The Pioneer Building

80 years on… a living inspiration

When the Pioneer Health Centre, Peckham closed its doors in 1950, staff member Mary Langman wrote that what was at stake had the delicacy and vulnerability of a living thing. Indeed the Peckham Experiment, as it became known, was called by its founders ‘a study of the living structure of society’. A recent meeting of those whose lives have been influenced by Peckham showed that its legacy is alive and that the belief in human potential, humane systems and human scale development has a powerful resonance today. On Saturday 19th September members old and new gathered for conversation and reflection to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the opening of the Centre in St Mary’s Road. The subject of our enquiry, now as then: what is health and what are the conditions for cultivating it in individuals, families and communities? Colin Ward wrote that the Peckham Experiment provides ‘an empirical verification about our deepest convictions’. Those convictions about freeing people to live well were strongly articulated and shared in our conversation. For Pam Elven, what had mattered to her as a child at the Pioneer Health Centre was the opportunity to satisfy her curiosity, try out new experiences and make friends. For her sister Vi health meant mental wellbeing and her memories were of the freedom of play, a feeling she had carried into adult life.