The Community Wildlife Garden is largely maintained by the Friends. Our volunteer mornings are usually on the first Sunday of the month at 10am.
The more volunteers the merrier, so please make sure to come along. If you want to know more about the volunteer days, please email peckhamryepark@gmail.com.
GALA on the Rye Festival 2026
This year’s festival will be held over 4 days, Friday 22nd May to 24th May. The footprint of the festival has been enlarged, encroaching further south east of the site. There will be a new access point in Colyton Road and a trackway built along the south side of the Park, so another new significant area of grass could be churned up and damaged. The Friends are advocating to ensure the park is left in better condition this year.
Our ever popular fete and dog show will be held on Peckham Rye Common on Saturday 5th September 2026 from 12-5pm. It takes a lot of work to run the fete and we especially need volunteers to run the coconut shy and children’s races. Please contact us on peckhamryepark@gmail.com if you can give us an hour or two of your time.
Paws and Pause took over running the wonderful fete and dog show last year. What a triumph it was - delighted they are returning for another go. A busy crowd enjoyed all the fun of the dog show, sack races, coconut shy, Punch and Judy, the Friends-run stands and stalls such as the Pimms, wine and beer stand, the tea and cakes tent, the book and plant stalls, along with a variety of other food stands and stalls
The dog show profits are given to charity. All other profits from last year’s fete were spent on clearing the central rose beds on the Sexby Garden which had become seriously overgrown with many of the roses needing to be replaced.
Work has finally begun on the refurbishment of the Peckham Rye Park toilets, located by the Rangers Hut. The work is due to be finished at the end of April.
Below is a summary of comments published in The Southwark News, March 2026.
The Council has drawn up a scheme to change the traffic flows around Peckham Rye intended to improve cycling and bus services.
Local residents’ concerns don’t seem to have had much impact. The closure of Peckham Rye East to through traffic will force it all along Peckham Rye West, and the moving of bus stops to a narrow part of the road will lead to bunching, congestion and increased danger to cyclists. Peckham Rye east is less busy but an essential relief for through traffic, a quiet cycle route even now. But cyclists soon have to feed into other traffic, so what's the point of closing this short stretch?
On the West side there's no provision at all - cyclists trying to pass buses bunched at the new stop in the narrowest part of the road will put them in conflict with oncoming traffic. Already an accident spot, this proposal is fraught with danger. At present traffic can pass buses stopped at the junction but with it all thrown on this side it will lead to much more congestion at peak time. The so-called 'bus gate' will be a cash cow for the Council with drivers straying through - mostly inadvertently - at night or in reduced visibility. Penalising law-abiding people fosters resentment and feelings of injustice.
This scheme should stand or fall on its impact on road accidents, where the Council offers us not a shred of data. But it's clear from what's published by the Government that most accidents are on Peckham Rye West - where the Council wants all the traffic to go. Without that, how can they tell whether the scheme is good value for money or not?
The Council says the impact on bus services will be marginal, but it's clear the busiest northbound buses - 12,63, 363,197 - will all be affected. The present scheme was designed to speed buses through the junction with East Dulwich Road by limiting right turns - bringing it back means more congestion, taking longer to get through the junction. While the new bus lanes might help, they're now 24 hours rather than peak time only as originally proposed. This could badly affect local businesses.
It's also inconvenient for bus passengers, as moving the southbound stop from the junction makes the east-west interchange with other buses much longer, with a bigger gap to the next stop.
In the first scheme the Council proposed a 'floating bus stop' at Nigel Road. Faced with criticism they've moved it up Rye Lane. At present buses can easily overtake each other at Nigel Road, but in a narrower part of the road this will be more restricted, conflicting not only with buses coming the other way but also cyclists. At the Nigel Road junction itself the slip road is to be paved over, reducing the capacity of the junction. At peak times traffic will back up along Nigel Road, likely to mean motorists taking more risks.
We have extreme concerns that the already congested and polluted junction of Peckham Rye west and East Dulwich Road used by students from The Harris Academy schools will be affected by the increase of vehicular traffic on the junction. The young children’s nursery adjacent to the crossroads will be directly affected by the increase of traffic and is not acceptable.
This is a hugely expensive and disruptive scheme which offers very little for local residents. The Council is not even spending its own money, it's funded by TfL. Coming after months of congestion by road works for gas renewals, it's yet another burden for people and businesses, risking more injuries for cyclists, not less. The present arrangements took years to evolve, well understood with very few accidents. This scheme is poor value for money and should be abandoned.
The American Garden, located between the Sexby Garden and the Lake, is now open. The Garden has been replanted with trees, shrubs and eye-catching, nectar-rich herbaceous plants of a kind first introduced to Britain through the world famous 18th century seed and plant exchange between Britain’s Peter Collinson, FRS and John Bartram of Philadelphia. The funding of the garden was supported by the US Embassy, Lord Harris, Southwark Council, the Friends of Peckham Rye Park., the Local Postcode Trust and Vindor. The project was overseen by Nancy Coleman-Frank.
With the help of volunteers, Earthwatch, an environmental charity, have planted and will be responsible for a Tiny Forest on the southern edge of Peckham Rye Common,
The feasibility study for which funding was raised by Peckham Lido CIC back in 2016 was finally published in April 2021 (accessible via the Peckham Lido Facebook page).
The study outlines four options (the fourth of which is to take no further action) and states a preference for Option Two which would involve: Heated lido and café, possibly supplemented by a gym and fitness centre; a 125+ years lease from Southwark council with no break or restrictive clauses; and a yearly contribution from the council for capital expenditure.
Option Two, the study says, would have a 'greater impact' than the other three options on the Common, which is protected Metropolitan Open Land. Overall development and construction costs are estimated at £6m.
The feasibility study does not mention that as part of the flood alleviation project works, planning permission has been given by Southwark Council and the Secretary of State for re-landscaping the northern end of the Common (including the site of the old lido) with new pathways and biodiversity areas.
There has been an increase of visitors to the Park and Common. Unfortunately this has resulted in a widespread increase of rubbish and people have been using the bushes as a toilet. There has also been damage to planting and even plant theft. Please do what you can to impress upon others the importance of respecting the Park and Common and encourage them to take their rubbish home.
The picture is of the signage put up in the Royal Parks.
As a result of the General Data Protection Regulation, which comes into
effect on 25 th May 2018, we are providing this summary of how FOPRP
collects and uses members’ personal data.
Information we collect. We collect your personal details when you join
FOPRP or otherwise provide them to us. The data will include all or some of
the following: name, address, email address, date and method of payment.
Use of your information. We use your information only for the purpose it
was collected, which is to send you the FOPRP newsletter and keep you
informed about matters affecting Peckham Rye Park and Common.
Storing of information. Your information is stored on a secure computer
system. We control who has access to this information. We review what we
hold and delete what is no longer required. If you use PayPal, your payment
details are held securely by PayPal.
Sharing data. We do not sell your data and we do not share it with anyone
outside the FOPRP committee.
Your data, your choice. The new legislation does not require us as a
membership organisation to get renewed consent to use your information,
and our assumption is that you will be happy for FOPRP to continue to hold
and use your data to keep you informed about Peckham Rye Park and
Common. If this is not the case, please contact us by email at
foprp@aol.com or write to us at The Friends of Peckham Rye Park, c/o The
Park Office, Strakers Road, Peckham Rye Park, London SE15 3UA
