History



78 Lyndhurst Way in Peckham, South London, has a chaotic history. In 2000 the Grade-II
Listed house was sold to an investment company who evicted its rent-paying tenants. Left
derelict it was squatted soon after until these residents were also evicted.

After this particular eviction the owner had the house boarded up. In 2005 a second group
of squatters took possession of the building. In an eccentric gesture the landlord made a
verbal agreement with the squatters allowing them to stay in the house providing that they
paid the gas bill, let estate agents in when necessary, did not hold rave parties on the premises
and left when instructed. During this period the water pressure decreased, reducing the
household to a single, cold basement tap, the gas supply was disconnected and the house was
infested with rats, leaving it barely habitable.

A year and a half since this occupation began, the house was sold on to another investment
company and the new owners came to a caretaking agreement with a young artist who had
been living there. This artist invited his friends and other artists he admired to work at the
house, and in time rooms began to be cleared and restored for use as studio spaces.

In the autumn of 2006 the first exhibition was held at 78 Lyndhurst Way. 10 Rooms and a
Sculpture Garden included work by over 20 young artists living and working in South London.
The second group exhibition, Colour and Line followed in January 2007. Since then
exhibitions have been held monthly at the house organised by a small core group of artists
working in film, photography, sculpture, painting and drawing (James Balmforth, Oliver
Griffin, Bobby Dowler, Shaun McDowell, Christopher Green). Together they have exhibited
new work by more than 60 young English and international artists. More recently the space
at Lyndhurst Way has been supplemented by other local spaces which have been used for
more ambitious exhibitions: an exhibition of large-scale, site-specific works of art
Monumental Painting, Sculpture and Film in a 45,000 sq. ft. old timber merchant behind
Will Alsop’s Peckham Library and an exhibition of outdoor sculpture on the roof terrace
of Sumner House, an old Victorian schoolhouse in Peckham town centre.

78 Lyndhurst Way was granted planning permission by Southwark Council in June 2007.
The artists have established new improvised dwellings, studio and office in an old pub in
Camberwell.