Derick Armah
House of Dread
Reclaiming St Agnes Place
An oral history project and public exhibition with Dr Aleema Gray’s anti-disciplinary heritage studio, archiving the lived experience and activism of the Rastafari community within the former St Agnes Place, London’s longest running squat settlement.
From the early 1970s to 2005, when the community was evicted, two disused houses were occupied and infused with the politics of Black social and spiritual uplift, pushing back against state-directed dispossession. Grassroots facilities for education, health and wellbeing, childcare, recreation, and spiritual care were established. It was a home for Bob Marley during visits to the UK, and a landmark for both the British squatting movement and Rastafari social mobilisation.
Over the course of the project, I shot portraits and recorded oral histories with Rastafari elders, culminating in a public exhibition in Brixton House in November 2024, co-curated with my artist-producer colleagues. Titled Echoes Within These Walls: Reclaiming St Agnes Place, this exhibition featured an original audio piece I produced, in addition to a short film I shot and edited with filmmaker Frankie Rechere. For that evening, the community rested, remembered, reflected, and socialised with old acquaintances.
With curator Drea Asibey, the space was completed with colleagues’ artistic works; portrait photography by Christina Nwabugo, draped from the ceiling, artwork by Yolanda Hutchinson, a bespoke mosaic installation by Blue Blackley and Lorna Jean Charles, and a quiet respite corner, with reading materials and the audio piece.
The exhibition was previewed in the Guardian newspaper.
Ras Moqapi, by Derick Armah.
Ras Moqapi, by Derick Armah.
Ras Moqapi, by Derick Armah.
A visitor to the Echoes Within These Walls exhibition, viewing original photography and illustrations.
St Agnes Place community members address the Echoes Within These Walls gathering.
Mosaic piece by Blue Blackley and Lorna Jean Charles, installed in Echoes Within These Walls.
Visitors watching the Echoes Within These Walls short film.
Echoes Within These Walls: Reclaiming St Agnes Place at Brixton House in London.