Losing a pub on Rye Lane and missing the Swiss Tavern on Lausanne Road

The Swiss Tavern, 2006

Now there will be someone who can tell me when the Hope on Rye Lane closed.

I went looking for it recently, only to find it was now a Bookie’s.  I have to say I went up and down the road and only finally find it by looking up and catching the pub’s name high up at the top of the building.

Not that I ever went in.  I was just 14 when we left Peckham and the inside of a public house was still along way off.

But even so pubs are one of those landmarks you grew up with.  My own was the Swiss Tavern which was still there on Lausanne Road in 2007 but has now gone, its place taken by a block of flats.

That was a shock as was Rye Lane.  It is still a bustling busy place with lots to look at but it seemed so narrow.

I thought I remembered a wide road and yet not so and this is one of the constant reminders to ex pats about what you remember and what places really are like.

Nor of course is that all for in the same of the half century and a bit since we left so much has gone and much more seems smaller.

The Golden Anchor, date unknow

All of which is a curtain raiser to a short series on the pubs and some of the shops I grew up with.

As for the Hope I found a picture of the place along with one of those fascinating bits of history which listed all the publicans from 1861 to 1944.*

To some it may not be the most riveting of information but to me it offers a chance to explore the history of the place, and in the same way the site also offers up detail on my own Swiss Tavern.

So I shall wander off and explore these lost places and perhaps challenge some of skewed memories pf Peckham’s past.

In the meantime if any one has any copyright free pictures of Peckham in the 1950s and 60s or for that matter earlier I would love to see them.

Already Adrian Parfitt has shared some of his own images which have set me off a number of stories.

Pictures; the Swiss Tavern 2006 and the Golden Anchor date unknown courtesy of Adrian Parfitt 

*The Hope, http://pubshistory.com/LondonPubs/Camberwell/RyeLane60.shtml and The Swiss Tavern http://pubshistory.com/LondonPubs/Camberwell/SwissTavern.shtml