Boots on the ground: A celebration of grassroots football
A new photography exhibition celebrating two decades of grassroots football has opened at Lambeth Archives.
Boots On The Ground, a selection of images taken by Brixton based artist Ellie Laycock, will be hosted at Lambeth Archives, in Brixton Hill, until February 21.
The exhibition tracks the first 20 years of the St Matthews Project (SMP), with snapshots of past teams, games and pitches.

Founded by Lee Dema, the SMP is a grassroots football outreach programme which began in 2004 as a kick-about in Brockwell Park for young people from the St Matthews Estate in Brixton Hill.
The project now trains with more than 200 young people in Lambeth every week, arranging trips, girls’ football sessions, mental wellbeing workshops and one-to-one support for Lambeth’s young people.
SMP’s Summer Holiday Scheme in Brockwell Park also provides free coaching and a free hot meal.

The collection includes Ms Laycock’s acclaimed portraits of St Matthews Under 10’s players.
These portraits, previously published in BJP’s Portrait of Britain, exhibited in Lambeth Town Hall, form part of the artists’ series Spectemur Agendo, which explores leadership in Lambeth a century apart, to show the importance of SMP in the community and their achievements.

Ms Laycock’s book of the Spectemur Agendo series is held in Oxford’s Bodleian library and one copy is buried in the time capsule underneath Lambeth Archives.
Cllr Donatus Anyanwu, Lambeth’s Cabinet Member for Stronger Communities, said: “We are very pleased to host this exhibition.
“First, it chronicles the vital role SMP and community football play in regular engagement with Lambeth’s young people every week, including girls’ football, training, mental wellbeing workshops and one-to-one support.

“It also continues Lambeth’s creative relationship with Ellie Laycock, whose work exploring the themes of the urban environment and its impact on its residents, politics and the passage of time in Brixton have featured in the Town Hall when she was our artist in residence and has been on billboards and galleries in Lambeth.”
Ms Laycock was recently nominated for the global Prix Pictet, awarded first place in Architecture by the New York Center For Photographic Art and shortlisted for “Portrait Of Britain’ by the British Journal Of Photography.

Boots On The Ground is an interactive exhibition, with visitors invited to record their own memories of SMP in a celebration of the organisation.
Visit Lambeth Archives in Brixton Hill before February 21 to catch Boots On The Ground. For Lambeth archives opening hours see Lambeth’s website.
Pictured top: SMP St Matthews Estate 2008 (Picture: SMP Archive/ Ellie Laycock)