Art by Henry Sigismund Uhlrich. Ruskin lived in Camberwell for many years Camberwell has several art galleries including
Camberwell College of Arts, the
South London Gallery and numerous smaller commercial art spaces. There is an annual Camberwell Arts Festival in the summer. The
Blue Elephant Theatre on Bethwin Road is the only theatre venue in Camberwell. A group now known as the YBAs (the Young British Artists) began in Camberwell – in the Millard building of
Goldsmiths' College on Cormont Road. A former training college for women teachers, the Millard was the home of Goldsmiths Fine Art and Textiles department until 1988. It was converted to flats in 1996 and is now known as St Gabriel's Manor. The core of the later-to-be YBAs, graduated from the Goldsmiths BA Fine Art degree course in the classes of 1987–90.
Liam Gillick,
Fiona Rae,
Steve Park and
Sarah Lucas, were graduates in the class of 1987.
Ian Davenport,
Michael Landy,
Gary Hume,
Anya Gallaccio,
Henry Bond and
Angela Bulloch, were graduates in the class of 1988;
Damien Hirst,
Angus Fairhurst,
Mat Collishaw,
Simon Patterson, and
Abigail Lane, were graduates from the class of 1989; whilst
Gillian Wearing, and
Sam Taylor-Wood, were graduates from the class of 1990. During the years 1987–90, the teaching staff on the Goldsmiths BA Fine Art included
Jon Thompson,
Richard Wentworth,
Michael Craig-Martin,
Ian Jeffrey,
Helen Chadwick,
Mark Wallinger, Judith Cowan and
Glen Baxter. Collishaw has a studio in a pub in Camberwell. as does the sculptor
Anish Kapoor. In his memoir
Lucky Kunst, artist
Gregor Muir, writes: ::Not yet housed in the university building at New Cross to which it eventually moved in the late 1980s, Goldsmiths was a stone's throw away in Myatts Field on the other side of Camberwell Green. In contrast to Camberwell's Friday night bacchanal, Goldsmith's held its disco on a Tuesday evening with dinner ladies serving drinks, including tea, from a service hatch. This indicated to me that Goldsmiths was deeply uncool. The building was also the hospital where
Vera Brittain served as a nurse and described in her memoir
Testament of Youth.
Literature Thomas Hood, humorist and author of "
The Song of the Shirt", lived in Camberwell from 1840 for two years; initially at 8, South Place, (now 181, Camberwell New Road). He later moved to 2, Union Row (now 266, High Street). He wrote to friends praising the clean air. In late 1841, he moved to
St John's Wood. The Victorian art critic and watercolourist
John Ruskin lived at 163
Denmark Hill from 1847, but moved out in 1872 as the railways spoiled his view. Ruskin designed part of a stained-glass window in
St Giles' Church, Camberwell.
Ruskin Park is named after him, and there is also a John Ruskin Street. Common Another famous writer who lived in the area was the poet
Robert Browning, who was born in nearby
Walworth, and lived there until he was 28. Novelist
George Gissing, in the summer of 1893, took lodgings at 76 Burton Road, Brixton. From Burton Road he went for long walks through nearby Camberwell, soaking up impressions of the way of life he saw emerging there." This led him to writing
In the Year of Jubilee, the story of "the romantic and sexual initiation of a suburban heroine, Nancy Lord." Gissing originally called his novel
Miss Lord of Camberwell.
Muriel Spark, the author of
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and
The Ballad of Peckham Rye lived, between 1955 and 1965, in a
bedsit at 13 Baldwin Crescent, Camberwell. The novelist Mary Jane Staples, who grew up in
Walworth, wrote a book called
The King of Camberwell, the third instalment of her Adams family saga about Cockney life. Comedian
Jenny Eclair is a long-term resident of Camberwell, and the area features in her 2001 novel
Camberwell Beauty, named after a species of
butterfly. Playwright
Martin McDonagh and his brother, writer/director
John Michael McDonagh, live in Camberwell. The 2014 novel
The Paying Guests by
Sarah Waters is set in 1920s Camberwell. In
Daniel Defoe's novel
Roxana (1724) the eponymous protagonist imagines her daughter, Susan, "drown'd in the Great Pond at Camberwell". Nearby
Peckham Rye was an important in the imaginative and creative development of poet
William Blake, who, when he was eight, claimed to have seen the Prophet Ezekiel there under a bush, and he was probably ten years old when he had a vision of angels in a tree.
Music The avant-garde band
Camberwell Now named themselves after the area.
Basement Jaxx recorded three songs about Camberwell: "Camberwell Skies", "Camberskank" and "I live in Camberwell" which are on
The Singles: Special Edition album (2005).
Florence Welch from British indie-rock band
Florence and the Machine wrote and recorded a song entitled "South London Forever" on her 2018 album
High as Hope based on her experience growing up in Camberwell, naming places such as the Joiners Arms and the Horniman Museum.
Festivals Camberwell has played host to many festivals over the years, with the long-running Camberwell Arts Festival celebrating 20 years in 2014, and Camberwell Fair taking place on Camberwell Green in 2015, 2017 and 2018, resurrecting an ancient Fair that took place on the same green from 1279 to 1855. Since 2013, there is also an annual 10-day film festival – Camberwell Free Film Festival (CFFF) which is usually held in March/April in addition to special one-off screenings at other times of the year. ==Transport==