Editing Peckham (section)

===19th century===
[[File:Peckham Rye stn entrance.JPG|thumb|upright|[[Peckham Rye railway station]] entrance off Rye Lane]]
At the beginning of the 19th century, Peckham was synonymous with [[Peckham Rye]]: a "small, quiet, retired village surrounded by fields". Since 1744 [[stagecoach]]es had travelled with an armed guard between Peckham and London to give protection from [[highwaymen]]. The rough roads constrained traffic so a branch of the [[Grand Surrey Canal]] was proposed as a route from the [[River Thames|Thames]] to [[Portsmouth]]. The canal was built from [[Surrey Commercial Docks]] to Peckham before the builders ran out of funds in 1826. The abbreviated canal was used to ship soft wood for construction and even though the canal was drained and backfilled in 1970, Whitten's timber merchants stood on the site known as Eagle Wharf until it closed in 2019 and the location was designated for development.<ref>{{Cite web|last=www.girafficthemes.com|first=Giraffic Themes {{!}}|title=Whitten Timber bids farewell|url=https://peckhampeculiar.tumblr.com/post/186067467452/whitten-timber-bids-farewell|access-date=2021-03-12|website=THE PECKHAM PECULIAR|language=en}}</ref>

[[File:203 to 213 Queen's Road, Peckham.jpg|thumb|left|203 to 213 Queen's Road, Peckham]]

In 1851 [[Thomas Tilling]] started an innovative [[Bus|omnibus]] service from Peckham to London. Tilling's buses were the first to use pre-arranged bus stops, which helped them to run to a reliable timetable. His services expanded to cover much of London until his horses were requisitioned for the [[British Army|Army]] in the [[First World War]].

During the mid-19th century, housing had spread north and west of Peckham Rye. The area in the north, towards [[Old Kent Road]], on land previously owned by the Hill family (from whom the name Peckham Hill Street was derived) was initially known as '''Peckham New Town''', although it would later become synonymous with Peckham in general (and the "New Town" was abandoned). In the area west of [[Peckham Rye Common]] and [[Peckham Rye Park]], many large houses were built.

[[File:Peckham eel and pie.jpg|thumb|upright|Manze's Eel and Pie House, Peckham]]
[[File:Camberwell Met. B Ward Map 1916.svg|thumb|A map showing the Peckham wards of Camberwell Metropolitan Borough as they appeared in 1916]]
[[Peckham Rye railway station]] was opened, in 1865. With the arrival of the railway and the introduction of horse-drawn trams about ten years later, Peckham became accessible to artisans and clerical staff working in the city and the docks. Housing for this socio-economic group filled almost all the remaining fields except the Rye. In 1868 the [[vestry]] of Camberwell St Giles bought the Rye to keep it as [[common land]]. Responding to concerns about the dangerous overcrowding of the common on holidays the vestry bought the adjacent Homestall Farm (the last farm in the area) in 1894 and opened this as Peckham Rye Park.

With the influx of younger residents with money to spend Rye Lane became a major shopping street. Jones & Higgins opened a small shop in 1867 (on the corner of Rye Lane and Peckham High Street) that became the best known department store in south London for many years. It closed in the 1980s. In 1870 [[George Gibson Bussey]] moved to Peckham and set up a firm described as "Firearms, Ammunition & Shooting” at the Museum Works, Rye Lane, Peckham. The Museum of Firearms was built in 1867. The [[Ordnance Survey]] Map of 1868 shows the museum building with a rifle range at the rear extending along the side of the railway embankment for 150 yards.

The late 19th century also saw the arrival of George Batty, a manufacturer of condiments, whose main business stood at [[Finsbury Pavement]]. The company's Peckham premises occupied 19 railway arches. It was acquired by the [[Heinz|H. J. Heinz Company]] in 1905 as their first UK manufacturing base.

The southern end of Peckham was the location for the railway line that once served [[the Crystal Palace]] in [[Sydenham, London|Sydenham]]. Though the line was eventually dismantled due to the collapse of the embankment into the gardens of Marmora Road it is still possible to see large sections of it. The flats on Wood Vale and the full length of Brenchley Gardens trace its route.

Close by is the Aquarius Golf Club,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aquariusgolfclub.co.uk/pages.php/index.htmlAquarius|title=Aquarius Golf Club: Golf club and golf course in London,. www.aquariusgolfclub.co.uk|website=www.aquariusgolfclub.co.uk}}</ref> which is located over the cavernous Honor Oak Reservoir constructed between 1901 and 1909. When it was completed it was the largest brick built underground reservoir in the world<ref name="Honor Oak Reservoir 1">{{cite web | title = Honor Oak Reservoir | publisher = London Borough of Lewisham | url = http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/SiteCollectionDocuments/ForestHillAndHonorOakSecretsLeaflet.pdf | access-date = 1 September 2011 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120318025526/http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/SiteCollectionDocuments/ForestHillAndHonorOakSecretsLeaflet.pdf | archive-date = 18 March 2012 | df = dmy-all }}</ref> and is still one of the largest in Europe.<ref name="Honor Oak Reservoir 2">{{cite web | title = Honor Oak Reservoir | publisher = Mott MacDonald | url = http://www.projectmanagement.mottmac.com/projects/?mode=type&id=130093 | access-date = 1 September 2011 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20111209183234/http://www.projectmanagement.mottmac.com/projects/?mode=type&id=130093 | archive-date = 9 December 2011 | df = dmy-all }}</ref> The reservoir now forms part of the Southern extension of the [[Thames Water Ring Main]].

[[Camberwell Cemeteries|Camberwell Old Cemetery]], on Forest Hill Road, is a later example of the ring of [[Victorian era|Victorian]] cemeteries that were built to alleviate the overcrowding of [[churchyard]]s that was experienced with the rapid expansion of London in the 19th century. The Stone House at its main entrance was used as a film location for ''[[Entertaining Mr. Sloane]]'' (1970), adapted from the [[Joe Orton]] play. It was gutted by fire in the mid-1970s and rebuilt some years later. Camberwell Old Cemetery did not have the grandeur of nearby [[Nunhead Cemetery]], which was one of the original London [[Necropolis|necropoleis]], and once nearing capacity it was replaced by [[Camberwell Cemeteries|Camberwell New Cemetery]] on Brenchley Gardens.

Brenchley Gardens Park follows the route of the old line to [[the Crystal Palace]] culminating at the High Level station. The park runs behind Marmora Road and the remains of the embankment then continues along Wood Vale where flats were built on it. The line was closed in 1954 following a decline in its use after the destruction of the Crystal Palace in 1936 and due to slippage in the structure of the embankment.<ref name="Route of Crystal Palace Railway Line">{{cite web | title = Crystal Palace (High Level) – Nunhead | publisher = London's Abandoned Stations | url = http://www.abandonedstations.org.uk/Crystal_Palace_line_2.html | access-date =17 July 2008 }}</ref>