The September programme is out: over 80 walks, talks and tours, most of them free. The Local History Fair is at Brixton library on 5 September.
The Lambeth Heritage Festival runs through September, and the printed programme is now out. It carries over 80 events and activities, and it is in its fourteenth year. The festival is run jointly by Lambeth Archives and the Lambeth Local History Forum (programme brochure, PDF).
A large share of it is free. Some free events need booking and some do not, and that is the thing to check per event rather than assume. Where numbers are capped they are capped hard: the Lambeth Archives tours take 10 people a session, and the National Trust house on Wandsworth Road takes six.
The council’s listing is at lambeth.gov.uk/lambeth-heritage-festival.
The two things to put in the diary first
Local History Fair, Saturday 5 September, 10.00am to 4.30pm, Brixton Tate Library, Brixton Oval, SW2 1JQ. Entry is free. The fair always falls on the first Saturday of September and moves around the borough; the brochure notes it last came to Brixton library in 2019. It runs talks, walks, building tours, society stands and bookstalls all day. Three of the talks need no booking at all:
- 11.00am, the story of the Tate Library itself and of Henry Tate who paid for it, from Bill Linskey, a former chair of the Brixton Society
- 12.30pm, Brixton Windmill at 210 years, from Nicholas Weedon, chair of the Friends of Windmill Gardens
- 2.00pm, Brockwell Park in postcards, from Peter Bradley
Architecture tours of Lambeth Town Hall run hourly from 10.00am to 3.00pm, led by the council’s conservation officer. They are free but must be booked. One warning from the brochure: there are no refreshments in the library.
Ghosts of the High Street, Lambeth Archives, 16 Brixton Hill, SW2 1ET. A retrospective of David Western, who has painted London’s streets and buildings since moving from Sussex in the early 1980s. The brochure describes paintings, prints, maps and drawings from a quarter-century of South London, “much” of which “has been demolished or altered beyond recognition”. It opens 1 September and continues until 3 October, free, no booking. Opening hours are uneven, so check before travelling: Monday 1.00pm to 8.00pm, Tuesday and Thursday 10.00am to 6.00pm, Friday 10.00am to 3.00pm, Saturday 9.00am to 1.00pm and 2.00pm to 5.00pm.
Clapham
Five events sit in Clapham. None of them carries a ticket price in the brochure, though three ask for donations to the Clapham Society.
- Sunday 6 September, 2.30pm. The History of Clapham Common, from medieval grazing ground to today. Meet at the bandstand, SW4 0AB. Free, donations to the Clapham Society welcome, but booking is essential by email to tom.jansz@hotmail.co.uk.
- Saturday 12 September, 3.00pm. Clapham Park and the Cubitt connection, a 1.5 mile walk past houses and roads built by Thomas Cubitt. Meet at Thornton Road and Emmanuel Road, SW12 0LL. Free, donations welcome, booking essential by email to nigelbassindale@gmail.com.
- From Wednesday 16 September. “Drawn into your presence”, a four-part programme by the local photographer Jim Grover at St James’ Church, Park Hill, SW4 9PB. Free, no booking, and it runs to Sunday 18 October. Open Wednesday to Sunday 11am to 6pm, 7pm on Saturdays and 8pm on Thursdays.
- Monday 21 September, 7.30pm. Clapham in 1815: Saints, sinners, and the first Dads’ Army, at the Omnibus Theatre, 1 Clapham Common North Side, SW4 0QW. The Clapham Society’s history group works through Daniel Gould’s plan of the households around the Common. No booking needed.
- Saturday 26 September, 11.00am. Clapham Old Town, from St Paul’s Church on Rectory Grove, SW4 0DZ, down to Old Town, along Northside to Trinity Hospice and across the Common. Free, donations welcome, booking essential by email to gapingill@yahoo.co.uk.
Brixton and Brixton Hill
- Saturday 5 September, 3.30pm. Brixton Ghost Signs Walk, one hour from outside Brixton library. Free, no booking.
