The strange, Cold War-style construction known as the Camberwell Submarine that stands in Akerman Road between Brixton Road and Myatt’s Fields, is representing SW9 in a fascinating new book, out now.
The book Adventurous Vents was co-written by three Lambeth women who make up the architecture in education charity Our Hut.
Since 2004, Lucy Lavers, Judy Ovens and Suzanna Prizeman have led primary and secondary pupils as well as community groups through numerous creative, fun and informative workshops and projects about the built environment, including Stockwell Bus Garage, Brixton’s Electric Avenue (see artwork below), Peckham town centre and Crystal Palace Park.
Inventive Vents started life as a project about stink pipes, sewers and other mysterious structures connected with London’s secret underground.
It captivated schoolchildren in workshops and also intrigued adults who, especially after taking long London walks during Covid, became more curious and observant about the world outside their four walls.
Inspired by the success of the project, Our Hut self-published Inventive Vents, a Gazetteer of London Ventilation Shafts. in 2021.
It sold well in specialist shops and on their website, so they followed it up with a classy AdVent calendar (both still available from https://ourhut.co.uk/ priced £12.50 and £10). Profits from both items are fed back into the charity’s funds.
Eventually – see what we did there? – Penguin publishers asked Our Hut to come up with a national version, and Adventurous Vents. This fascinating volume, with wonderful photographs of shafts familiar and foreign, grand and gritty, is the result.
Adventurous Vents, A Journey through the Ventilation Shafts of Britain is available now, price £20, from all good bookshops.
