Peckham Rye

 

Peckham Rye is an open space and road in the London Borough of Southwark in London, England. The roughly triangular open space, managed by Southwark Council, consists of two congruent areas, with Peckham Rye Common to the north and Peckham Rye Park to the south. The road Peckham Rye forms the western and eastern perimeter of the open space. Peckham Rye is also Cockney rhyming slang for tie (necktie). It was on the Rye in the 1760s that the artist William Blake claimed to have seen visions, including one of "a tree filled with angels, bright angelic wings bespangling every bough like stars. " The novel The Ballad of Peckham Rye by Muriel Spark is based around this area. The park in the 50's - 70s was the site for a yearly fair. Peckham Rye railway station is a station on Rye Lane in the centre of the shopping district of Peckham in South London. It opened on 1 December 1865 for LC&DR trains and on 13 August 1866 for LB&SCR trains. It was designed by Charles Henry Driver (1832–1900), the architect of Abbey Mills and Crossness pumping stations, who also designed the grade II listed Denmark Hill and Battersea Park stations between here and London Victoria.

 

Peckham Rye, at a railway crossroads, is a key interchange, being served by East London Line, Thameslink and Sutton & Mole Valley services; trains go to Dartford, London Bridge, London Victoria, Highbury & Islington, London Blackfriars, Sevenoaks, West Croydon, Beckenham Junction and Clapham Junction. Ticket gates were installed in May 2009 and during late 2010 the station was refurbished as part of a 'deep clean' by Southern. A former waiting room for platforms 2 and 3, bricked up for over 40 years was partially restored and temporarily re-opened with a possible permanent re-opening being planned. The original iron stair remains at Peckham Rye. The work initiated by the Peckham Society and Peckham Vision will restore this and extend it to give access to the Old Waiting Room. Peckham Rye was planned to become a step-free station and the project will be completed in 2019. Peckham Rye station does not comply with the requirements for disabled access. It can also be inaccessible for people with heavy luggage and small children. The station is in Travelcard Zone 2 and has a full complement of services including help points, cash machines, photo booth, boarding ramps, a bridge, payphones, a waiting room (the Old Waiting Room is worth a visit in itself) and toilets.

 

Connections: National Rail. Thameslink. London Buses routes 12, 37, 63, 78, 197, 343, 363, P12 and P13 and night routes N63 and N343 serve the station; some via the bus station.

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