100 years ago, Ada Salter was elected Mayor of Bermondsey, in what is now the London borough of Southwark. Despite London's vast wealth as an imperial and industrial centre, this part of the city was characterised by disease-ridden slums and factories coughing out smoke into the air.

Ada was committed to tackling this inequality and transforming the environment around her for the benefit of the poorest and most oppressed. She delivered green spaces and new playgrounds, and strove to bring the feeling of garden suburbia into the urban metropolis.