Latest Walworth News – Early June 2026

1. Walworth Society June meeting – 7pm Weds 17th June (in person only) Our next general WS meeting will be held at 7pm on Wednesday 17th June at the Crypt, St Peter’s Church Liverpool Grove, SE17 2HH. We apologise that there is no online link and that the meeting will be in person only.   Our draft agenda for the meeting is: 1. Welcome, apologies and introductions. 2. Action points from our May 2026 meeting and matters arising. 3. Miatta Fahnbulleh MP – updates on issues in Walworth & E&C. 4. Harry Townsend Inspiring Elephant project – update Lynda Waterhouse. 5. Planning matters inc. proposed McDonalds. 6. Other issues. 7. AOB and date of next meeting (Weds 15th July). To download the minutes of the May meeting, click here

2. St John’s Parish History Day Saturday June 6th (from 12 noon) A message from St John’s Walworth Come and view some exciting displays about the history of St John’s Church, St John’s School and the wider parish (from Heygate Street to East Street). There’ll be a talk on our history, a chance to help us build a timeline of memories, and a opportunities to look ahead to the future as we plan how to re-imagine our outside space on Larcom Street. Plus…A FREE AFTERNOON TEA! All are welcome to come for all or part of the day!.  There is also a really interesting feature on the day in Southwark News: https://southwarknews.co.uk/area/walworth/learn-about-the-remarkable-history-of-st-johns-church-in-walworth-church-at-a-free-open-day The planned timings are:

3. Pullens Open Studios – Friday 5th to Sunday 7th June Pullens Open Studios 2026 Friday 5th to Sunday 7th June at Iliffe, Clements and Peacock Yards.

4. Local News. 1. Southwark Council are holding a short survey about the Victory Community Park history board project and would really value local input. It’s a chance to help shape how the park’s history is shared. The survey will close on Monday 15th June 2026 Take the survey here: https://engage.southwark.gov.uk/en-GB/projects/victory-community-park-history-board 2. Southwark News feature on the refusal of planning permission to Berkeley Homes for the redevelopment of the Aylesham Centre in Peckham:  https://southwarknews.co.uk/area/peckham/aylesham-centre-redevelopment-rejected-it-would-have-changed-peckhams-skyline-forever-and-given-12-per-cent-affordable-housing 3. Pembroke House Becoming Neighbours project – stories of the Pembroke House residency. Really interesting publication to commemorate this project here 4. Walworth Garden. News of the remaining free places for Southwark residents on a number of summer workshops here 5. From Southwark Council the latest What’s On along with news of the new administration which is taking over the running of the council – here 6. Walworth Kids Xmas Lights Project. Don’t miss the exhibition tomorrow evening – Thurs 4th June from 5.30–8pm being held in the Community Space of the Walworth Town Hall (entrance Walworth Road) – of the designs that will be used to transform the Walworth Road this winter with 21 full-scale Christmas lights along the Walworth Road. All are welcome.

5. Cinema Museum Kennington Bioscope Present: You Ain’t Heard Nothin’ Yet (1894 – 1929). Sunday 14th June 10am to 10.30 pm: You Ain’t Heard Nothin’ Yet!” – Film, Sound, Music and Entertainment 1894 – 1929.  See and hear drama, music and entertainment! A day-long event exploring the many attempts to combine sound with film, from The Dickson Experimental Sound Film of 1894 to the advent of the feature-length musical. Includes a very special programme, Phono-Cinéma-Théatre, in which pianist John Sweeney presents synchronised sound-on-cylinder hand-tinted films made for the Paris Exposition of 1900, with live musical accompaniment. 10.00 – 10:45 Sound in the Silent Era 1894-1929: Dave Peabody shows us some of the earliest and most fascinating examples of sound being used with film. Films to include The Dickson Experimental Sound Film of 1894 (pictured above, William K.L. Dickson plays the violin), a song from a Lehar operetta filmed in Germany around 1909, an Edison film from 1913, and A Plantation Act featuring Al Jolson in 1926. 11:00 – 12:00 British sound film experiments: Tony Fletcher presents a selection of incredible rarities on 35mm from the BFI, demonstrating the British attempts at marrying sound with film, including Nervo and Knox in Their Famous Dance Scene ‘The Love of the Phtohtenese’. 12:15 – 13:15 British Sound Feature Film: Signed publicity photo of the actor Frances Doble.Geoff Brown, author of Silent to Sound: British Cinema in Transition introduces Dark Red Roses (1929), directed by Sinclair Hill and starring Stewart Rome, Frances Doble and Una O’Connor. An early example of a British feature film that utilises inventive use of sound. Featuring a lurid plot around a jealous sculptor fixated on the idea that his wife is having an affair with a young cellist, it includes a ballet sequence featuring George Balanchine. (BFI 35mm print) 13:15 Lunch 14:00 – 15:00 Selected Vitaphone Shorts: Malcolm Billingsley and Dave Peabody present the pioneering sound-on-disc system developed by Western Electric and Bell Telephone Laboratories, used by Warner Bros between 1926 and 1931 to revolutionise cinema with “talkies”. It synchronised 16-inch phonograph records with film projectors. “Vitaphone will bring to the audiences in every corner of the world the music of the greatest symphony orchestras and vocal entertainment of the most popular stars of the operatic, vaudeville and theatrical field.” Harry Warner. 15:15 – 17:15 Don Juan (1926): Romance, action, music. Don Juan had everything audiences wanted. Directed by Alan Crosland and starring John Barrymore and Mary Astor, the film was a box-office success being Warner Bros’ biggest grossing film to date. It was the first major motion picture to premiere with a full-length synchronised soundtrack. George Groves, on assignment from The Vitaphone Corporation, was charged with recording an orchestral soundtrack, with synchronised effects, for this silent feature film. He devised an innovative, multi-microphone technique and performed a live mix of the 107-piece New York Philharmonic Orchestra. In doing so he became the first music mixer in film history. 17:30 – 19:00 Phono-Cinéma-Théatre (1900):  The performer Little Titch balancing on the tips of his comedy shoes, against a painted backdrop.John Sweeney, Anna Gillespie, and Frank Bockius provide live musical accompaniment. The first publicly exhibited films that combined projected images with sound-on-cylinder. Made by Gaumont in France and shown at the Paris Exposition of 1900, these short, often hand-tinted films feature famous stage actors, dancers and comedians, including Sarah Bernhardt and English music hall star Little Tich (pictured here). Showing here in London for the very first time! Read Neil Brand’s write-up of this wonderful show when it was presented at the Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone (link opens in a new tab). 19:00 Dinner 20:00 – 22:30 The Broadway Melody (1929): Kevin Brownlow and Catherine A. Surowiec introduce The Broadway Melody. Directed by Harry Beaumont and starring Charles King (pictured below), Anita Page, and Bessie Love (nominated for Best Actress at the 2nd Academy Awards), this was Hollywood’s first all-talking musical. Original music was written by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown, including the popular hit “You Were Meant for Me”. It was the first sound film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. “This picture is great. It will revolutionize the talkies“, wrote Edwin Schallert for Motion Picture News. “The direction is an amazing indication of what can be done in the new medium.” Tickets £8 – £21 Get tickets click here. Dinner at the vegan Jamyang Café £14 For more information click here, The Cinema Museum: The Master’s House, 2 Dugard Way (off Renfrew Road), London SE11 4TH.