From the Kent and Sussex Courier, 21 August, 1936.

I DON'T WANT TO LEAVE," SAYS SLUM DWELLER
HOW ONLY OCCUPANT OF CONDEMNED HOME
MYSTERY OF "THE PIG AND WHISTLE."

East Peckham Square, once described as one of the worst Slums in England, will soon be no more. Their occupants - all except one - are now housed in shining new Council houses near Branbridge, and the queer, pokey, little cottages which formed the Square are being torn down. The sides of the Square are formed by a row of two-storied cottages, one room to each story. There are no back doors, there being just a blank wall running the whole length of the block.

The centre block consists of dwellings but with two small rooms on the ground floor. There is no other storey. There is one lavatory to every four houses and the only water supply is a well in the centre of the Square. But within a fortnight all that will have disappeared.

Mr. Edward Wells, however, is loathe to leave the cottage in the Square which has been his home for 30 years. "I don't want to leave," he told the Courier reporter. "I've grown fond of the old place, and if I had my way I would like to finish my days here. I shall have to go on Monday, though, but I'm staying here as long as I can." Mr. Wells settled himself comfortably by the old canopied fireside as he spoke and puffed contentedly at his pipe. The wind whistled through the broken panes and empty rooms of the adjacent houses, and a few yards away came the crash of falling masonry. It seemed as though a Spanish revolution would leave Mr. Wells quite unperturbed.

The building of unusual interest to perish in this demolition scheme is the old "Pig and Whistle" which borders the road. The mode of its construction, faggots bound mud from the ceiling and wall plaster suggests considerable antiquity, and it is believed that it was some 200 years ago that the building flourished as a beer shop and was known as the "Pig and Whistle." Enquiry among the older inhabitants of East Peckham revealed little, except that the shop sold beer many years before any living villager can remember.