The Dulwich Society Journal for Summer 2024.
Firstly, let me apologise for the slightly late arrival of this copy of the Summer Journal. We have delayed it in order for me to report on some recent events.
Drama, intrigue, passion and emotion. It was all there at this year’s Dulwich Festival, which has just had its closing night. In its 31st outing and under the new directorship of Sarah Taylor, the Dulwich Festival goes from strength to strength. We are used to events selling out, but now we are seeing them sell out at Bruce Springsteen speed. The Society has again provided the Festival with a roster of walks on new and varied topics that enthral the young and old alike.
Hot on the heels of the Festival, the Dulwich Society SGM and AGM took place on 20 May. It proved almost as popular. Such was the interest in attending that we had to move from our traditional venue of the Crown & Greyhound to the Michael Croft Theatre at Alleyn’s School. We had a capacity crowd of over 300 attendees. The members were treated to a speedy summary of the Society’s activities over the past year (the full annual report and accounts are available on our website) so that the maximum time was allowed for the members to consider a new set of rules for the Society. As a replacement for the old rules which, we believe, date largely from the founding of the Society, the trustees initially proposed a draft for consultation at the AGM in May 2023. After a long period of discussion and revision, the final amended proposal was published in February with the notice for this year’s AGM. The trustees, after much intense debate, which has spanned the past two years, classed the adoption of the rules as a confidence motion. The new rules were adopted and will be registered with the Charity Commission shortly. With the new rules in place, the trustees can return to focusing on the charitable activities of the Society.
There was also the opportunity to re-appoint most of the trustees. This year we said goodbye to Diana McInnes, our Membership Secretary and David Beamish, the chair of our Trees Sub-Committee. Diana has served as Membership Secretary for over 11 years and David has been in his role since the beginning of 2018. We will miss both and thank them for their many years of service to the Society and the community. Stepping in as Membership Secretary, we welcome as a new trustee Christine Brandon. She has a wealth of experience in the charity sector and is a long-time member of the Society. Also appointed as a trustee is Sharon O’Connor. Amongst other things (see the article on page 10), Sharon is already our Communications and Media lead and the eNews editor. At the end of the AGM we adjourned back to the Crown & Greyhound to consume our deposit, so nothing was wasted.
We haven’t forgotten about the postponed lecture on “Shackleton and School Leadership” by Dr Joe Spence, Master of Dulwich College. We will contact you with the new date in due course by email. If you don’t currently get the monthly eNews, we don’t have your email address. Please let
Finally, I want to introduce an important project that the trustees are undertaking. At the AGM we mentioned briefly the increase in our expenses as a result of inflation. This has partially eroded the excess income that we have previously been able to invest in worthy projects that contribute to our objects. One of our newer trustees, Richard Wingfield, will be helping the Society think through its future strategic planning. The project initially has an operational focus, looking at member engagement. How can we serve our community better, what are our members’ priorities, how can we diversify our membership, how to encourage the members to volunteer? It is currently in its early stages and we will be telling you more about this in future editions once the plan matures.
I hope that you enjoy this Summer Journal. If you are looking for a couple of recommendations of what to read, the article on Dawson’s Heights (page 27), our local brutalist masterpiece is for people who are interested in the built environment. It featured recently in the McDonalds deliver-in TV advertising campaign. Following the Dawson family, for fans of local history, we also look at the life of Catherine Dawson on page 26. Otherwise on page 22, read all about Wheels for Wellbeing, a charity for disabled cyclists.
When the summer itself finally arrives, I do hope you enjoy it. Looking forward to speaking to you again at the end of August.
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A typical Dulwich Society AGM attracts a small crowd of around 50 members and is held in the function room of the Crown & Greyhound. This year, on 20 May, the controversy surrounding the adoption of a new set of rules ensured a turnout of some 330, almost filling the Michael Croft Theatre at Alleyn’s School. We are extremely grateful to Alleyn’s for offering us the use of this incredible venue at no charge.
The minutes of the SGM and AGM will be available on our website soon. In the meantime, we are pleased to report that the vote on the adoption of the new rules was carried by 199 votes to 79. These too will shortly be available on our website.
