Starting at Bostall Heath in the south-east and finishing at Putney Heath in the south-west, a chain of commons runs in a wide arc across the whole of South London.
We’re chuffed to be newly stocking volumes 1 & 2 of a beautiful series of zines mixing history, ecology, psychogeography, architecture, poetry and memoir to unpack how, taken together, the commons provide the key to the South London landscape.
Bostall Heath to Plumstead Common: A South London Landscape History
The first zine in the series explores the first three commons in the chain. Written by landscape historian John Gray, it features photos shot on 1960s film stock by Woolwich-based photographer Sam Walton, as well as Risograph-printed reproductions of vintage postcards. The cover was designed and printed on a letterpress by Peckham’s Nice & Graphic studio, using Victorian type. The interior was printed by the legendary PageMasters Risograph studio out of Lewisham.
CONTENTS: A potted history of the South London landscape, from the Anglo Saxons to the Victorians—the glories of Thamesmead—acorns in the leaf mould—gorse and clay—Bostall Woods, how they were saved—on finding and not finding the heath—edgeland flatscape—architectural smorgasbord—“In the midst of life we are in death”—Winn’s Common—the bronze age in Plumstead—an early masterpiece by Berthold Lubetkin—the five idlers of Plumstead Common—a manic man in a manic time—tearing down fences, burning effigies of landowners—the origins of Arsenal FC—the lost commons of South London—the Commons Preservation Movement: how the commons were saved and where it got us—“When will we begin turning golf courses into woods, office blocks into fields, industrial estates back into wetlands?”
Woolwich Common to Eltham Common: A South London Landscape History
Written by landscape historian John Gray and featuring photographs by Woolwich-based photographer Sam Walton, this second zine in the series explores a pair of ancient commons. The cover is a cyanotype by artist Sally Gunnett, created using plants from Woolwich Common and evoking ancestral rights of common. The cyanotype was then Risograph printed by Lewisham’s PageMasters, along with the rest of the publication.
CONTENTS: “How does landscape manifest as a system of memory?”—the topography of South London—Shooter’s Hill—a love letter to Woolwich Common—walking its convoluted history—“part blasted heath, part great park”—Blue Danube—buried Blitz rubble—Nightingales in Woolwich—the house Bernadine Evaristo grew up in—echoes of imperialism inscribed in the landscape—colonial rabbits and colonial dogs—the South London Vernacular—the virtue of eclecticism out of the necessity of randomised destruction—Eltham Common and the old Dover Road—Kossowski’s mural on the Old Kent Road, one of the jewels of South London—the common and the gallows—in defence of Mock Tudor—Peter Barber’s Rochester Way: the best of contemporary architecture—the worst: Kidbrooke Village—not a place for walking free—Outer South London Vernacular, from Eltham to New Malden—an unremarkable scrap of grass.
The zines are £10 each, and available to buy here in our Bandcamp shop.