- Wednesday 9 September, 7.15pm to 9.15pm. The annual windmill talk, on why Brixton’s Ashby family moved to the Wandle. Brixton Windmill Centre, 100 Blenheim Gardens, SW2 5DA. Free.
- Thursday 10 September and Saturday 19 September, 11.00am and 3.00pm. Behind the scenes at Lambeth Archives’ new Brixton Hill building, including the strongroom. Free, but each tour is limited to 10 people. The entrance is level and the strongroom is reached by lift, though the walkways down there are narrow.
- Saturday 12 September, 2.30pm. Become an Archive Detective, a hands-on workshop at Lambeth Archives for children aged 7 to 12. Free, booking needed.
- Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 September, 1.00pm to 5.00pm. Free drop-in tours of Brixton Windmill, run as part of Heritage Open Days and Open House. No booking, but expect to queue.
- Wednesday 23 September, 2.30pm. Brixton’s plaques, blue and otherwise, 90 minutes from Brixton Underground station. Free, places limited.
- Saturday 26 September, 2.30pm. The Heart of Brixton, Jon Newman on the Georgian and Regency suburb behind Windrush Square. Starts at Lambeth Archives with early maps. Free, booking needed.
- Sunday 27 September, 1.00pm to 5.00pm. Harvest festival at Brixton Windmill: live music, food, children’s games, craft and baking workshops. Free.
Streatham, West Norwood and the rest of the borough
- Monday 7 September, 1.00pm. St Leonard’s churchyard, bell tower and medieval crypt, Streatham’s oldest building, SW16 1HS. £5.
- Saturday 12 September, 12.30pm. A walk through Lambeth’s woodlands including Streatham Common and Unigate Wood, from the Rookery Café, SW16 3BX. Free, booking needed, donations to London Wildlife Trust welcome.
- Sunday 20 September, 2.00pm. A nine-mile cycle ride along the whole course of the River Effra, Lambeth’s longest lost river, from Crystal Palace to Nine Elms. Free, booking needed. Bring a bike you trust and expect some climbing.
- Saturday 26 September, 10.30am. Furzedown’s industrialists and intrigues, from outside the Furzedown pub on Mitcham Lane, SW16 6NR. £12, or £9 for Streatham Society members.
- Saturday 26 September, 2.00pm. Common to All? The history and future of common land at Clapham, Streatham, Tooting and Rush Commons, at West Norwood Library. Free, booking needed.
- Fridays 4, 11 and 25 September, 12.30pm to 1.30pm. Free curator’s talks at The Clockworks, 6 Nettlefold Place, West Norwood, SE27 0JW, on the history of electrical and standardised time.
West Norwood Cemetery runs its own strand across the month, including First and Second World War tours on Saturday 12 September and a night tour on Sunday 13 September, all bookable by a £10 donation to the Friends of West Norwood Cemetery.
What it means for you
Book early for anything at Lambeth Archives or 575 Wandsworth Road. Ten places and six places respectively will go, and the archives tour runs only twice in the month.
If you only do one thing, the free Saturday at Brixton library on 5 September gives you three talks, a walk and a town hall tour without spending anything or booking most of it.
Watch the pricing wording. Several walks are listed as free “but donations welcome” to the Clapham Society, the Brixton Society or London Wildlife Trust, and several of the cemetery tours are “booking by donation (£10)”, which is a charge in practice. Two-for-one early-bird tickets are offered on some of the paid walks.
Getting to the Local History Fair is easy: the brochure lists routes 2, 3, 35, 37, 45, 59, 109, 133, 159, 196, 250, 333, 355, 415, 432, 690 and P4 as stopping near Brixton library, with Brixton Underground and the rail station both a short walk.
Cllr Natalie Kane, cabinet member for inclusion, democracy and culture, writes in the brochure’s foreword that the programme is “rich and innovative” and that it is “vital that Lambeth’s people and places is shared as widely as possible”.
Check our things to do in Clapham page for more listings, and the roadworks and travel page before you set off, because the A23 through Streatham Hill and Brixton Hill is being rebuilt throughout September.
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