular tower that was added to the Camberwell Workhouse Infirmary on Havil Street in 1890, 15 years after the building was first constructed.
It became the Camberwell Parish Infirmary in 1913 and St Giles’ Hospital in 1930. After suffering bomb damage in World War Two, it was used by the NHS from 194883. The grade-II-listed tower is now in residential use.
When I go to visit my parents and Dad makes this, I’m immediately transported to my childhood. The dish is so evocative for me. Still, to this day, my parents split the tasks: Dad on ackee and saltfish, Mum on plantain and dumpling duty.
Because canned ackee is so expensive, Dad would only use one can and that determined how much could be made. So instead I’d monitor Mum as she mixed the dumpling dough, willing her to make loads.
This is a dish I always eat with my hands, using torn bits of fried dumpling to scoop up mouthfuls. And I mop up every bit of sauce.
Ackee and saltfish encapsulates the essence of Jamaican food in its conjoining of ingredients from various sources to create something that, to me, is greater than the sum of its parts. Saltfish imported from North America, primarily Canada, was traded with Europe as part of the Triangular Trade. In the Caribbean, a poorer-quality version called West India Cure or Jamaica Cure – that would have been rejected by Europeans – was eaten. This featured heavily in enslaved people’s diets as a protein source. Ackee, in turn, is a fruit that was brought to Jamaica from West Africa on a slave ship in 1778.
The exact moment the two were paired has never been definitively pinpointed, to my knowledge. But perhaps, back when saltfish was not of the highest quality, other ingredients were added to dilute its taste.
Serves 4
INGREDIENTS
225g saltfish, rinsed and soaked overnight
2 tbsp vegetable oil
½ onion, finely chopped
1 red pepper, sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed ⅓–1 scotch bonnet, deseeded and finely chopped, to taste
2 medium tomatoes, deseeded and chopped
METHOD
Put the saltfish in a pan of water and bring it to the boil. Simmer until the fish is cooked through and soft; the time this takes will vary depending on the type of fish, so expect anything from 8-20 minutes.
Once cooked, drain. When it is cool, break the fish into smaller pieces, checking for bones and removing them as you go and removing the skin as well.
Pour the oil into a frying pan and fry the onion, red pepper, garlic and scotch bonnet over a medium heat until they
2 spring onions, chopped
Leaves from 3 thyme sprigs
150ml water
540g can of ackee, drained
To serve (optional)
Seasoned callaloo and fried dumplings or festival
soften, without letting them colour. This will take approximately 8-10 minutes. Add the saltfish, cook for 5 minutes, then add the tomatoes, spring onions, thyme and 150ml of water. Cook for 5-8 minutes until the tomatoes and onions soften.
Gently stir in the ackee, being careful not to break the curds up. Warm through for 2-3 minutes.
This recipe is an extract from Motherland: A Jamaican Cookbook by local foodie Melissa Thompson (£26, Bloomsbury)
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