Centred around the famous Bellenden Road, this neighbourhood is at the heart of the deprived but hipster-heavy district of Peckham. The area is a vibrant community of independent businesses, fancy restaurants, bars, bistros, and vintage shops, and the celebrated Bussey Building draws young revellers to the locale’s north-eastern corner every weekend! Peckham Rye Park to the south east is a vast swathe of green space, which is often hard to come by in this once industrial part of town. With reasonable transport links in the form of Peckham Rye and East Dulwich stations, the neighbourhood is popular with young commuters, and the nearby campuses of Goldsmiths’ and Camberwell mean students are also a permanent fixture in the area’s pubs and bars. There is also a large British Nigerian community, with Peckham being dubbed “Little Lagos” as a result. There are also communities with their origins in Bangladesh, the Caribbean, China, France, India, Ghana, Pakistan, Turkey, Eastern Europe and Vietnam, all of whom coexist in one of the most dynamic and multicultural areas of the UK.

The whole of Peckham was an insignificant part of town in its early days, existing as little more than 240 acres of rural fields. It later served as a royal hunting ground after Henry I gave it to his son, Robert, before its slow transformation into crop-growing land for London markets. Development began once the Grand Surrey Canal linked Peckham to the Surrey Quays in 1826, and horse-drawn buses began operating from 1851 to take travellers to and from the city. The neighbourhood of Bellenden, named after Lord Bellenden of Broughton, was laid out in the 1870s in what had formerly been a large fruit garden. It was populated disproportionately by French Huguenots, who founded businesses that still to this day carry French names, attracting a large French population and leading to the area being known as the French Quarter.

The area has always been popular with creative types. The artists Anthony Gormley, Tom Phillips, and John Latham all lived in Bellenden, in part due to its proximity to Goldsmiths’ University. The artists who lived there have had a big impact on the architecture of Bellenden. During Southwark Council’s Bellenden Area Renewal scheme, Gormley designed bollards and street furniture while Phillips designed lampposts and mosaics. Latham also installed a large piece that went through the front of his own house, named Flat Time House, which is now a public art and education space called the John Latham Archive. The neighbourhood is also home to one of London’s most unique bars, The Four Quarters. A dedicated retro arcade games bar, it includes over 15 original arcade cabs from the 1980s onwards, as well as 10 retro consoles! A must visit for any nostalgia addict.

A common complaint about south London is its lack of tubes. Whilst Peckham Rye station provides Overground services, this offers neither the scale nor the freedom of the 24-hour Underground network, so travelling later in the evening can often be a problem. That said, there is plenty around to occupy a local within walking distance.

There is a regeneration project currently planned around Peckham Rye station. Southwark Council claim that the project “will transform the narrow, dimly lit passageways that lead to the station into a generous, vibrant public square.” It will also increase the station’s capacity, allowing for more passengers and more platforms. The project was originally set to be completed in the autumn of 2020 but is currently still in the planning stage as of 2022. Similar to the proposed Bakerloo line extension north of here, it is unclear how long these plans will take to materialise. Aside from this, Peckham Rye has not experienced intense development in recent years, with the two new residential buildings at 190 Rye Lane being the most notable new schemes.