The Spike - a place of peace for restless minds скачать в хорошем качестве

The Spike - a place of peace for restless minds

This film looks at the history of the Camberwell Resettlement Unit, which, over the course of its 160 year history, offered temporary accommodation to more than one million homeless men. The film starts with the hostel’s beginnings in Nazareth House in Peckham started by the Sisters of Christian Retreat in 1848, as place to help the poor. It goes on to explore the involvement of the Camberwell Board of Guardians who took over the building in 1850 as an extension of the nearby Gordon Road and Constance Road workhouses. The ‘Spike’, as it came to be known, was famous in the area and it is thought that the writer George Orwell stayed there when he wrote 'Down and Out' in Paris and London. The film features an interview with a man who stayed at the unit and another who worked in the area during the 1960s. They muse about the origins of the name and talk about life at the Spike. The film goes on to look at the work of The Spike Surplus Scheme who started a community venture in 1990 from a small portion of land that remained from the old workhouse site in Consort Road which was was spared from sale to a housing association. The Spike Surplus Scheme provided a range of community activities until it closed in 2008. Part of Southwark Archive’s film collection. Produced and edited Sarah Bear and Fil Itistv. 2009. This film is part of the Southwark Film Collection. For more information on this collection please contact Southwark Archives by email at archives@southwark.gov.uk.