Peckham and Nunhead - John D Beasley

This fascinating collection of over 200 old photographs of Peckham and Nunhead demonstrates some of the extensive changes that have taken place in this corner of south-east London over the last hundred years. From the busy Old Kent Road to Peckham Rye and the rural atmosphere of Ninhead Cemetery, these old images recall a time that is hardly recognisable today. These photographs record not only the buildings and streets as they one looked but also the people who inhabited them and worked there. We are taken into the South Metropolotan Gasworks during the First World War where women were working for the first time and then, by contrast, to the unexpected sight of dairymen milking cows at a dairy in Lugard Road in the 1930s. Horses may not be a common sight in Peckham today but horse-drawn trams and carts once filled the streets and the book contains one extraordinary photograph taken in 1915 when the army closed Lyndhurst Road and used it as a stable for dozens of horses. This book will appeal to all who know this area of London and would enjoy a nostalgic trip into its more recent past.