The trustees would like to thank members for their attendance and also for the many messages of support which have been received subsequent to the AGM.
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Dulwich Picture Gallery’s Open Art project takes a significant step forward with the arrival, at the end of May, of sculptures by renowned artists Yinka Shonibare CBE RA and Li Li Ren, establishing London’s first gallery-based sculpture garden within the Gallery’s grounds. Free for all to enjoy, they join the Gallery’s two existing works by Peter Randall-Page and Rob and Nick Carter.
Material (SG) IV (2023) by Yinka Shonibare CBE was originally born out of the artist’s Fourth Plinth commission Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle for London’s Trafalgar Square in 2010. The sculpture takes inspiration from the ship’s sails, enhanced with Shonibare’s signature Dutch wax batik fabric. The large-scale colourful sculpture, standing at four metres high, will be the first work visitors see when they arrive at the main entrance.
To find a way home (2023) by Li Li Ren is made up of five patinated bronze works, clad with gelatinous glass forms, evoking natural corals. The colours speak to the acidic colour palette of sea creatures, which for Ren represent the sublime in the natural realm. Ren scaled the pieces to encourage interaction, with movement through and around them cultivating intimate moments with each individual work.
Over the next two years, the sculpture garden will expand with a selection of thought-provoking installations by established and emerging contemporary artists. However, the Gallery’s Open Art project extends beyond the sculpture garden. It encompasses a comprehensive transformation of the Gallery’s outdoor spaces, including the reimagining of the currently underutilised meadow.
Dulwich Picture Gallery has so far raised over 80% of its £5 million target for Open Art.
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Charter School East Dulwich
The final phase of the school’s development on the former Dulwich Community Hospital site on East Dulwich Grove has begun. The work involves the refurbishment and reconfiguration of the former ‘chateau’ building to provide the permanent school main entrance, additional office and teaching space, and music and sixth form facilities. There will also be a council-funded purpose-built unit for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The project is due for completion in December this year.
Phase one of the development provided the school’s main teaching accommodation with art and science classrooms, sports hall, and temporary main entrance. When complete the school will be able to accommodate 1,700 pupils, including 480 sixth form places and 20 places for young people with special educational needs and disabilities.
The Department for Education, together with Southwark Council, are providing funding for the project and Southwark Council are acting as developer managers.
Controlled Parking Zones
Following the public consultation in December and January Southwark Council wrote to residents in Dulwich Village in March with details of revised controlled parking zones. The letter said that although there had been strong opposition to the extent of the original proposals, there had also been a consistent theme raised by residents about inconsiderate and unsafe parking-related issues linked to local schools. This includes at drop off and pick up times, and some parking pressure throughout the school day.
Cllr James McAsh, Cabinet Member for the Climate Emergency and Sustainable Development, said that the Council recognises that ‘local people feel strongly about their local areas, and want to have a say in the measures the council puts in place that will impact on their lives. That is why, as we’ve developed our plans for controlled parking, we have carefully listened to the views of local people alongside building a clear picture around parking pressures and safety risks.’ The revised scheme sets out a much smaller CPZ and the Council has planned to begin the formal, 21-day statutory consultation in May.
Dulwich Park
The Society is contributing £2,500 towards the £10,000 cost of a gravel path through the Village Copse in Dulwich Park, an initiative of the Dulwich Park Friends which is contributing £5,000. Southwark’s Parks Department will provide the balance. Wet weather over the winter had made the path a sea of mud and effectively unusable, leading to trampling of the understorey in the Copse as users tried to find ways round. The Village Copse was planted about 20 years ago using the remaining funds of the Dulwich Village Preservation Society, and our photo shows the stone base put in place for the path.
New Members
The Society has experienced a surprising surge in membership. Since the beginning of the year, no fewer than 131 new members have joined and of these 123 joined after March 1st. This compares with 87 and 74 respectively in the whole of 2023 and 2022. We are delighted to welcome you all to the Society and very much hope that you will enjoy all of the benefits of membership.
