Deptford

I had a really good chat with this man who was campaigning for a local political party named 'Lewisham People Before Profit'. I asked him about his experience of living in the area, he has lived round Deptford for 30 years and has seen it change in many ways. He spoke of the times when he would call in squatters to occupy old council houses that the council wanted to sell off. He wanted to stop them selling them and renovate them back into council houses for people who needed them instead of big corporations buying them and selling them as flash apartments. I stood and talked to him for a good 45 minutes and agreed with a lot of his ideas and plans for Lewisham. I could tell he really cared about the community and the people around Deptford, unlike many mainstream parties. The people around Deptford  were so interested in what he had to say in particular about supporting local businesses and shops. 

I also had a good chat with Tony, the man  in the orange hi-vis jacket in the left of the picture. I asked him about his experience of not only living in Deptford but working on the market. I asked him if he felt like there was a community surrounding Deptford and he quickly replied with a stern 'NO', he said how everyone these days are in it for themselves, people pretend to be your friend and help you out but its all a front. He also told me how he came to England from Jamaica over 30 years ago and came to Deptford, he said it was different then, there was more of a sense of a community . He  told me his view on the male population of today, particularly surrounding Deptford and described that there were 'no gentleman anymore', and if anyone is friendly or behaves in a gentlemanly manner, it is perceived as creepy or not cool. He told me that he had worked for Peter on the market as a lookout for a number of years and that Peter was a 'good man who treated me (him) well'. It was really insightful to talk to someone who had not only lived in Deptford but worked on the market as I see it as a completely different place than he does, he knows the true Deptford.