Parker Cars Magazine: Issue 4

london villages
Top left: Mural in
William Griggs’s
Garden, and market
stall in Peckham Rye
station arcade. Below:
African couriers; Fat
Boy Peckham café and
vintage shop; Rooftop
Film Club. Bottom left:
The Rye pub.
winter. For all-year-round drinks try the Gowlett
Arms on Gowlett Road, the Rye on Peckham
Rye, the Hope on Melon Road, and Bar Story on
Blenheim Grove.
Great restaurants
Turn right and right again out of Peckham Rye
station onto Blenheim Grove and you’ll encounter a
string of eateries including Peckham Refreshment
Rooms and Honest Burgers. Elsewhere there is
seriously good south Indian food at Ganapati,
Persian fare at Persepolis, and Thai at Begging Bowl.
Artusi on Bellenden Road and Pedler on Peckham
Rye are excellent.
Great art galleries
The presence of young artists is one of the reasons
Peckham Rye is indeed so fly. Visit various galleries
including the Sunday Painter, Hannah Barry Gallery,
Peckham Platform, CLF Art Café (in the Bussey
Building), Bold Tendencies (in the disused multistorey
car park), and South London Gallery.
Great park
As you head south down Rye Lane you eventually
reach Peckham Rye Common and Peckham Rye
Park, fanning out to the south. Stroll amongst the
hipsters and young families, and enjoy ornamental
gardens, bubbling streams and a lake.
Great cinemas
Peckhamplex isn’t the prettiest cinema but why
would you complain when it costs just £4.99 for an
all-day ticket? During the summer the top of the
Bussey Building hosts the Rooftop Film Club.
Did you know?
Artist and poet William Blake claimed to have seen
visions in Peckham Rye Park, including “a tree filled
with angels, bright angelic wings bespangling every
bough like stars”. Modern-day residents occasionally
report similar sightings. Normally at 3am on a
Sunday morning. During World War II a section of
Peckham Rye Common was a prisoner-of-war camp
for captured Italian soldiers.
where to, parker? 47