Peckham Waiting Room & Hidden Gems of SE London

On this occasion we will be doing an easy-paced flat ride. And it certainly has a fascinating theme - hidden gems of SE London.

"It was once considered to be one of the grandest station waiting rooms in south London, but for decades the space at Peckham Rye railway station was bricked up and forgotten about. The Old Waiting Room was designed by Charles Henry Driver as part of Peckham Rye Station when it opened in 1865. After falling out of use for passengers it became a Billiard Hall in the 1920s, finally closing its doors in 1962."

"Following a successful campaign to get the building Grade II listed in 2007, Benedict O'Looney Architects have been working in partnership with Network Rail and other stakeholders to open up and celebrate this local treasure. They have completed various restoration projects in the space including repairing windows and doors, opening up and repairing the floor, conservation of paintwork in the stairwell and recently the design of an extension to the staircase to provide public access from the ground floor. Their work at the station has received a commendation from the Heritage Angels scheme (Historic England)." (https://openhouselondon.open-city.org.uk/listings/6995).

On reading this, we had to arrange for the annual Cyclist in Southwark Open House ride to go through Peckham. We meet for this ride at Dulwich Clock Cafe, Dulwich Park and will then be attempting to visit as many of the following properties as we can fit in during the day (subject to queues not being too long).

After visiting the Waiting Room, we continue on to 15 1/2 Consort Road (https://openhouselondon.open-city.org.uk/listings/3831), Sayes Court (open 'till to 1pm) (https://openhouselondon.open-city.org.uk/listings/6763) and the Master Shipwright's House (https://openhouselondon.open-city.org.uk/listings/2140).

We will then stop off for a refreshment break at the eponymous hostelry in Deptford (https://twitter.com/dogbellcrew?lang=en).

The next stop will be the Fan Museum (https://openhouselondon.open-city.org.uk/listings/1944) and then we follow the Thames Path eastwards to the Greenwich Yacht Club (https://openhouselondon.open-city.org.uk/listings/522).

We can make use of the new "missing link" section of the Thames Path. Perhaps, at this point, we can take another video of ourselves (like the one we took of our recent ride to Rochester: https://youtu.be/LuqdsrMtbkY) to show exactly how many people came on our ride and to encourage even more people to come on the ride when we repeat it next year.

When we get to Woolwich, we can go in to see the Ruins of Garrison Church (to 5pm) (https://openhouselondon.open-city.org.uk/listings/1643).

We will then return to Cutty Sark Gardens, where the ride will finish at about 5.30pm.

Ride Leader: Nigel Bee (tel 07415 315 690, email [email protected] ).