Thames Tributary Earl Sluice - Peckham Park Road

Thames Tributary Earl Sluice
The River Peck runs underground through this area between Peckham Rye and where it joins the Earl Sluice in Rotherhithe.

Post to the west North Peckham
Post to the north Blue Anchor
Post to the east Coldblow
Post to the south Peckham

Asylum Road
Caroline Gardens. Former almshouses of the Licensed Victuallers Institution. It was founded by Hodgson, a distiller fro
m Finsbury. It was originally in Cornhill. It consists of almshouses built 1827-1831 by Henry Rose. Bombed. In 1959, when the Licensed Victuallers decided to rebuild at Denham the property was acquired by Camberwell Borough Council, which renamed it Caroline Gardens. The property is now used by Southwark Council. It has long double ranges with houses back and front with courts in between. Built of Brick with two storeys, and a central portico at the end of the chapel. There are more ranges behind built later but in the same style – a total of 176 dwellings. It is named after Caroline Sophie Seeker who was a resident there and the widow of a Marine who served with Nelson at Trafalgar. The statue of Prince Albert was moved to Denham in 1960.
Clifton Court Flats. On the site of Clifton Congregational Church. Dr. Moody preached there
12 David Shepperd lived when he was Bishop of Woolwich
40 Asylum Tavern
61 Queen Elizabeth closed.
Christchurch National School. Now housing

Bird in Bush Road
Camelot Primary School,
Bird in Bush Park. Fruit orchard and sensory garden with decorative signage produced by local young people there is also a BMX track.
1 Glengall Tavern19 Fountain Children’s Centre
102 Sidmouth Arms. Gone
Hummingbird estate – houses from a small housing association founded by Stella Goldman in the early 1980s.
Haywards Pickle Factory

Bonar Road
This road built was built through the gardens of houses in Hill Street in 1894 It is roughly on the site of the Peckham Manor House. The formal gardens were rebuilt in 1672 by Sir Thomas Bond. It was sacked in 1688, as Sir Henry Bond was a Roman Catholic and supporter of James II. The house was demolished in 1797 for the formation of Peckham Hill Street
Henslowe Bus Co. used an old council depot as a bus garage in the 1920s. I was a private fraudulent bus company. They used a house which was sited south of the canal bridge and fronted on Bonar Road,

Bowles Road
The road has now gone and is under a trading estate
London County Council tram stables

Canal Grove,
Houses built in the 1820s and sited to look over Kent Road Pond. Clearly it was supposed to look rural but they got the gas works behind instead. Three more cottages were built mid-century between the pairs and one at each end. The Gas Company used them for staff. From 1985 there has been vehicular access. 1 & 9 gone have gone
George Livesey lived in the first house from the Old Kent Road.
Kent Road Pond, the pond was on the line of the canal and included in it as a widened area.

Commercial Way,
Space between it and the canal. This was a tiny plant nursery which became an open space
The Canal Bridge was called Globe Bridge, a wharf alongside the bridge was a, maintenance depot for the area,
101 Queen closed and site used for housing
135 Surrey View Tavern. Gone
Elizabeth Place 1842:
Doddington Place 1833, with pilasters and pediment,
Doddington Cottages, 1836 another pair of the same design,

Frensham Street
Originally called Surrey Terrace
Acorn Wharf on the Grand Surrey Canal. In 1896 this was the site for R.May & Sons who were then the largest and oldest wood yard on the canal having been there since 1853. They made dealt in English timbers, especially oak from Kent and Surrey. Acorn Wharf was on the canal bank rather than in a basin. This site is now used by Travis Perkins, building supplies merchants. A chimney remains on site from previous users.
Southwark Building Services. This is on what was Park Road Wharf on the canal and at one time this fronted on to a basin as party of Western Wharf.
Nye’s Wharf now used by a coach hire firm called Excalibur. This was originally an open area called Windmill Pond
V1 1944 at the north end.

Friary Road
Once called Lower Park Road
Friary estate. Flats, London County Council
77 Duke of Sussex
Our Lady of Sorrows, This parish was founded by the English Province of the Capuchin Franciscans in the 1850s, Includes the Nigerian Catholic Chaplaincy. Church C. by W. Pugin. A large church of stock brick with stone dressings, lancet and decorated windows, and a cheap whitewashed interior
St.Francis Catholic School and Nursery
Friary – at one time the complex included a Franciscan monastery from which teaching staff for the school were derived. They have since moved to Erith.

Gervase Street
Grenier House on site of the Elfrida Rathbone School. Built 1959/60 by ILEA with acres of patent glazing. The Architect was John Bancroft. Converted to housing.

