Long-time London resident and avid museum and theatre-goer. I started this blog in 2014, and got serious about it in 2020 when I realised how much I missed arts and culture during lockdowns. I go to a lot more events than anyone would think is sensible, and love sharing my thoughts in the forms of reviews, the occasional thought piece, and travel recommendations when I leave my London HQ.
A walking tour along the path of London’s River Peck, from Honor Oak Park to Surrey Quays. This mostly hidden river meanders its way through South East London, where former market gardens have given way to industrial back streets.
Today we follow another walk from Tom Bolton’s London’s Lost Rivers: A Walker’s Guide. If you can make out a teeny tiny stream in the background of this image, that, my friends, is the Peck!
A Dual River
We haven’t done a river walk for a while! The lost rivers we have followed to date, the Neckinger and the Walbrook, were fairly short, central London jaunts. Today we are once more following Tom Bolton’s book London’s Lost Rivers: A Walker’s Guide. But our walk is not quite so central. We are following the River Peck in this post. Peck as in Peckham. This walk takes us from Honor Oak Park (where this tree-themed walk also began), through Peckham, over the Old Kent Road, to Rotherhithe and Surrey Quays. Bolton tells it like it is: this is a walk through “unglamorous south London, places few people visit and which are all the more intriguing for it.”
This river walk is also interesting for its duality. Bolton pairs the River Peck with the Earl’s Sluice, another lost river. The two join forces for their last mile or so to the Thames. The Peck is actually classed as a tributary of the Earl’s Sluice. Both have a connection to the Honour of Gloucester, a baronial territory in South East London. Both were once rural, then supported market gardens, then were polluted by industrial usage. And both, today, are more or less invisible but still flow beneath Londoners’ feet.
Although today’s walk starts and ends in territory we have seen before (here and here), this is a part of the city that I would be unlikely to really stop and look at were it not for the structure of this walk. And this is why I love my stack of London guide books so much. I hope I never stop exploring: seeking out hidden stories and connecting to the city’s many layers. And I hope you enjoy following this particular hidden London story with me.
Walking the Peck: One Tree Hill
We start today’s walk on familiar ground. This is where we started our recent London Tree Walk from here to New Cross. With the changing seasons we now get a better view of the city as well as some autumnal colour. This is One Tree Hill, which obviously has many more trees than one, but has a famous one which we will see shortly. This concrete structure was an anti-zeppelin defence during WWI. Bolton adds more colour to the story: this strategic spot on the top of the hill has also been an East India Company telegraphic beacon and Napoleonic-era Admiralty beacon. News of victory at Waterloo would have passed from here to Telegraph Hill Park which we saw here.
And here we have the Honor Oak, the One Tree (on the left). Whether it is more realistic that the name comes from the oak having the ‘honour’ of sheltering Elizabeth I for a picnic, or something to do with the Honour of Gloucester, I will let you be the judge. Either way, this is a replacement tree after the previous one was struck by lightning. This is also more or less where the River Peck begins. Probably. We’re not quite sure. But there are underground springs somewhere around this hill which feed the river.
So we head down the hill, following the springs. Bolton relates an amusing tale about the people of this neck of the woods. In 1896, the hill, part of the Great North Wood, was enclosed to make a golf course. That Sunday, 15,000 people showed up to protest. They pulled down the fences, occupied the hill, thought about attacking the groundskeeper’s cottage, then dispersed after singing Rule Britannia. Have you ever heard anything more British? It worked, anyway. The local council bought the land, and it was a public park by 1905.
Walking The Peck: Brenchley Gardens to Peckham Rye
This park is Brenchley Gardens, which we saw in more detail on our Tree Walk. Just over the other side is Honor Oak Reservoir. There is no evidence that the Peck feeds the reservoir, and the reservoir itself has eliminated any sense of a river valley in this area. The poet Walter de la Mare played here as a child and wrote a poem about the reservoir:
Yet there was mystery too: those steps of stone – In the green paddock where I played alone – Cracked, weed-grown.
…
There, as I knew, in brooding darkness lay The waters of a reservoir. …
Excerpt from Winged Chariot, Walter de la Mare
From the poetic to the decidedly suburban. We emerge onto Cheltenham Road, dividing Peckham and Nunhead. This area of South East London saw immense Victorian expansion in terms of housing and also cemeteries. Within a few minutes’ walk are five or six cemeteries, most dating to the 19th Century.
The Harris Girls Academy probably sits on top of the Peck. It is just across the street from Peckham Rye Park, where we will catch our first glimpse of the river!
I hope you didn’t get yourselves too excited because, well… here it is. The Peck. Not much to look at as you cross the ‘rustic bridge’ of Peckham Rye. This is, however, the only remaining above-ground stretch. So let’s make the most of it.
