There’s something about Thornbury Road that really sucks you in,” Sophie Broadbent tells me, smiling. Her partner, Jamie Lancaster, nods in agreement, “I don’t think we realised how interesting it was until we started meeting our neighbours,” he adds. Two years ago, toddlers in tow, the couple embarked on a project to photograph as many of their neighbours as possible. The result is the Thornbury Road portraits: 30 intimate, joyful portraits of local residents.
The idea had been brewing for years, sparked by Sophie’s desire to hold a street party. Knocking on doors to drum up support, enthusiastic neighbours invited her into their homes and she was struck by how different each one was – unique worlds separated by just a wall.
“One lady I met, who has now passed away, was in her 90s,” Sophie, 37, recalls. “Walking into her house was like stepping into the 1950s. She was sitting in an old brown arm chair and there was the tick, tock of a clock. Then next door might be ultra modern with huge pieces of art on the wall. From the outside you could never tell.”
But it was only after the couple had their two daughters, Skye, two, and Evie, four, and were planning to move from London to Brighton that they decided it was now or never. With their flat on the market they had just 10 weekends to take 30 portraits.
The portraits capture the diversity of ages, family set-ups, race, sexuality and cultures found in the south London street. But they also hint at its friendliness and reflect the couple’s affection for the community. “We loved everybody on the street so it made the project special,” Sophie says.
They started with Clemens, a flamboyant web designer originally from Germany. “We knew he would be great to get other people involved,” Jamie says sagely.
“Also, we knew he would enjoy it because he loves dressing up,” Sophie says. “At Halloween he is always in thigh-high leather boots and a corset.”
Almost as pivotal were Maureen and Bill (pictured reading a guidebook and the Daily Mail) who are close friends – and occasional dog sitters – for Clemens. “Everyone knows them. We wanted them on board,” says Sophie.
Each portrait took a couple of hours for Jamie – a photographer since school and a professional director – to set up. And it was not always easy. Trying to cram lights, camera equipment and himself into a small bathroom to photograph Seany O’Kane, a former Big Brother contestant, and his five-year-old son Kuziva-Aodhán, was a challenge. Seany, from Northern Ireland, works for a London charity that supports young fathers, and is gay. He co-parents Kuziva with his son’s two mothers, a couple who live in Manchester.
While Jamie was dealing with taking the photos, Sophie, Skye and Evie would settle in for a chat with the subjects, so they were involved too. “When we asked the kids every Saturday if they wanted to go round to meet some neighbours, they would cheer,” says Sophie.
Visiting Patricia, 88, pictured on her stairlift along with the hats she loves to wear, is a special treat. “Pat’s really fun,” says Sophie. “She’s the same age as my grandparents, but they don’t live nearby. I love the fact I can go round with a packet of Rich Tea biscuits and Evie, Skye and I can sit and do jigsaws with her.”
Jamie says he wanted to show the shifting nature of the area too. “The street was quite transient, as London is. People were coming and going so it was important to get a snapshot – it feels like a historical moment,” says Jamie.
But some neighbours have a longer connection with the road. Gladys (photographed on her sofa, with her “adoptive” son Will) met her late husband on Thornbury Road in 1954, although both were both originally from Freetown, Sierra Leone. The couple moved around because Bill worked for the RAF. Will, the son of a Freetown neighbour, whom Gladys delivered and named after her husband, came to live with Gladys when he was seven and they are exceptionally close, says Sophie. Their portrait shows them in the positions in which they always sit to watch their favourite television programme – Embarrassing Bodies.
By the time Sophie and Jamie left Thornbury Road, the street party had become an annual event, while New Year’s Eve and Halloween celebrations had been added. There was even an email group for residents, while Jamie says it was impossible to walk down the road without stopping for a chat. “I remember arriving back from holiday at 2.30am and bumping into three or four people,” he says. “It took an extra 30 minutes just to get into the house.”
For Sophie, it was exactly the kind of neighbourliness she wanted her children to experience. “I grew up in the RAF,” she says. “When you were allocated a new house, you would drive up and all the local kids would come along, and say ‘Hi! We’re your new friends.’
“We were always in and out of each other’s houses, so I assumed everyone knew all their neighbours,” she says. “I like knowing everyone around me – it feels natural.” And the experience taught Sophie and Jamie that “with our 2.4 family, we were the unusual ones. We are really conventional but no one else on the street is!”
See the full project at jamielancaster.co.uk/thornbury-portraits