Glengall Road
666 of architect Arthur Newman
Celestial Church of Christ (Nigeria) in St Andrew’s church/ Built 1864-5 by E. Bassett Keeling. Ragstone, with a tower which has lost its spire. Has an 1864 pulpit

Green Hundred Road
Flats, London County Council
35 Free Trader
68 at one time use by a basket making concern

Kincaid Road
22 childhood home of film star Alfred Burke

Leo Street
Boys school attended by film star Alfred Burke
Waste. 1984 was much bigger. Lots of plants and things nice,

Livesey Place
Named for George Livesey, Chair South Met Gas Co.
End is Lea Timber Co. Western Wharf.

Marmont Road
Peckham Park Primary School

Meeting House Lane
St.John, church By David Bush, 1965, on the site of bombed St.Jude. Contains a Crucifixion from St.Chrystom’s, sculpture. Alfred Burke, film star, sang in the choir. Bombed church of St Jude by Blomfield of 1875-6. It has a big sloping roof, with the impression of a tower. From a distance looks like a row of chimneys.
Meeting House founded by Puritan Maynard who had resigned as Vicar of Camberwell.
38 Havelock Arms. Brass water pump behind the bar and crystal chandeliers. Closed

Melon Road
A reminder that Sir Thomas 1632, who lived at Basing Manor House, sent some melons to King Charles I after this the King visited him and sent him 'a fat venison in melon time'. Sir Thomas was Lord the Manor and one of the justices of the Peace for Surrey.

Old Kent Road,
516 Vogue was the Henry Cooper pub and previously the Lord Wellington.
543 -549 few remnants of early c 19 ribbon development
610 Shard Arms became Cockneys. Demolished. Shard family were landowners
644 Royal London Friendly Society building now used as a bookie.
720 Drovers, was previously The Kentish Drovers - a low pub of c. 1840 with a tiled mural of the Canterbury Pilgrims curving round the corner, and good late c19 fittings. A small moulded eagle for Truemans remains above a ground floor window.
799 Rising Sun. Closed and gone
593-613 Astoria Cinema, opened 1930, and designed by E. A. Stone. The smallest of four great London Astorias both externally and internally. A huge Astoria sign curved across the sidewall and another sign was mounted on the side of the fly tower. Crompton Organ installed 1930 of a Maclean design + synthetic stops. Demolished. Closed 1968 and became the Mad Dog Bowl. Demolished in 1984 and Magnet Kitchens are now on site
Christ Church. Initially a church was built for a new parish in 1838 and it was sited by the edge of the Canal at the end of Ruby Street, behind the present day Kentucky Fried Chicken. It was initially called St Thomas, but by 1842 it was Christ Church. The rapid expansion of the Gas Works led to the demolition of the original building after only 30 years and it was replaced by no 4 retort house. The new church was by E. Bassett in Polychrome brick, with a tower and a big chancel window facing the road. It was built in nine months, including the spire! In September 1941 it was badly damaged by fire bombs and the church remained a ruin for fifteen years. The interior was later remodelled by T.W.Ford.
Doddington, 1872 Doddington cottages, 1836
Livesey Institute. This was a recreational institute for gas works staff and stood south east of the canal bridge. It was adapted from a store used by a merchant called Hinchcliffe. This building had in the past been used for revivalist meetings.
Livesey Museum/Library. By R. P. Whellock. Built as a library, damaged in the Second World War it was repaired and converted to a museum in 1974 by A. & D. Dew. Thus was Peckham's first library and was opened on 18 October 1890. It was a gift from George Livesey, chairman of the South Metropolitan Gas Company, to Camberwell Vestry. It was replaced by North Peckham Library in 1966. It was reopened as the Livesey Museum by the poet Sir John Betjeman on 30 March 1974. A statue of George Livesey, which used to be in the grounds of the gasworks opposite the museum, is in the courtyard as are other historical exhibits. The museum was closed in 2008 and its future is unclear.
506-510 New Covenant Church
North Peckham Civic Centre, library and public rooms By the Southwark Borough Architect's Department F. 0. Hays'. 1962-7. three plain yellow-brick storeys over a recessed ground floor with ceramic mural by A. Kossowski. In the Library steel mobile of the Camberwell Beauty Butterfly by Brian Kneale. Now used as an evangelical church.
South Metropolitan Gas Works. Built before 1834 by South Metropolitan Gas Co. Probably 1829 as a cannel coal co. It was originally built alongside the canal but subsequent land purchase and expansion have meant a move down the road a bit. The designer and engineer to the company was George Holsworthy Palmer who managed to blow up the purifying house in 1836. Subsequent manager was Thomas Livesey, who was to revolutionise the works. He4 was succeeded by his heroic son, George who was to mould it into the premier gas co in the world. No gas has been made here since 1953. No.13 holder – the first of George Livesey’s great holders is still in place with 3 lifts built in 1881. Other holders. 10 with 2 lifts 1867. 11 with 2 lifts, 1872 - also built by Livesey as was 12 with 2 lifts 1875. The original site is now covered with warehousing and light industry and the canal too has gone. The Statue of George Livesey by Pomeroy erected in 1909 was taken to the Livesey museum but goodness knows what has happened to it now.
Surrey Canal. The canal route can still be noted in the line of the road, buildings fronted onto the road and had yards onto the canal basin at the back. There was Shard's Wharf and Bridge Wharf North Camberwell Baths, also known as the Old Kent Road Baths they were the first public baths in London to have a Turkish bath. They were at the corner of Marlborough Grove and opened in 1905 by Camberwell Vestry. It was designed by E. Harding Payne with two swimming baths plus thirty men's first class warm baths, twelve second class with one rain douche and spray bath. Eight first-class women’s baths and eight second-class women’s slipper baths and six ram douche baths. A Russian vapour bath accommodated nine people at one time for second-class bathers. The Turkish bath, for first-class bathers, accommodated fourteen people at one time. A public wash house has 46 six washers. A well provided the water. The baths were destroyed during the Second World War.

