'Reading Pepys' at the Living With Buildings Exhibition
Dr Tim Livsey’s collaborative film Reading Pepys is currently being shown at the Wellcome Collection exhibition Living with Buildings.
Reading Pepys, made in collaboration with local residents and the filmmaker James Price, explores histories of empire, decolonisation, and the welfare state in Britain by focusing on the Pepys Estate in Deptford, South London. A naval yard was first established here under Henry VIII, and the celebrated diarist Samuel Pepys visited frequently during the seventeenth century. The yard stored naval supplies including food and rum until its closure in the 1960s, when the Greater London Council constructed a large modernist housing estate on the site. The film reflects on how these histories have left their mark on the contemporary urban environment.
Reading Pepys is part of the Living with Buildings exhibition, which examines how architects, planners, and designers influence our health, self-esteem, and ideas about society. The exhibition considers the urgent connections between our homes and our health, and looks anew at the future of our built environment. It continues at the Wellcome Collection in London until 3 March.
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