October is Black History Month and, to mark the occasion, English Heritage has outlined walks around London uncovering the history of black people. ANDRE ERASMUS takes a stroll down memory lane in the south east ...

SET aside the better part of a day and step out and back into the history of black people in south east London.

It's quite a walk from Peckham to Greenwich and it covers a stretch from Queens Road station, in Peckham, through New Cross, Deptford, the Royal Naval Yard and into Greenwich through the park to Maze Hill and then Rangers House.

At 164 Queens Road, Peckham, a blue plaque marks the surgery of Dr Harold Moody, one of a number of black doctors practising in London the the first half of the 20th century.

But he was also a racial equality campaigner and founder member of the League of Coloured Peoples.

Head east down New Cross Road and just before the station, turn left into Pagnell Street, right into Edward Street and left into Arklow Road where, at house number five, the Jamaican family Martin lived. One of five sons, Tommy Martin gained boxing fame as Deptford's Brown Bomber who fell foul of a colour bar in local boxing and could not compete for domestic titles.

Back into New Cross Road and on towards Deptford you will arrive at 439 New Cross Road, the scene of a mysterious fire in 1981 when 14 black partygoers perished. And further along , at the junction of Deptford High Street and Deptford Broadway the scene of race riots in July, 1949, when a mob tried to storm Carrington House hostel, where some 50 black men lived.

Deptford High Street, in the late 1700s, was the haunt of chocolate maker Billy Blue who, in 1796, was sent off to Australia after being convicted for stealing sugar.

The nearby Royal Naval Yard, in 1787, saw three ships take 219 of London's poor (many black) to Sierra Leone as part of a notorious scheme to settle the colony.

At 111 Maze Hill, in historic Greenwich, you discover the home of writer and abolitionist Olaudah Equiano, who was “briefly but disagreeably employed” as a commissary for the failed Sierra Leone colonisation scheme. He wrote of his experiences in his 1789 autobiography, Interesting Narrative.

Up the hill, along Charlton Way, at Rangers House, is the site of the former home of the Duke and Duchess of Montague, for whom lettrist, poet and composer Ignatius Sancho was once a butler.

The Montagues allowed him to use their library, thereby increasing his knowledge and ability.

His posthumously published Letters was one of the best-selling literary works of 1782.

l Settlers and Seafarers is the guide to the south east walk while Side-streets and Steeples covers the London city walk from Fleet Street to Charing Cross. Both are available from English Heritage.