Peckham was originally in the county of Surrey. The name may have meant 'village by the hill'.

The London-Lewes Roman road ran from Watling Street (now Old Kent Road) along Asylum Way and part of Ivydale Road south.

1086 Mentioned in Domesday Book as Pecheha
1100-35 Owned by Henry I. Passed on to son, Robert Earl of Gloucester whobecame Lord of Manor

Peckham administered by Camberwell Parish Vestry
1690 No 2 Woods Road built.

Mostly green fields. Meadow where Aylesbury Centre is located Rye Lane. Known as South Street. Queen's Road known as Deptford Lane
1700 No 4 Queens Road built
1744 Stagecoach operated to city
1765 Oliver Goldsmith was a teacher at Dr Milner's Academy
1767 William Blake (aged 10) walked to Peckham rye & had a vision of an angel in a tree.
1823 River Peck enclosed
1826 Peckham branch of Grand Surrey Canal opened.
Society of Friends Meeting House, Highshore Rd (Quakers)
Peckham Fair ended
1827 Licenced Victuallers' Asylum (now Caroline Gardens)

New roads began to extend from Peckham to Camberwell over fields
1840 Nunhead Cemetery laid out (54 Acres)

1851 Tilling operated daily omnibus service from Peckham to Hide Park
1855 Roman Catholic Church built by Pugin at Friary Road
1861 Baptist Church built in Peckham Park Road
1865 Peckham Rye railway station opened
1866 Queens Road railway station opened
1867 Jones & Higgins opened as a small shop (later a famous department store)
1868 Peckham Rye Common (64 acres) bought by Camberwell vestry
1870s Water reservoirs built in Nunhead
1872 Nunhead station opened
1876 Bellenden Road School built
1889 Peckham now part of City of London (was previously in Surrey)
1890 Peckham Rye Park established (49 acres-old Homestall Farm)
1893 Police Station built at Peckham High Street / Meeting House Lane Choumert Road School built
1898 Crown theatre opened in Peckham High Street (later Peckham Hippodrome)

1900 Peckham part of the new borough of Camberwell.
1914 Tower Cinema, 116 Rye Lane opened (now a car park)
1929 Peckham Hippodrome demolished
1932 Gaumont Palace cinema opened on site of Hippodrome
1933 Sassoon Flats built in St Mary's Road by Maxwell Fry
1935 Pioneer Health Centre opened in St Mary's Road

1938 Peckham Odeon opened on Peckham High Street (now Job Centre extension)



1956 Tower Cinema demolished
1961 Gaumont Palace converted to Bingo Hall
1965 Camberwell and Southwark joined up as Southwark Council
1970 Grand Surrey Canal drained and filled in
1974 Livesey Museum opened on Old Kent Road (closed in 2008 by Southwark Council)
1980 Jones & Higgins Department Store closed
1983 Peckham Odeon closed down
1984 Aylesham Centre opened. Named after a Kent mining village by Southwark Council
1994 Peckham Premier Cinema opened
1997 Peckham Pulse opened
2000 Peckham Library opened









2002 Gaumont Palace building demolished (now Gaumont House)

The Story of Peckham - John D Beasley (1976 London Borough of Southwark)
Nunhead Cemetary - James Stevens Curl (undated Ancient Monuments Society)
Who Was Who In Peckham - John D Beasley (undated Chener)