Peckham Rye Park was formed in 1894 from part of the local common. ‘Rye’ is an old word for a watercourse, so the presence of the river lives on doubly in the park’s name. There used to be another tributary around here somewhere, perhaps over the other side of this view. It is lost today, only making itself known during very heavy rain.
Walking the Peck: Peckham Rye Contd.
The Peck wends its way through Peckham Rye Park, diverting through culverts and feeding several water features including this pond.
A quick detour to check out the park’s American Garden, replanted recently so still maturing. The original planting was achieved through an 18th Century seed exchange with John Bartram of Philadelphia.
And a quick look at the Japanese Garden, where the Peck feeds another water feature.
And now we say goodbye to the above-ground Peck. You may not be the most spectacular of London rivers, but you’re hanging in there despite all the changes you’ve endured!
So we step out now onto the rest of Peckham Rye, the non-enclosed part. Bolton suggests that you can see a very shallow valley in this park, but either my eyes weren’t sharp enough or my imagination wasn’t up to it. Bolton also informs us that this is a possible site for Boadicea’s defeat in 60 AD. And that it was the site of Peckham Fair, which delighted locals with exotic animals, among other draws, until 1827.
Do you know what’s tough? Finding a manhole cover amongst grass. Do you know what’s tougher? Doing it on a Saturday when lots of kids have football practice. Especially if you don’t want to seem like an interloper. I felt a great sense of accomplishment when I did finally find what I was looking for. Here it is in all its glory: a manhole cover beneath which courses the Peck.
And then we are sent off to find another manhole cover! It’s a miracle I found this one, I’m still not sure what ‘bear half right across the grass’ means. At this stage Bolton relates a tale of a young William Blake walking here as a boy from Soho. He ‘saw angels’ here on more than one occasion, almost earning a beating from his father for lying.
And we finally bid farewell to Peckham Rye. I chose to take a photo of this fountain rather than the two separate men relieving themselves nearby. That must be the ‘unglamorous’ part Bolton spoke about.
Walking The Peck: Rye Lane And Environs
This new build (complete with cladding issues) is on the site of the Royal Arsenal Cooperative Society store. The Peck ran close to here, ducking under houses and reemerging.
From now on, the Peck tends towards areas of light industry such as this typical row of businesses on Copeland Road. Before all the suburban housing and light industry, this was an area of marketing gardening. It seems hard to imagine now – a nice stretch of gardens between the peaceful villages of Peckham and Rotherhithe.
These railway arches were once home to the Batty & Co. Pickle Factory, which H.J. Heinz bought in 1905 as their first British venture. The bridge also features in the opening of the 1966 film Blow-Up which I haven’t seen but my walking buddy assures me is ‘overrated’. With due apologies to any fans of Michelangelo Antonioni.
Cossall Park. A tributary once joined the Peck around here, as well as feeding a reservoir.
This point in the walk was a little bit confusing. I was looking for MR Scaffolding, in a building which had been home to a vat and wooden tank workshop from 1766 until 1989. Then I realised that Bolton’s book is from 2011, and this block of flats is definitely newer than that. So I thought it had been demolished and was sad. It was only when I got home and did some further research that I realised this white building at the bottom is what I was looking for. Thanks, Google Street View from 2009! The houses next door are remnants of the old village of Peckham, dating to circa 1700. Well, not those modern ones, you know the ones I mean.
Walking The Peck: Queen’s Road to Old Kent Road
Another difference from Bolton’s book is this section of Queen’s Road (the old road to Greenwich). Bolton describes a wasteland behind a council fence, site of the demolished and formerly no-go Acorn Estate. Now it looks like… well, any other new build flats in London, really. Probably a typical story of utopian mid-century design gone wrong, social problems ‘fixed’ by letting the private sector take over. Anyway, that’s for another time.
The Peck once flowed across open country here, roughly along where Carlton Grove now stands.
Spotted: this intriguing church along Meeting House Lane. Mural by Giacomo Bufarini, aka RUN. This whole area was once market gardens.
Next up is Asylum Road. Bolton explains the asylum in question, but you have to make a quick detour from the book to actually see it for yourself. Here it is in all its glory. It’s not an asylum in the sense of a healthcare facility, it’s a rather large series of almshouses. They were the work of the Licensed Victuallers’ Benevolent Institution, circa 1830s. The central chapel can be hired for events, and looks really cool. I only caught a glimpse of the inside – I think there was a wedding taking place. Not river-related, but a nice historic survival. I also liked the cute double front doors to the almshouses.
So we backtrack a little bit now to Clifton Crescent. The copper awnings remind Bolton (and me too) of seaside houses. It dates to around 1850, built in retro-Regency style.
