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By Okorie Uguru
Being in London for a few days, the idea was to jettison the more regular fast food and Chinese restaurants and look for where one could get wholesome Nigerian meals. For some of us, one of the most difficult things about travelling to foreign destinations is the inability to have Nigerian delicacies. Of course travellers must be used to foreign delicacies and cuisines, especially of their host country, but a Nigerian must be a Nigerian, and there must be craving for local Nigerian dishes.
So, one was referred to an area of London that has come to be called Little Lagos; that is Peckham.
As many Nigerians visiting or staying in London, Peckham in South East London, a part of the London Borough of Southwark, is one of the most talked-about areas of London due to the concentration of Nigerians and other black nationals from Africa and the Caribbean.
So, since the craving was for Nigerian dishes, specifically for amala and ewedu soup with assorted protein, then the place to go was Peckham.
Taking Bus 63 from Elephant and Castles bus station brought this reporter to Peckham Rye bus stop, on Peckham’s High Street. It was on a cool winter morning, but the London weather looked relatively promising. The ever present winter’s early morning fog was missing.
People walked briskly heading to their places of work, most of them blacks. Some were in conversation. The first Nigerian language one heard was Yoruba, then Benin, Igbo, and so on. There were other African nationals. It was as if one was somewhere in a Nigerian city.
One thing one could easily notice is the dominance of Nigerian businesses in Peckham. It is unmistakable. Many of the shops bear Nigerian names: Iya Pupa, Madam Delta, Lola, and so on, are some of the names business shops around Peckham bear.
A cursory visit to some of these shops, especially food shops, shows a lot of Nigerian fresh vegetables and food. They include Ugu, Oha and Uziza fresh vegetables. Okra, spinach and efo riro vegetables are conspicuously displayed. A man came from Clapham to Peckham to buy fresh Nigerian pap. According to him, it was only in Peckham and Brixton that one could get that. He, however, explained that most of the Nigerian food ingredients and vegetables sold at Brixton market are brought first to Peckham. Are these vegetables and food items farms cultivated in the United Kingdom? How comes they look so fresh? Most are brought through cargo.
But the main purpose first was food. Though there is a large population of Nigerian community in Peckham, it does not translate to cheap Nigerian cuisines. At Lolak Afrique restaurant on 38 Chourmert Road, off the High Street, they serve different kinds of Nigerian delicacies ranging from pounded yam and egusi soup to amala and ewedu soup, but they do not come cheap by Nigerian standard. An average plate of food is about 15 pounds, about N23,000. For a salary earner in Nigeria, that sounds alarming. The advice however is just pay if you have the money, and do not bother about converting the money to the naira equivalent.
The dominance of Nigerians here can also be seen in the Southwark Borough which Peckham is part of. The current mayor of London Borough of Southwark which Peckham falls under is Sunny Lambe. He migrated from Nigeria to the United Kingdom in 1986 and has been a cooperative councillor since 2014.
The community dates back to hundreds of years. Later the Polish people settled there after the Second World War. However, in the late 70s and 80s, Nigerians, due to economic crisis, started creeping in. Gradually, their population continued to increase and they became dominant the dominant nationality.
Peckham is a mixture of old and modern structures that are gradually springing up. A number of buildings look old and obviously need more modern structures.
As a visitor, one might not know all the dark spots, but an area like the vicinity of the Peckham Rye train station with its old building and a generally decaying environment does not look like a place one would love to be caught in at night. It does not look welcoming.
John Aimienho is a Nigerian of Benin extraction. He has been a London resident for many years and he is into logistics. He spoke about Peckham and its peculiar Nigerian hue. When asked whether the perception of Peckham as being preponderantly blacks, especially Nigerian is true, he answered: “It is true because there is a lot of blacks and a lot of Nigerians living around Peckham. You can see Peckham as a whole as being mostly Nigerians and blacks. This High Street, nobody lives here, it is a business area, they don’t live on this street, it is a business area.
“There is a large concentration of Nigerians around Peckham. I think the reason is that it has the cheapest accommodation in terms of rent; I think that is what attracts so many people. You cannot compare the money they pay in Peckham to other places like Clapham and so on. I believe that is one of the main reasons why many Nigerians are here.
“Again, food wise, most of African food and ingredients for their preparation are being sold here. There is nothing that you find in Nigeria that is not here in terms of food. I believe that also attract many Nigerians, especially those that migrated newly.
“Most of the shops are owned by Nigerians. I can say about 65 per cent of the shops here in Peckham are owned by Nigerians. The commonest business they engage in are on things we use for day to day living, like hair, food and so on.
“Here, a plate of food now is about 15 pounds. Some are sold for 12 pounds. that is pounded yam, rice with assorted meat. That is about N23,000 going by today’s exchange rate.”
Although the price of the food seems a little high compared to the average amount one would spend in a Macdonald’s, however, the meals are worth every penny. Here, assorted meat are used to garnish the food in abundance. The food is not different from what obtains in the best local meal joints in Lagos.
Peckham also has a large population of youths, making the community very vibrant in terms of night life.
For Nigerian visitors to London bored of the dull repetitive London life, maybe a trip to explore Peckham will add colour to the visit.
