I did Peckham Rye parkrun again at the weekend, with about around 250 people doing a 5k in an area that can claim to be one of the birth places of
modern English athletics. Some of the runners were from established local
running clubs like Kent AC or Dulwich Runners, some from informal local groups
like Runhead AC (who run every Tuesday from the Beer Shop in Nunhead), many
just enjoying being part of the parkrun crew. But it is two of the oldest
established London clubs, no longer based in the area, who trace their origins back to Peckham Rye:
'South London Harriers was formed on 27th December, 1871 at
a meeting in the Vivian Hotel, at 34 Philip Road (now known as Philip Walk),
Peckham Rye, SE15. There was a similar Club close by in Peckham Rye, which was
founded at "The King's Arms", as Peckham Hare & Hounds in October
1869, before soon changing its name to Peckham Amateur Athletic Club (PAAC). It
later moved to "The Rye House", and in July 1878 moved from the
Peckham Rye area to become the Blackheath Harriers' (SLH: A Brief History)
Both clubs moved away from Peckham as it became more
urbanised, but are still going strong elsewhere. SLH has its clubhouse in Coulsdon, while Blackheath & Bromley
Harriers AC is based at the Norman Road
track in Bromley (and with a clubhouse in Hayes).
A notable Peckham athlete was a pioneer women's jumper and
the first to clear five feet in the high jump. Phyllis Green (1908-99) was born
at 12 Rye Lane where her father Henry Green managed the undertakers. He was a
member of Peckham Harriers so no doubt encouraged his daughter who as a 17 year
old at Peckham High School for Girls 'set her first world best of 1.51 metres
at London's Stamford Bridge in June 1925, and equalled that mark in Brussels a
month later. She raised it by half an inch when winning the WAAA title at
Stamford Bridge on 11 July 1925, becoming the first woman to clear 5 feet (1.52
metres). At another London venue,
Chiswick, she improved her world best to 1.55 metres (5 ft 1 in) in 1926 and
her highest ever jump was 1.58 metres (5 ft 2¼ in) at the 1927 WAAA
championships off a grass take-off at Reading’ – the end of a short but
successful competitive career . She also held the British long jump record for
a while and her personal best of 5.52 metres in 1927 was only 5 cm short of the
then world record. She told a reporter
in 1925 that ‘I have always jumped from the time I learned to walk…'I never
went round an obstacle—I always jumped over it.' (source: Mel Watman, Women athletes between the world
wars, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2012)
These were the early days of women’s athletics - the Women’s
Amateur Athletics Association was only founded in 1922, and Phyllis Green
belonged to the London Olympiades Athletics Club, the first women’s club, set
up in 1921 in a period when many running clubs only admitted male members.
The only picture I have found of Phyllis Green is an etching
by Percy Smith (1882-1948), held in the collection of the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
