To celebrate 60 Years of the Pepys Estate, Pepys Community Hub asks what it means to document and remember this place today. Opening on the 18th of July 2026 with a special event, and running until the 18th of November 2026.
Reflecting on the past, present and future, we will examine the changes, struggles, achievements and transformations that have defined the area and its people, with a participatory exhibition -including photography, painting, video, sound recording, and installation. Throughout the exhibition we will be inviting further contributions, recollections and feedback as we collectively recall and reimagine the area and its history.
Contributions from Arthur Torrington, Alice Devine & Nick Allen, Antonia Beard, Chris Holley, Douglas Bousquet, Dionne Newsome, Ian & Janet Dunning, Ken Thomas, Lee West, Malcolm Cadman, Maria Clara Calixto Andrade, Sarah Garrod, Shiroma Ratne, Sonke Prigge, Steve Burden, Steve Hammond, ReMiSo - the band.
Opened in 1966, the Pepys Estate is one of the largest housing estates in the UK, built on the site of a former naval victualling yard. It was designed by the Architect Edward (Ted) Hollamby, who was well known in the 20th century. The estate takes its name from the diarist Samuel Pepys, whose work and diaries memorialised the 17th century. An era of dramatic change, the site itself functioning as the seedbed of Britain’s colonial empire, endeavour and trade. The good, the bad and the ugly.
Today, we ask what it would mean to write a diary now - and expand our view beyond the lens of a few, to the many lives that have passed through the area, current and former residents and those affected further afield by the ideas propagated at this site. To mark the occasion, we will explore the story of the Pepys Estate through the perspectives of those who have lived, worked and been shaped by it.
