Jim Tanner, architect, artist, writer and Camberwell resident for more than 65 years, died in December 2025 aged 94. His daughter
Stephanie Tanner looks back at his life
Jim was closely associated with many of the causes that helped shape Camberwell: the long-running work to improve Camberwell Green; the Selborne campaign against the Council’s demolition plans; the fight over Road Option 7, the Society’s preferred scheme for relieving congestion at Camberwell Green; and the struggle to save and restore Denmark Hill station after the 1980 fire.
Jim and his wife Shirley came to Britain from Australia in 1957 on travelling scholarships. After some time in Newcastle, then North London, they settled in Camberwell in 1959, having persuaded their bank manager, not without difficulty, to lend them the money to buy 107 Camberwell Grove, a late Georgian mid-terrace house. At the time, lenders viewed such properties almost as slum dwellings. Shirley was a founder member of The Camberwell Society, having been active, with Jim’s support, in the successful campaign against the proposed motorway scheme that would have cut through Camberwell. By the early 1970s, Jim was on the executive committee, becoming vice-chair from 1976, chair from 1977-1979, president from 1982-1988, and life vice-president from 1989.
Jim brought to the Society architectural knowledge, editorial skill and a love for Camberwell itself. In the 1960s he was editor of Architects’ Journal, and wrote House Maintenance and
Repairs, a book which captured his interest in buildings as things to be understood, cared for and sustained.
In 1978 Jim became editor of the Society’s Newsletter, the forerunner of the Camberwell Quarterly, succeeding Stephen Marks. Jim later wrote warmly of Stephen’s “quiet
demeanour” and “the twinkle in his eye”, and in doing so revealed something of himself – he valued intelligence without display, seriousness without pomposity, and persistence without fuss.
As editor and contributor, he reported on the Society’s campaigns and recorded its wider intellectual and cultural life, for example, when Sam Wanamaker addressed a packed
Society audience on plans to rebuild Shakespeare’s Globe.
He was part of a wider circle of Camberwell Society figures whom he admired and valued: Jeremy Bennett, who Jim remembered as “a lovely man … determined yet good humoured”; Nicholas Roskill, with whom he worked closely over many years; and Nigel Haigh who, with Jim, Jeremy and others, formed the Camberwell Green Working Party, a joint group of Society members, council officers and other
local representatives concerned with the future planning and improvement of Camberwell Green.
Jim’s long attachment to Camberwell, and to the local campaigns that helped preserve its character, formed part of the backdrop to the BBC television series A Secret History of Our Streets, in which both Jim and Shirley featured.
In later years, Jim greatly valued the kindness of many local friends and fellow Society members, especially Jackie and Patrick Haighton, and found in the community lunches at Ortus, organised by Jackie, a further expression of thecommunity spirit he had long valued in Camberwell. He continued to contribute to CQ in words and drawings.
His work for the Society combined commitment, judgement, knowledge, a quiet way with people and a willingness to listen to their concerns. His contribution to Camberwell was substantial and enduring.