page_title: Innes Hope Pearse
section_title: Health and welfare work
hierarchical_section_title: Innes Hope Pearse / Health and welfare work
caption_attribution_description: English: Blue plaque erected in 2009 by English Heritage at 142 Queen's Road, Peckham, London SE15 2HP, London Borough of Southwark
context_page_description: Innes Hope Pearse was an English doctor who co-founded a health centre that became famous as part of the Peckham Experiment. This was a project rooted in Pearse's interest in studying and promoting health in a social context.
context_section_description: Pearse's work in infant welfare brought her to the attention of a group wanting to help working-class women access contraception. From 1924, she held discussions with that group at the Royal Free, which drew her and Williamson into the whole question of public health. Out of this the Pioneer Health Centre was born: first in a modest house in Peckham, and later in a modern architect-designed building opened in 1935. The project, presented as a "family club" with leisure activities and also health "overhauls", became known as the Peckham Experiment.
  Pearse thought doctors and others needed to take a "deeper look at the natural laws governing health in human society". and that the medical profession should not be "overly focused on illness" but should also prioritise "understanding, evaluating, and cultivating health". She believed strongly in leaving responsibility with the individual and, in this spirit, doctors at the Pioneer Centre gave health checks and medical information but left people to decide what to do, whether to seek treatment etc. She did not agree with "welfare" models that meant offering piecemeal help, with no thought of self-reliance.
  Pearse always saw the individual human, and the idea of "positive health", in the context of family and society. This fitted with a generally holistic approach adopted by both Pearse and Williamson, leading to an interest in organic food which they hoped would compensate for the poor quality of food generally available in Peckham. From 1935 Pearse leased Oakley Farm in Bromley, Kent, where organic food was grown for members of the Health Centre. When she and Williamson were in Kent they lived at the farm as a couple. They were founder members of the Soil Association and their work was an influence on Lady Eve Balfour, its first president.
  During the Second World War, Pearse proposed a "homestead" scheme for mothers and children whose menfolk were away at war. She believed they could live healthily and productively in farm communities. A few families from Peckham did go to live at Oakley Farm during the war until it was requisitioned by the RAF. The farm was taken over around 1950 by Mary Langman who had been secretary at Peckham and who was another founder member of the Soil Association.
caption: Plaque showing where Pearse and Williamson founded the Pioneer Health Centre in 1926
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