Delivering Your Journal
The majority of Journals are delivered to our readers by hand, by a team of volunteers to whom we are very grateful. However, every quarter 250 copies are posted, by Tom Scott, to people living in roads not covered by our volunteer scheme. Since the latest Royal Mail price increase in April 2024, it costs a minimum of £1.90 to post each Journal. That adds up to £1,900 per annum, which could otherwise be donated to good causes, with envelope and label costs on top. In other words, some £8 of your £10 subscription is spent on postage alone. If you receive your Journal by post, the Society would very much appreciate an extra donation to offset these costs. We suggest adding £5 to your annual subscription. Thank you to those who have already made such a donation.
Phoenix Players
The Dulwich Society has made a £450 donation to the Phoenix Players, an amateur dramatics group based in West Dulwich, to enable them to purchase a new keyboard. The keyboard is now in use and played an important role their latest family concert, Alice in Wonderland, helping the Players to create the sound of a full orchestra and accompanying their rehearsals.
Award for Brian Green
Congratulations to Brian, the previous editor of this Journal, who has just been awarded the British Association for Local History’s Outstanding Individual Contribution award. His citation reads: “For his tireless and innovative work in bringing the history of Dulwich to the wider community, through his many publications and his leadership role in local history projects.”
Calton Avenue public realm works
Since Southwark Council finalised the revised traffic arrangement for the junction of Calton Avenue / Court Lane / Dulwich Village, the Society has engaged with Southwark to optimise the public realm of the area. We have scrupulously maintained our neutrality on the traffic measures. We have encouraged Southwark and the Estate to work to harmonise the area with the adjacent North Parade, for which the Estate have development plans.
We have concentrated on the heritage features of the area: the use of surface materials that are consistent with the heritage designation of the area; the layout; the preservation of the visual attributes of the Old Burial Ground, the highlight of the area; and the listed lock-up stone that we are about to have renovated. We have championed the use of manor wastes (otherwise known as rain gardens) as typical Dulwich features, but with features to help the visually impaired. For the benefit of the important local retailers, we have encouraged Southwark to provide sufficient non-commuter parking, disabled parking and loading bays, along with bicycle parking.
Just near the finger post on the corner of Calton Avenue and Dulwich Village, Southwark has installed a sample array of the York stone surface that is planned for the pedestrian areas, to give people an idea of what it will look like.
Majestic Wine Warehouse
Majestic Wine Warehouses Limited has applied to the London Borough of Southwark for a Premises Licence for a new store at 41-43 East Dulwich Road, the site of the old Evans Cycle Shop.
Metropolitan Police
The Dulwich Village Safer Neighbourhood team have been continuing to conduct community engagement sessions throughout the ward, such as Cuppa with a Coppa, reassurance patrols and a Ward Panel Meeting where crime statistics were shared and ward priorities set. You can find out more about police engagement in the different areas of Dulwich by visiting met.police.uk and typing your postcode into the Find My Area box. You will be able to find upcoming events and locations, the names of your local officers, ward priorities etc.
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Four nominations with Dulwich connections
Apsley Pellatt & Co - Pioneering Glassworks
While the glassworks themselves were in Blackfriars, Apsley Pellatt (1791-1863), the driving force behind them, had a strong connection to East Dulwich, living in the 1840s at Blackwater Cottage in Lordship Lane, now the location of Blackwater Street. Pellatt Road is named after him.
His father, also Apsley Pellatt, was originally a partner in another glass making business, Pellatt & Green, and had set up on his own in 1815. He was the inventor of the glass lenses, known as ‘deck lights,’ used for giving light to the lower parts of ships. His son took over the business on his father’s death in 1826, renaming it Apsley Pellatt & Co. His main interest lay in the chemistry of glassmaking. In 1819, he took out his first patent for the manufacture of ‘sulfides’ or ‘Cameo Incrustations’. These were originally known as ‘Crystallo-Céramie,’ reflecting their French origin. The process involved the embedding of ceramic figurines into the glass sides of paperweights, jugs, decanters, etc., by cutting a hole in the hot glass, sliding in the insert, and resealing the glass afterwards. The firm became the best-known and most successful producer of sulfides in England, rivalled only by Baccarat in France. Pellatt described their manufacture in his 1849 book ‘Curiosities of Glassmaking’, published in 1849.
