With funding from the London Museum’s Community Associates programme, The Peel has been delving into its rich heritage.
By Barbara Jacobson
The London Museum’s Community Associates programme came at a very good time for us. Only a few months before it started a batch of old Annual Reports dating 1906-1975 turned up after someone broke into storage on our site, which gave us amazing material to work with.
We decided to build our project around these reports, which were in a variety of states but mostly ok and readable. Working with the Adult Social Club at The Peel we held two workshops in March to survey their condition and content, and introduce what conservation work is needed. Eight people attended these, and four had long-term relationships with The Peel going back to their childhoods.
Many of the workshop participants remarked on the religious and moral background to all the activities. In the 1934/35 report there was mention of ‘Temperance Billiards’ as The Peel, with its roots in the Quaker faith, also strove to give moral guidance to its members. But it was sensitive to trends, so in 1932 their Sunday Afternoon Meetings, where a range of topics were discussed, was moved to Finsbury Town Hall in line with ‘the growing antipathy towards religion.’
The Peel’s Youth Club also benefited from the information in the reports, and towards the end of the Easter break all fourteen aged 5-16 went on a walking tour of three different sites where The Peel was active in south Clerkenwell. One thing which interested them was the fact that so many buildings had courtyards and back buildings for light industry. This was true of the original Peel headquarters on the site of a courtyard where wooden ‘peels’ had been made to slide bread in and out of large ovens.
One of the participants even found The Peel on YouTube, where there’s a Pathė News clip of a Peel boy winning a boxing match at Albert Hall in 1946!
In June the adults had a great time visiting the London Museum Docklands site to see the Sainsbury Archive held there, with a special tour of the backrooms and storage. We also had a workshop where we actively conserved the reports – taking rusty staples out and stitching the reports back together using acid-free thread. Due to popular demand we will have another conservation workshop on Monday 14 July, 1pm, hopefully finishing work on the reports.
Photos of our visit to the Sainsbury Archive at London Museum Docklands by Penny Dampier.
