So the other day I had to take a break. It was another sunny one and I jumped on my bike and headed for Hampstead Heath. I love water so it was my first thought to go for a swim at the ponds. I went alone. It was lush.
I stayed over at a friend’s house in North London and got up early keen to return to the Spike with something. So I headed for the London Metropolitan Archive again. I was on a mission to get proof that George Orwell had stayed. I’d seen on the internet that his tramping name was PS Burton and that he was wandering in the early 30s so I just needed to look at the admission books from then. I located the microfilm and got flicking through the pages. Slowly slowly through the Bs. Nothing on the first page of them, or the second, or the third. Then came the forth. It was ripped. Half a page totally missing. No other pages in the whole thing were torn. I couldn’t believe our bad luck. So maybe we will never know.
But I did have a funny thought whilst I was there. I wished I’d thought it before we registered the Trust name (Peckham Community Property Trust).
Before The Spike was handed over to the London County Council in 1932 it belonged to The Camberwell Board of Guardians. We’re a board of guardians. It might have made the history papers a little confusing..
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