Pellatt served for some years on the Common Council of the City of London and was largely instrumental in securing the admission of Jews to the freedom of the City. He embodied his views in a pamphlet, published in 1826, entitled ‘A Brief Memoir of the Jews in relation to their Civil and Municipal Disabilities.’ In 1832 he gave evidence before the select committee of the House of Commons on Sunday observance. He was elected as one of the Members of Parliament for the old Southwark constituency at the 1852 general election, but lost the seat in 1857 and was unsuccessful when he stood again in 1859. He was a frequent speaker in the House and he introduced a bill for facilitating dissenters’ marriages in 1854, 1855, and 1856. In 1856 he brought in a bill to define the law as to crossed cheques.
James Henderson - Trailblazing Newspaper Editor
James Henderson (1823-1906) was born in Scotland. After working briefly for his father, a saddle maker,
he took a post with the local newspaper, the Montrose Standard. Moving to Glasgow, he worked on the North British Daily Mail, before setting up on his own. In 1855, he launched the Glasgow Daily News, the first daily penny newspaper in Britain, and The Weekly News and General Advertiser. However, neither were successful; he then moved to the north of England as manager of the Leeds Express and then the Manchester Guardian.
While at the Guardian he researched the local demand for a daily newspaper and found that there was more demand for a weekly paper which, whilst including a certain amount of news, would also contain more general reading. As a result, Henderson founded The Weekly Budget (originally The North British Weekly Budget) in Manchester in January 1861. The newspaper proved to be extremely popular and the following year he moved to London, to Red Lion Court in Fleet Street. By the end of 1863 the Weekly Budget had a claimed circulation of 150,000, and by 1865 it had the largest provincial circulation of any newspaper in the country.
Henderson and his family moved to East Dulwich in 1864 and lived there for about 30 years. He had a large villa, Adon Mount, built for himself and he developed neighbouring fields into a residential area. He also started the South London Press and Evening Mercury newspapers and several other magazines, including The Key, The Orb and the Household Monthly Magazine. In 1871, as a spin-off from the Weekly Budget, Henderson started the Young Folks magazine, which was again highly successful and often considered to be the first British comic. The magazine was heavily illustrated with cartoons, and benefitted from innovations in printing technology and the availability of cheaper paper.
Henderson was very involved in the local community and was a noted horticulturalist. In 1887 he stood for election to Parliament as the Liberal Party candidate in the Dulwich by-election, but was defeated by the Conservative candidate, John Blundell Maple. He retired to Worthing in Sussex circa 1900 and died there in 1906, aged 82. He is buried in Camberwell Old Cemetery.
Zdeňka Pokorná - Czech Campaigner against Nazism and Communism
Zdeňka Pokorná (1905-2007) was a noted Czechoslovak patriot, who became an exile in England after the communist takeover of Czechoslovakia in 1948. Previously a teacher and headmistress, she retrained as a psychiatric nurse at the Springfield Hospital in Tooting and moved to Dulwich in the late 1950s. Together with an exiled Czech general, she purchased No.12 Desenfans Road from the Dulwich Estate, where she remained until moving to a Peckham care home in 2001.
Born in Břeclav in 1905, in the 1930s Zdenka was active in the anti-Nazi Czech Resistance Movement which, following the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, helped groups of people to escape to Yugoslavia. She was arrested by the Gestapo and was sentenced to life imprisonment, spending the rest of the war in various prisons, and survived a Death March in 1945.
Expelled from her position as headmistress in Břeclav after 1948 because of her anti-Soviet stance, she avoided arrest by escaping to Austria. Her political activities during World War II gained her the right to asylum in the United Kingdom, where she continued both her anti-communist campaigning and her work for Czechoslovak expatriate organisations, including the Association of Czechoslovak Legionaries.
She was hailed on her 90th birthday by the Czech Government as the ‘living conscience of the century.’ During her long life time she had opposed the Habsburg, Nazi and Soviet occupation of her homeland. She was awarded the Czechoslovak Order of Merit (First Class) by President Václav Havel for her outstanding work for her home country and for upholding the ideals of freedom; she never relinquished her Czech nationality.
