Luke Pasqualino
From a school drama club in Walton to Apple TV, Netflix and the BBC, Luke Pasqualino has spent almost twenty years as one of the most recognisable faces to come out of Peterborough.
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Rene Matić
Born in Peterborough in 1997, Rene Matić is an internationally recognised artist, photographer, writer and poet whose work examines contemporary Britain through intimate images of family, friendship, subculture, faith and queer life.
Michael Stonebank
Michael Stonebank, known professionally as Stonebank, is a Peterborough-born DJ, songwriter and electronic music producer. Best known for his long association with the Canadian record label Monstercat, he has built an international following through high-energy releases spanning UK hardcore, electro house, drum and bass, dubstep, hardstyle and melodic electronic music.
Hereward the Wake
Hereward the Wake was one of the most celebrated English rebels of the 11th century. From the waterways and marshes of the Fens, he resisted the rule of William the Conqueror during the unsettled years following the Norman Conquest.
Hugh Candidus (c. 1095 – c. 1160)
The monk who wrote Peterborough Abbey’s history and gave us the phrase “the golden borough”. Hugh Candidus, his chronicle, and how the text survived.
Charles A Hall (1872-1965)
Long before nature writing became a publishing category, a minister from Eastfield was teaching Edwardian Britain how to look at a pond.
Richard V. Reeves
Peterborough-born writer and social scientist Richard V. Reeves has built an international career examining social mobility, class, family life and the changing circumstances of boys and men.
David Pinner (1940–2025)
The man who wrote the novel behind The Wicker Man was born in Peterborough, and came back to write a play about Hereward the Wake.
Benjamin Dean
Peterborough has produced its share of writers, but few have travelled as quickly from local comprehensive to national bookshelf as Benjamin Dean.
Charles Kingsley (1819–1875)
Charles Kingsley (1819–1875) was a prominent Victorian clergyman, historian, social reformer and author, remembered for works including The Water-Babies, Westward Ho! and Hereward the Wake.
Rich Simmons
Born in Peterborough, Rich Simmons is a self-taught contemporary artist whose vividly coloured work combines pop art, comic books, street culture, punk energy and social commentary. His career has taken him from designing T-shirts and running creative workshops to international exhibitions, major murals and museum displays.
Jodie Turner-Smith
Peterborough-born Jodie Turner-Smith followed an unconventional route from finance and corporate banking to modelling, independent cinema and major international productions, becoming one of the most distinctive British screen actors of her generation.
William Speechly (1735-1819)
Born near Peterborough in 1735, William Speechly became one of Georgian Britain’s most important practical horticulturists. As head gardener to the 3rd Duke of Portland, he combined observation, experiment and engineering to improve the cultivation of pineapples, grapes and other tender fruits in the English climate.
Edmund Gill Swain (1861-1938)
The vicar of Stanground turned his Fen-edge parish into the haunted village of Stoneground. E. G. Swain’s 1912 ghost tales and his Peterborough connection.
Ethel Granger (1905-1982)
Ethel Granger held the record for the smallest waist ever recorded, measured at 13 inches in Peterborough in 1939. A corsetier, motorcyclist and true original.
Adrian Lyne
Adrian Lyne is a Peterborough-born film director, producer and screenwriter whose work helped define the look and mood of mainstream cinema in the 1980s and 1990s.
John Davys Beresford (1873-1947)
Born at Castor Rectory and educated partly in Peterborough, John Davys Beresford became a prolific novelist, critic and speculative writer whose imagined superchildren, pandemics and dystopian societies helped shape early British science fiction.
Neil Hubbard
Neil Hubbard is one of British popular music’s most respected guitarists. From his formative years as a Peterborough Cathedral chorister and King’s School pupil, his precise, soulful playing carried him into Bluesology, Juicy Lucy, the Grease Band, Kokomo, Roxy Music and an exceptional catalogue of session work.
David Lammy
A former Peterborough Cathedral chorister and Head Boy at The King’s School, David Lammy went on to become a barrister, author, long-serving Member of Parliament and one of the most prominent British politicians of his generation.
Gray Jolliffe
Gray Jolliffe is a British illustrator and cartoonist whose distinctive humour and visual style have made him a recognisable figure in British publishing and popular culture. Born Graham Jolliffe in 1937, he studied at The King’s School in Peterborough before...
Frank Close OBE
Peterborough-born physicist Professor Frank Close OBE FRS has spent his career investigating the fundamental structure of matter and helping millions of readers, viewers and listeners understand some of science’s most challenging ideas.
Peter Boizot (1929-2018)
Peter Boizot was one of Peterborough’s great originals: an entrepreneur, restaurateur, philanthropist, art collector, jazz promoter, football club owner and determined champion of his home city. Best known nationally as the founder of PizzaExpress, he later invested his money, energy and imagination in Peterborough’s buildings, heritage, culture and sporting life.
Alfred Nicholson Leeds (1847–1917)
Alfred Nicholson Leeds (1847–1917) was a pioneering British fossil collector whose work transformed our understanding of Jurassic marine life.
Ernie Wise (1925 – 1999)
Ernie Wise, one half of the legendary comedy duo Morecambe and Wise, had a quiet but meaningful connection to Peterborough.