Peckham

Peckham (ˈpɛkəm ) is a district in south London, within the London Borough of Southwark. It is south-east of Charing Cross. At the 2001 Census the Peckham ward had a population of 14,720. "Peckham" is a Saxon place name meaning the village of the River Peck, a small stream that ran through the district until it was enclosed in 1823. Archaeological evidence indicates earlier Roman occupation in the area, although the name of this settlement is lost. The Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names (1991, 1998) gives the origin as from the Old English *pēac and hām meaning ‘homestead by a peak or hill’. The name of the river is a back-formation from the name of the village. Peckham Rye is from Old English rīth, stream. Following the Norman Conquest, the manor of Peckham was granted to Odo of Bayeux and held by the Bishop of Lisieux. It was described as being a hamlet on the road from Camberwell to Greenwich. Peckham came within the newly created Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell and County of London in 1889. In 1965, the borough was abolished and the area then fell roughly within of the newly created London Borough of Southwark. Peckham appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Pecheham. It was held by the Bishop of Lisieux from Odo of Bayeux. Its Domesday assets were: 2 hides. It had land for 1 plough, of meadow. It rendered 30 shillings (£1.50). The manor was owned by King Henry I, who gave it to his son Robert, Earl of Gloucester. When Robert married the heiress to Camberwell the two manors were united under royal ownership. King John probably hunted at Peckham and local anecdotes suggest that the right to an annual fair was granted to celebrate a particularly good day's sport. The fair grew to be a rowdy major event lasting three weeks until its abolition in 1827. Peckham became popular as a wealthy residential area by the 16th century and there are several claims that Christopher Wren had local links. By the 18th century the area was a more commercial centre and attracted industrialists who wanted to avoid paying the expensive rents in central London.