Zdeňka Pokorná died in London in 2007 aged 101. Her ashes were buried in the Czechoslovak section of Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey.
Francis Rossi - Lead Singer of British Rock Band Status Quo
Born in Forest Hill, Francis Rossi was educated in schools in Sydenham and Lewisham. He formed a band with fellow pupils at Sedgehill Comprehensive called the Scorpions, and they played their first ever ‘gig’ at the Samuel Jones Sports Club on Dulwich Common in 1964 (now the Peckham Football Club ground). Subsequent names for his band included the Spectres and Traffic Jam.
While he was a struggling musician, he worked for the local council cutting grass, often on the Lordship Lane Estate. By 1968 the group was called Status Quo and they finally had a hit with ‘Pictures of Matchstick Men’ which he had written in 1966 while living in a prefab at 200 Underhill Rd. He later lived for a period in the early 1970s above a chemist shop (now Leyland) in Lordship Lane.
After some years of minor success, the band reached number five in the album charts in 1972 with ‘Piledriver.’ Their only number one in the UK was ‘Down Down,’ co-written by Rossi, in 1975. In July 1985, Status Quo opened the Live Aid concert at Wembley Stadium with their song ‘Rockin’ All Over the World’, which was broadcast to an estimated global audience of 1.9 billion people.
Voting closed on 1 June and the results will be announced later this year.
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Interview by Alison Venn
Sharon is responsible for Communications and Media for the Dulwich Society.
60 years ago, when the Society was in embryo, we probably managed well enough with a printed newsletter and word of mouth to pass on news and alerts. But the world has changed and the Dulwich Society won’t be left behind. Step forward Sharon, whose sharp observational and technological skills mean that anyone can keep up to date with the Society’s cornucopia of interests, with a few clicks of our fingers on any device.
How did you become involved with the Dulwich Society?
At first I was simply a member; there was no Communications and Media role. I mentioned to Brian Green that I’d researched the history of my previous house, so he suggested that I research the house in which I now live in Dulwich. Then I attended an event at the Picture Gallery run by Brian and the Local History Group about how you might research things in Dulwich. There was a representative from Southwark Local Studies, and Calista Lucy, the Keeper of the Archive at Dulwich College, spoke about what was there. So that was a rocket boost for my research. I explored the history of my house, showed it to Brian, who snapped it up for the Journal, swiftly issuing an invitation for me to join the History Group. There was no stopping me! I became the secretary of the group in 2015, a role I still have.
When the Dulwich Society needed a new website, I took on the migration of material from the old website to the new, with the intention of better presenting it. That developed into making posters for events. I’m the Keeper of the Key for the Society Noticeboard, so my communications go up there. I took on making the digital version of the Journal from Ian McInnes and the social media from Sue Badman. I was used to posting on Twitter every day for the History Group, scheduling the posts a month in advance, which got loads of enquiries, so I was ready to take on the social media, Twitter and Instagram for the Society. Recent changes, since Twitter morphed into X, make it harder for smaller groups to be heard, so the posts are less frequent. I try to highlight news in Dulwich including new businesses, road closure alerts, talks and events.
How did your passion for this kind of information gathering begin?
I’m a researcher, not an archivist, though I worked in the Archive at Dulwich College. My jobs have always been in research. My first job was statistical research. I worked for Michael Heseltine at the Department for the Environment. A lot of it was finding information about housing, helping to answer parliamentary questions. I worked in the City subsequently. So I would say that working in the archives at Dulwich College is another way of doing research, answering people’s enquiries, working out what information is needed and where it might be. You don’t have to know things; you just have to know where to find them.
What does being in charge of Communications and Media actually involve on a daily basis?
