The Story of a Peckham Site: Jones & Higgins and the Aylesham Centre
On Tuesday 20th July, Peckham activists and enthusiasts, Derek Kinrade, Nancy Coleman Frank and Benny O’Looney gave a Peckham Heritage Talk on the history of the Aylesham Centre site, which has been the heart of Peckham since its early settlement as a rural hamlet.
The site has been largely formed by the success and expansion of the Jones & Higgins department store in the late 19th and 20th centuries. This talk looked at the early history of this site, how it was shaped by Jones & Higgins, and how the architectural quality of the site was unravelled by war-time damage and the creation of the low-density Aylesham shopping centre in the 1980s.
With a proposal coming forward for the comprehensive development of the Aylesham Centre site, it’s timely to tell the story of the site so far.
The talk was recorded can be access via this You Tube link. Thanks to Derek, Nancy and Benny for their knowledgeable and fascinating presentations.
