More than leisure or tradition, the allotments emerge as sites of creativity, pride and quiet resistance. Benwell Secretary John Masterson commented, “Flowers, for example: they’re only supposed to take up a certain percentage of your garden… someone from the Civic can come up and tell you to take something down, so you say: ‘Aye, I’ve been meaning to do that.’” In Coxlodge, Harry Carr shared, “I’d rather have flowers than anything… I do so much a day and that’s it. I just potter around.”

Peaceable Kingdoms documents the range of people who make up this world - urban growers, hobbyists, retired workers, newly arrived residents - and the varied meanings these small plots of land carry. It stands as a celebration of working lives shaped around care, routine and the freedom to grow something of your own.

Peter Fryer is a British documentary photographer based in the North East of England, whose work has focused on the everyday lives of working-class communities since the early 1980s. Rooted in long-form social observation, his photographs reflect a commitment to place, capturing stories of youth, labour, identity and belonging across towns and cities in the region.

Fryer’s approach is defined by trust, attention and respect for the people and places he photographs. His work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally and is held in a number of public and private collections. Consistently grounded in the documentary tradition, Fryer’s photography builds a nuanced and quietly powerful record of social change in the North of England.