I split my volunteering for Dulwich Society into two, so for Communications and Media I go on social media every day, looking on Instagram and Twitter/X for things that might go into the newsletter or on the website. For example, when St Christopher’s was revamped, I did an article about the work of the hospice for the website. I’ll put a tiny clip on our monthly e-newsletter as a taster, pointing people towards the website where the full article can be found. I keep the website up to date, putting on minutes, notices and content from groups like Wildlife and Gardens. For example, I created a poster at Peter Roseveare’s request asking people to record what they could see in their gardens. I also post the local news and reviews. For the Local History Group, I’ll be answering enquiries with Ian McInnes, and doing research.
I check about 30 websites a month, including Bell House, local churches, schools, Brockwell Greenhouse, Dulwich Park Friends, and pick up information. I make the stories pop out. I was watching football on television the other day and the location for a McDonalds advert was Dulwich Picture Gallery, so I found a copy on YouTube and posted the link to say that we featured. No one has ever given me a brief; it’s just grown organically. I want to keep and make Dulwich lovely, make it nicer in small ways if I can. I like working alongside the other volunteers. I want to share what’s happening here, draw attention to good things people may not have had time to notice. Combined with my local history research, it’s just part of showing what makes Dulwich so interesting.
Research can lead to unexpected results as anyone who heard Sharon being interviewed on air about the award-winning Operation Mincemeat show at the Fortune Theatre will know. Supersleuth Sharon unlocked information that the rest of us wouldn’t know where to find, thus being catapulted into a media limelight all of her own last autumn. Incidentally, the unbelievable but true story about how a well-dressed corpse fooled Mr Hitler has a Dulwich connection.
Operation Mincemeat was a stunningly successful operation in WW2 to disguise the 1943 Allied invasion of Sicily. When the Germans scrutinised the correspondence they found on a man washed up onshore, who appeared to be a deceased English pilot, they were fooled into thinking the invasion was planned for Sardinia. Sharon explains:
I knew that the man whose ID was used for the fake pilot lived in Court Lane Gardens. I’d also seen a tweet from someone professing astonishment about the lack of information on the woman who had penned the letters found in his pockets. What was known about Hester Leggett, she asked the show’s creators? A blank. I thought, this is something I can do. Challenge accepted! I set about researching and realised that her name had been spelt wrongly. She was Hester Leggatt. I posted what I’d found with a note saying ‘I think this is her, but her name is wrong, could other people look and rebut? Tell me if I’m going in the right direction….’ and quite swiftly a bunch of some dozen or so of us wove the strands together using our different skills. We found the real Hester. The creators were delighted; part of their vision in devising the show is to shine a light on the forgotten people. In the script, two of the secretaries dream about getting a plaque. Brilliantly, the show’s creators made a plaque which was unveiled in the foyer: ‘To Hester who served her nation’ and honouring us, the people who found her. That’s when we met, the friends who had only met online before, at a party given for us to marvel at what we uncovered together. I’m a bit tenacious. I knew she must exist. Our research was shared with the nation: BBC News at Six, News at 10, World at One, Sky, ITV, Radio 4, Radio Buckinghamshire, the retirement home Hester moved to - everyone had an interest.
Before you research, whether it’s about a road or a person, you might well have a picture that turns out to be entirely wrong. Hester lived with her mother, but was clearly no shrinking violet.
When you research, you’re using the bones of records, for example births, deaths, marriages, and you fill in the gaps. If I know someone lived in a particular road, I can move forwards and backwards in a census to find out how long they were there. Then I check newspaper records and build up a picture. The question is, when do you stop? How many sources do you use before you sit down to write? Research is open-ended. More things are available to us now. We no longer go to the National Archive at Kew for records, or to the British Library for newspapers. Now you sit at home and it all comes to you.
So much goes on in Dulwich. There are lots of good people doing good things. The Society members know about them from reading the Journal. Using the tools of communications and social media, I’d like to bring the good news to more people’s attention.
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By Christine Brandon, membership secretary and publicity officer
“A wonderful talk brought to life by the presenter!”
So said a member of The Arts Society Dulwich (TASD) after a lecture on Art After Windrush. “What a treat! Does he have any other lectures?”, said another after a lecture on Vermeer - so we’re bringing back the speaker with a new subject. After The Nude, feedback included “Fascinating lecture - more another time?”, so we’re bringing back that presenter too. We always ask for feedback from members, which is useful to the committee planning future programmes and is passed on to the speaker. January’s The Music of Epiphany was particularly warmly received: “So lovely to have stunning music and paintings so informatively linked.” The presenter, who is a professional singer, also gave an impromptu concert to everyone’s delight.