And now we cross this little urban wasteland and the Old Kent Road. The Tustin Estate (bottom image, more cladding issues) is right over the course of the Peck.
Walking The Peck: Ilderton Road to Bolina Road
More light industry along Ilderton Road. This was once a raised causeway, with the Peck running alongside through a drainage channel.
Bolton comments on the number of evangelical churches around these parts, and I have to agree. I often spot them from the 172 bus as it trundles up and down the Old Kent Road. Here are two of them. God’s Church of Peace has taken over from a more traditional church, whereas the seemingly now defunct Jubilee Christian Centre (Where Everybody Is Somebody) was based in a former industrial space. It’s the availability of cheap, large spaces for rent which often appeals to evangelical congregations.
What is now a slightly raised road was once the Canterbury Bridge over the Grand Surrey Canal. Boats once carried coal and timber from the Surrey Docks, until the canal was filled in in 1978.
Some people may think I’m overreacting, but this part of my walk was a little intimidating. This is the Millwall Football Club ground, the New Den, and we did our walk on a match day (although well before kickoff). Millwall don’t have the best reputation historically for friendly and welcoming fans, and I know so little about football culture that I don’t feel like I can read the signs to know if I’m safe or not. There were loads of police around, which just made it seem scarier. But we didn’t have any issues. Anyway, we had to walk along here to stay more or less on the course of the Peck. The stadium itself dates to 1993.
Bolton describes Bolina Road as a “strange, seedy, forgotten street” crossed by several forbidding railway bridges. I suspect, though, that it’s been pedestrianised since the book was written, and is therefore less forbidding these days. Still a bit seedy.
Walking The Peck: The Black Ditch to Rogues Lane
Why hello, who’s this? It’s our old friend the River Peck, in this unglamorous conduit over railway lines. This is the sort of thing that you could pass by daily without ever realising what it is. In fact my London Overground line from Brockley passes under it on its way to central London. Again, this sort of historical nerdery is precisely why I love doing these walks. By now the river was called the Black Ditch on some old maps, giving an indication of the impacts of those commercial uses on the water quality. This is also the point at which we have joined the Earl’s Sluice for the final mile to the Thames
And here’s another thing you could easily walk past without noticing. Do you see that big green pipe? That, my friends, is a ‘stink pipe’. The Earl Main sewer lies beneath, and the pipe carries the smell above noses and windows. The Earl’s Sluice became the Earl Main sewer in 1820-23.
Some nice Victorian houses on Bush Road. The Earl’s Sluice/Peck ran (runs?) beneath them.
This rather handsome building is the Thames Water Earl Main Pumping Station, controlling the outfall of the Earl Main sewer. As you can see from the very large cranes (or whatever they are), it’s part of London’s ‘super sewer’ works.
Believe it or not, this spot (Plough Way) was once so desolate it went by the name Rogues Lane, and coaches needed guards to travel through it safely. Later the Grand Surrey Canal ran through here, right where that black and white building now stands.
A very short detour to see a final manhole cover concealing the Earl’s Sluice/Peck. Come on, little river, you can do it! Almost there!
Walking The Peck: South Dock
As we approach South Dock, we see the usual Docklands combination of post-modern (or later) architecture with street names reminding us of the huge, vanished docks themselves. Almost all of the Rotherhithe Peninsula used to be dock basins, and almost all of them are now filled in.
South Dock is one of the few which remain as open water in Surrey Quays. This is the mouth of the Earl’s Sluice, widened to create the Malt Pond, which became the East Country Dock, which became South Dock. Greenland Dock next door (which also still exists and which you can read about here) was the biggest of this development, and dates to 1696. Until about WWI, according to Bolton, people treated this area like countryside, and would come for fishing and picnics. By WWII these docks dealt mainly with timber and Canadian dairy produce. And the storage of timber was calamitous when the docks caught fire in 1940 due to an incendiary raid. The whole thing burned down.
And look at that, we have reached the Thames! That means we have traced the Peck 5 1/2 miles from its source near Honor Oak, to the point where it joins the Earl’s Sluice, to its outlet right here at South Dock. One final story from Bolton before we finish up: this is also reputedly the site of a canal dug by King Canute. This is pretty unlikely, but several famous historians disagreed, and ‘traced’ the canal’s path from Vauxhall to here. It just goes to show that, although we do our best to uncover London’s secrets, we don’t know everything. All we can do is to come at it in a spirit of curiosity, and piece together the many different pasts of this great city.
I hope you have enjoyed this ‘lost river’ walk! There are many more of London’s rivers to (metaphorically) uncover – subscribe below to keep up with the latest posts from the Salterton Arts Review:
Travelers' Map is loading... If you see this after your page is loaded completely, leafletJS files are missing.
