The work of Scott Williamson and Innes Pearse into the cultivation and nature of health began when they became involved in a small project based in London from 1926 -1930. This arose from a group of friends who wanted to help those less well-off to benefit from information about birth control. While visiting Innes Pearse to discuss their ideas, they met Scott Williamson, who expressed the view that any such matters were the concerns of both partners. Invited to address the group of friends, they impressed them and enthused them to discover how to enable people to be effectively responsible for their own and their families' health. The group decided to set up an experiment to find out if people would welcome the opportunity to obtain information about their state of health and to be helped to assume the responsibility for the health and themselves and their family.

The first Pioneer Health Centre was located in a small double-fronted house in Queen's Road, Peckham. It was furnished with a kitchen, clubroom , consulting and changing rooms, childrens' playroom and, later, a bathroom. Later still, a large hut was built in the garden for the older children, whist drives and dances. The organisation took the form of a family club with a subscription for families within a defined geographical area. Open from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m.,, daily except for Sundays, with the doctors available during these hours. Members made appointments for health overhauls at their convenience. These were thorough, including all that was known at that time. In addition, there were further clinics for parents, prenatal and postnatal and infant welfare. They also provided an orthopaedic clinic and a children's afternoon nursery, a social room and a "Social Secretary" who helped members sort out problems of social adjustment and adaptation.

Although the doctors were looking for health among the 115 families (about 400 individuals) they examined between 1926 and 1929, they found disease. It was also clear that the health examination and information alone were not sufficient to prevent disease, or the return of disease after an initial cure. The doctors recognised that something was wrong with the people's lives and it was not always lack of money. The charity could not change their environments at home, but it could do something about their leisure activities. The premises were too small to give the members the opportunity to satisfy their needs for physical, mental and social activity. A larger place was needed to enable people to grow. But it would also enable the doctors to continue their investigations into health, for by now the they had not only learnt the extent of illness among the group: they knew more about the basic biological needs of families.

The centre was closed and the committee set about designing and fund-raising for what became the Peckham Experiment, housed in a new Pioneer Health Centre.

A fuller description of the early days can be found in "Being Me and Also Us" by Alison Stallibrass, from which much of the above has been taken.

The Peckham Experiment. Evidence of Health - lecture video. available as publication