‘Passing on the baton’: Great granddaughter of Black Pastor of Peckham donates family archive for exhibition

The great granddaughter of the “black pastor of Peckham” is opening up her family archive to the public for an exhibition tracing three generations.

The Black Cultural Archives (BCA) in Windrush Square, Brixton, will launch African Deeds on August 23, to run until September 8. Theatre Peckham will also be interpreting parts of the collection.  

The exhibition follows the gripping story of the Brem-Wilson family starting in the 1800s with Thomas – known as the ‘Black Pastor of Peckham’ – who established the first Pentecostal Church in the UK and later ended up in Brixton prison.

The archive then moves to Philip, who launched the massive Bingo boom from a South East London ballroom in the 1950s, became involved with 60s gangsters The Richardsons, and was forced to give evidence at the notorious Torture Trials in 1967. 

Finally, African Deeds looks to Phillip’s daughter, Nina, who took her father’s papers back to Ghana in the 1980s in search of her family’s history.

The exhibition has been created by the remaining member of the Brem-Wilson family, Nina’s daughter, Mandy Parker-Sharp.

The 63-year-old told the South London Press: “When my mum passed away in 2021, I inherited the archive she had created to document our family history.

“She was so proud of her father and grandfather. I approached BCA with the collection and they were delighted.

“This exhibition is a tribute to my mum, I’m carrying on the baton of our family history to the next generation.”

The expansive collection on display at the BCA features early diaries, cassette interviews, video, and hundreds of photos and documents.

The collection will shine a light on pre-Windrush immigration.

Ms Parker-Sharp said: “These stories haven’t been heard before. It paints a truly comprehensive picture of the black presence in Britain.”

Thomas Brem-Wilson, born in 1865, first came to London in 1901. 

Forming the first Pentecostal Church in the UK, Thomas amassed huge crowds with his street-preaching. 

But, by 1922, with a number of convictions for affray at his meetings, he was jailed in Brixton prison. 

He died in 1929, from acute bronchitis and pneumonia. Thomas has been overlooked by historians for his pioneering work in British Pentecostalism, with the dominant narrative favouring his white counterparts, like Alexander Boddy. 

Ms Parker-Sharp said: “I know my family did inspiring things. 

“It’s really important in this awful climate right now that there are positive stories of migration and integration out there.

“I hope this exhibition creates something new out of their lives that people of South London can connect with.”

Philip Brem-Wilson, born in 1908, had a punishing childhood at the hands of his father Thomas. But, in the 1950s he started a Bingo club in the rundown Rivoli Ballroom in Brockley Road, Crofton Park.

He became a local icon and influencer for the massive 1960s craze. 

Ms Parker-Sharp recalls visiting the bingo hall with her grandfather when she was a little girl.

She said: “I was often there as a young child. I grew up with my grandfather – he was a big part of my life.”

In the 1980’s Ms Parker-Sharp’s mother, Nina, began to record interviews of her father.

She said: “My mum recognised there was something there – she knew we couldn’t let these stories go.

“My grandad was about 81 then.

“Racism didn’t really exist when he was younger, that behaviour was accepted, so his earliest memory of him being beaten up at school because he was black was something he found quite funny.

“He told us some of the hardest times of his life and we had never heard those stories. 

“We all sat down and asked him – I guess that never happens in life.”

Across three years, Ms Parker-Sharp has trawled through documents, recordings and photographs to collate the exhibition with the BCA, a process she said was sometimes “traumatic”.

She said: “It’s a lot of emotions. There are ups and downs, my own memories and also a transfer of the trauma they must have experienced.

“My mum passed away during Covid so, like many people, I didn’t get the chance to celebrate her life properly.

“This exhibition would be her send off. I know all three of them would all be ecstatic if they could see it.”

Ms Parker-Sharp published her own book on her family history earlier this year titled African Deeds, which is available at the BCA or on Amazon.

Pictured top: Philip Brem-Wilson hands a cash prize to a bingo winner at Rivoli Ballroom (Picture: Mandy Parker-Sharp)