Ossory road
The Canal footbridge at Ossory Road was called Ashes and then Pipers Bridge
25 Ossory Arms. Closed and gone

Peckham Hill Street
Developed by the Shard family, A few remnants of early c 19 terraces.
St Chrysostom Church. This was a Proprietary chapel built in 1813 with much atmosphere and a stuccoed 'Commissioners' Gothic front. Inside were three galleries on thin iron shafts. There was an attempt to restore following the discovery of rot in the roof timber but it was unsafe and demolished in 1962.
58 Globe. Impressive split level pub with a garden. Gone and became housing
Commercial Wharf on the Grand Surrey Canal had an entrance in Hill Street north of the Commercial Road Bridge. It was the only named wharf on the canal in 1842. In 1894 it was called Hope Wharf and handled timber. It had a two storey building between the bridge and canal with a notice about use of the wharf for packing cases

Peckham Park Road
Peckham Park Road Baptist Church
59 Swan
104 Maismore Arms. Gaskell and Chambers hand pumps. Closed and housing on site
116 Gravel garden with drought-tolerant plants. Lots of unusual plants in a Specialist nursery.
112 One of a group of four pairs of early c19 houses

Peckham
The area today has few tangible reminders of its history. Of the theatre at which Nell Gwynne played nothing remains nor can one see the house in which Tom Hood, author of the "Song of the Shirt" once lived. Oliver Goldsmith lived here, too, and a local school in Peckham Road now bears his name.

Ruby Street
Track across the fields from the main road to Christ Church
14 Prince of Wales. Closed and gone

Comments

Anonymous said…
Hi What an intresting blog
I'm trying to find information about the old nursery site and old firework factory before that
It's now a site which has had fly tipping saga over the last year!
I would like to know when the nursery was set up and when did it close. Very hard to find any information not photo history of this. Thanks
Edith said…
Sorry = that's all I know.There were lots of small firework factories in that area in the early 19th century - most ended in disaster
richard said…
church Our Lady of Sorrows originally Our Lady of the Seven Dolours/hence the Dolores is Sorrowful.
Baths in Old Kent Rd. have osycard picture c1912./ em richard4444@hotmail.com.
raised in Cardiff House.LCC jct PPr and Green Hundred rd.1952-69.
what dates and address 4 edith?
Dave said…
My mother's maiden name was Nye,who was raised in the area, and I was wondering if there was any connection to Nye's Wharf. What can you tell me about the history of Nye's Wharf regarding possible ancestors please?
Elainie said…
Hi. Very interesting blog. Its lovely to get some history behind the area I once lived (Coopers road). Not been to the area for years, and its a shame some of the old pubs/building no longer exist. I remeber as a child playing in the bomb site of what was the old swimming baths! I remeber the Astoria cinema, saturday mornings going to the picture for 6d. There was an Ice cream shop just after the bridge. Rossi's it was called. and an old water fountain on the bridge.
Thanks for bringing back some memories.
Elainie.
Anonymous said…
Hi Elaine,
Thats a surprise as I lived first in Sandover Road (under the lake now) then in Ruby Street behind the Astoria. I remember all the things you mention and many more like the Canal and especially the Barges! We too played in the old bombed out swimming baths. We must be around the same age? I was born in 1956. I went to Eveline Lowe primary School.
I was working in Dunton Road last year and was shocked at all the changes. I couldn't believe my eyes.
Anyway all the best Jim.
Unknown said…
Hi Elain,
My name is john bell i lived in coopers road
Early 60's i can relate to all that you have said such great days you've brought back some great memories for me i was thirteen yrs old when I moved from there but i do remember a girl Elaine Finch i don't suppose that would be you.

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