The Peckham Experiment

The Peckham Experiment took place between 1926 and 1950, initially generated by rising public concern over the health of the working class and an increasing interest in preventative social medicine. George Scott Williamson (1884-1953) and Innes Hope Pearse (1889-1978), a husband and wife team, opened the Pioneer Health Centre in a working class area - Peckham, south east London, specifically chosen because it was not exceptionally deprived - in a house in Queen's Road SE5 in 1926. Their aim was to study health as a medical condition in a manner comparable to studies of the natural history of disease. The first phase closed in 1929. The findings on the poor health discovered among of the local population were disseminated, and funding sought to build a larger, purpose-designed, Centre. The Centre re-opened in 1935 in a purpose-built Modern building, often quoted as an early example of how new architectural techniques could help further bold new social experiments.

Williamson and Pearse recruited 950 local families to be part of 'The Peckham Experiment'. Paying one shilling (5 pence) a week, they had access to a range of activities such as physical exercise, swimming, games and workshops. Members underwent a medical examination once a year, and they were monitored throughout the year as they participated in the Centre’s events. Central to Scott Williamson's philosophy was the belief that left to themselves people would spontaneously begin to organise in a creative way, and this happened, the members initiating a wide range of sporting, social and cultural activities using the facilities offered by the Centre

The Pioneer Centre was designed by Sir Owen Williams and moved away from the idea of traditional lines dominating medical buildings. Williams created a large open space using the latest structural techniques allowing the Centre's doctors to properly observe the members. At the middle of the Centre a large swimming pool was covered by a glazed roof, which, along with large areas of windows, allowed natural light in to the building. These windows could be fully opened to circulate fresh air into the building. The cork floors allowed people to move about barefoot.

The Centre went into abeyance because of the Second World War from 1939 to 1946, but was restored to a condition fit for re-opening by the members themselves. In 1950, however, it finally closed, since its innovative approach did not fit well into the parameters of the new National Health Service, and it proved impossible to obtain adequate funding from other sources to keep it going as an independent concern. As noted by Duncan (1985), “In many ways, both the wellness movement and the family practice movement were foreshadowed by their family-centered approach and their finding that most apparently well individuals actually suffered from some detectable disorder.”

In the 1990s the remaining buildings were converted into housing.

The Peckham Experiment is referred to in the classic science fiction novel Macroscope by Piers Anthony, wherein an extension of the Peckham Experiment techniques are used to raise a group of children to far-above-average intelligence, resulting in one transcendental genius.

The surviving archives of the Pioneer Health Centre, which include personal papers of Scott Williamson and Innes Pearse, as well material on subsequent attempts to recreate the experiment elsewhere, are now in the Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine. There are also numerous books published during and after the Centre's lifespan by individuals who were involved in its work.