Saturday, March 14, 2026

Telegraph Hill Festival 2026: a music walk and a New Cross history talk (and a new book)

Lots of great events coming up in Telegraph Hill Festival this month I am doing two history related talks.

New Cross from fields to factories in the 19th century

Thursday 26th March at the Somerville, 260 Queens Road, SE14 5JN  - tickets here (donation)

'In the space of a few decades in the mid-19th century, New Cross went from being a largely rural area to an increasingly urbanised one. In this talk, Neil Gordon-Orr looks at what was here before - market gardens and fields - and the canals, railways and associated factories that came to replace them. 

[if you came to my talk at the Earl of Derby last year there will be some overlap in the material but aiming to bring the story forward a bit to include the early factories of the area and the people who worked in them]

A musical tour of New Cross

Saturday 28th March 2026, 2 pm  - walk starts promptly from outside Goldsmiths main building on Lewisham Way (ticket not required)

For one small part of London, SE14 has played an important role in popular music history. A guided walk through the sites of record shops, recording studios and clubs featuring reggae, punk, dance music, Britpop and much more besides.

I will be featuring research from my new book 'New Cross, New Cross: a cultural history of SE14', out this month and available for the first time at these events.