The Arts Society Dulwich (TASD) is the Dulwich branch of The Arts Society, formerly NADFAS, one of 385 local societies throughout the UK, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. It was formed by Dulwich residents in 1973 and celebrated its 50th anniversary last summer. Annual membership - £60 single, £110 double from October - gets you ten top-class monthly lectures across a wide range of arts subjects delivered by speakers who have undergone a rigorous accreditation process to be included in The Arts Society’s Directory of Lecturers.
The talks are held in the comfortable surroundings of JAGS Sixth Form lecture theatre, off Green Dale, with parking available. Most people arrive in advance of the lecture to socialise and enjoy a glass of wine. Alternatively, members can watch the presentations live on Zoom. Non-members are welcome (£10 at the door, students £2), no booking required.
To be included in The Arts Society’s Directory of Lecturers, speakers must demonstrate a high level of subject expertise and engaging presentation skills in at least one area from “The study of the history, social history, techniques and materials, design and manufacture and collections of architecture, archaeology, painting, prints, sculpture, textiles, furniture, furnishings, costume, glass, jewellery, ceramics, enamel, metalwork, garden design and installation art, as well as the lives and influences of the artists, architects, craftsmen and patrons involved; also music, dance, theatre, literature and film.” At The Arts Society’s Directory Day, programme secretaries and committee members have the opportunity to talk to lecturers and listen to their one-minute taster presentations.
Like many other local societies, The Arts Society Dulwich’s committee is made up of volunteers. They are responsible for the lecture programme, accounts, membership, visits, events, publicity and the website.
As well as monthly lectures from October to July, TASD arranges visits such as Behind the Scenes at the Royal Opera House and Art Detectives at the National Gallery. Guided walks are also organised that bring to life the amazing history of parts of London that one barely notices today, as well as occasional social events. The Arts Society’s Greater London Area offers a comprehensive programme of study days in Central London, encouraging deeper exploration of arts-related subjects.
The Arts Society Dulwich is a registered charity and has given grants for arts-related projects to some local schools and Dulwich Picture Gallery this year.
The lecture programme starts again in October and includes Hogarth at the Hustings (very appropriate in General Election season), 19th Century Opera and The Top 20 Most Popular Artworks in Britain. Contact
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Art and Well-Being at Bell House
Bell House is fast becoming a major creative community hub in Dulwich Village. The range of events and opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds to learn new creative skills grows year on year.
It is now well documented that the arts are essential for our well-being and taking part in a creative activity is good for both physical and mental health. Local artist Sarah Wetherall set up the Creative Arts Club at Bell House with these tenets firmly in mind. The classes give people the opportunity to discover creative activities that perhaps they never knew they could access and that can go on to become skills for life. As well as drawing and painting, the activities run over the past years include gilding, collage, marbling, cyanotype printing, mediaeval illuminated lettering (involving making paint from eggs!), driftwood mirror making, decoupage …. There really is something for everyone at the Creative Arts Club.
Sarah is a local artist and experienced workshop leader with an interesting and varied career in fine and applied arts and it is this experience and variety that she brings to her classes, as well as first-hand knowledge that creativity, quite simply, benefits everyone.
Sarah trained in fine art at Exeter College of Art and Design, after which she spent a year apprenticed to a picture restorer in London. She then worked in the broader field of interior design, where she was employed to create special paint finishes and murals for clients in central London, as well as in grand country houses. Sarah’s ability to imitate and reproduce any surface or image accurately brought her to the attention of two founder members of the Spitalfields Historic Buildings Trust, who own the historic Hazlitt’s group of hotels in London. Sarah has been their in-house artist ever since and over the years has not only marbled, wood grained and gilded every surface that could not accommodate the real thing, but has also painted “historical” oil portraits and landscapes to hang alongside the genuine articles that decorate their atmospheric Georgian hotels. Just don’t ask which are which!
