2-720-539 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Tenants' rent strike, Peckham, south east London, 1931, (1933). 'Peckham was the scene of an extensive "war" during the November of 1931'. Council tenants at Wakefield House, Goldsmith Estate, resist changes to rents in the aftermath of the Depression which caused 'serious distress among the poor; one section, threatened with eviction for non-payment of rates, banded together to resist the action of the sheriffs' officers. Picketing and passwords were instituted and, subsequently, several arrests were made. The main cause of complaint was that rents had to be paid quarterly instead of weekly.' From "The Pageant of the Century". [Odhams Press Ltd, 1933]