Over the years, Sarah’s commissions to paint master copies and historical originals include a 17th century Thames View for The Haberdashers’ Livery Company and a portrait of one of Queen Elizabeth I’s favourite courtiers, an ancestor of the Waugh family. (Incidentally Sarah has also painted Elizabeth I!) One exciting commission to explore symbolism in Dutch still life painting led to her “Still Life Block” paintings - highly collectable, miniature works of art painted in oils on gilded pine, which have proved very popular and sold widely.
Sarah has run classes for diverse groups of all ages. She taught at Dulwich Picture Gallery for 10 years, initially working across all the educational programmes, but her main interest became community engagement and outreach. Dulwich Picture Gallery pioneered the innovative “Good Times - Art for Older People” programme, which became the model for establishing similar initiatives across galleries and museums nationwide. This became Sarah’s main focus during her time there, and she had training to work specifically with people with dementia and older people in care home settings. Sarah has been privileged to witness first-hand the many therapeutic benefits that can be derived from taking part in a creative activity, at any age or stage in life.
Bell House is a warm, welcoming and beautiful setting for anyone wishing to take time out of their busy lives to enjoy making some art. So come along to one of Sarah’s classes and get creative - you will feel so much better for it!
To find out more about Sarah’s work: www.clockworkstudios.co.uk/artist/sarah-wetherall
To find out more about the art classes: www.bellhouse.co.uk/upcoming-events
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Friday 21st June, 7.30pm, at St Stephen’s Church, College Road SE21 7HW
April 2024 marked the bicentenary of the death of Lord Byron, one of the greatest of the English Romantic poets. The event is being commemorated with a concert on Friday 21st June and the Dulwich Society is delighted to collaborate in this event by offering a guided walk around Dulwich Woods earlier that day, incorporating historical facts about Byron and his school days in Dulwich.
Many of our readers will know that the Grove Tavern, at the junction of Dulwich Common and Lordship Lane, was once a small boarding school, attended, between 1799 and 1801 by a young George Gordon Byron. Byron’s mother sent him there in the hope of getting better treatment for his lameness in London than was available at his home, Newstead Abbey, in Nottinghamshire.
Lord Byron is the author of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, the work which first brought him fame in 1812, and Don Juan (1819-1824), both lengthy narrative poems about restless, wandering ‘heroes’. The adventures of these young, womanising, reckless men take them around Europe and plunge them into the midst of battles.
The theme of the concert, ‘The Wanderer and the Solider’, therefore encapsulates two significant themes running through Byron’s epic poetry. Presented by SongEasel, an Arts Charity based in South East London, the concert also makes reference to two other pupils of Dr Glennie’s academy: the pedestrian Robert Barclay, after whom Barclay Way, SE22 is named; and Major-General John Gaspard Le Marchant, a great British cavalry commander. It will include a range of well-loved songs on these themes in English, French and German, performed by the internationally acclaimed tenor Mark Padmore CBE, accompanied by Jocelyn Freeman on the piano.
The guided walk, offered by the Dulwich Society, will depart from the Horniman Museum at 3.30pm and will be about 90 minutes long, ending at Dulwich Woodhouse at 5pm for drinks and dinner. The walk will include steep slopes and slippery paths and might not be manageable for those with limited mobility. The group will then walk to St Stephen’s Church to arrive in time for the concert. For further details see www.songeasel.co.uk
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Erich Korngold Theme and Variations
Grace Williams Violin Concerto
Modest Mussorgsky / Maurice Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition
Saturday 29th June, 7.30pm, at All Saints West Dulwich, Lovelace Road SE21 8JY
Our soloist is Stephen Bryant, violinist and leader of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. In addition to playing with the BBC, Stephen is also in demand as a guest leader, and has led all the British orchestras and a number of orchestras in America, Europe and Asia. He coaches and teaches at all the London Music Colleges and has sat on the panel of the BBC Young Musicians Competition.
In March 2017, Stephen was made an Honorary Fellow of the Guild of Musicians and Singers in recognition of ‘an outstanding contribution to orchestral music, solo performance and orchestral coaching’.
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