Inventory Site Record

Lucas Gardens was originally the grounds of a terrace of 12 Georgian houses known as East Terrace, which were later used as an extension to Camberwell House Lunatic Asylum established in 1846 in a former school building on the north side of Peckham Road. During WWI a Flying Boat was displayed in what is now the public park, probably bought by local subscription as part of the war effort. Lucas Gardens opened as a public park in July 1955 and is on a gently sloping site with winding paths and mature trees. The main gates on Peckham Road were refurbished in the late C20th together with new landscaping that included flower beds, paths, ornamental trees and a water feature in the north of the park.

Site location:

Peckham Road/Vestry Road/Linnell Road

Postcode:

SE5

What 3 Words:

rescue.token.stud

Type of site:

Public Park

Borough:

Southwark

Open to public?

Yes

Opening times:

7.30am - sunset

Special conditions:

Facilities:

playground

Events:

Public transport:

Rail: Peckham Rye then bus. Tube: Oval (Northern) then bus. Bus: 12, 36, 171, 345.

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Research updated:

01/12/2010

Last minor changes:

19/07/2023

Please check with the site owner or manager for latest news. www.southwark.gov.uk

The terrace of 12 Georgian houses was built in c.1790 as East Terrace, which in the early C19th was the home of Henry Roberts who worked for George Gilbert Scott, the architect of Camberwell's parish church of St Giles (q.v.). In the late C19th Robert Alexander Gray, Chairman of Camberwell Vestry, lived here. East Terrace was later used as an extension to Camberwell House Lunatic Asylum, which was established in 1846 in a former school building on the north side of Peckham Road. During WWI a Flying Boat was displayed in what is now the public park, probably bought by local subscription as part of the war effort.

Lucas Gardens were opened as public park in July 1955 by the Chairman of London County Council. The park is on a gently sloping site, with winding paths and mature trees including hawthorn, sycamore, cherry, holm oak, lime, horse chestnut, false acacia and tulip-tree. The main gates on Peckham Road have been refurbished in late C20th and feature the name of the park picked out in gold in an arch over the gates; landscaping has been carried out particularly in the north, where there are flower beds, paths and ornamental trees and a water feature immediately inside the entrance gate; at the south of this garden area is a circular flower bed with brightly painted railings, beyond which the park is largely grass with perimeter trees and shrubs apart from an area on the west boundary, which has a raised playground area with brickwork, steps and some planting.

Adjacent to the park, East Terrace has been used as offices by Southwark Council, fronted by a strip of lawn with mature trees behind ornamental railings to the main road with a cobbled courtyard and the remains of an old lamp standard. One of the stone gateposts still bears the inscription 'Friern Manor, 1791', Friern being once part of the Manor of Camberwell, owned by a convent in Shoreditch in the Middle Ages, and which had once stretched west to Denmark Hill and north to Camberwell Green. The Manor House had been in what is now Friern Road, East Dulwich.

Sources consulted:

John Beasley, 'Southwark Remembered' (Tempus Publishing, 2001); Mary Boast 'The Story of Camberwell', LB Southwark Neighbourhood History No. 1, 1996; John Archer, Bob Britton, Robert Burley, Tony Hare, Ian Yarham, 'Nature Conservation in Southwark' Ecology Handbook 12, London Ecology Unit, 1989

Grid ref:

TQ332765 (533282,176627)

Size in hectares:

1.728

Site ownership:

LB Southwark

Site management:

Parks

Date(s):

c.1890; 1950s

Designer(s):

Listed structures:

LBII: 30, 32 & 34 Peckham Road - Camberwell House and attached railings; lamp post in courtyard of No. 34

On National Heritage List for England (NHLE), Parks & Gardens:

No

Registered common or village green on Commons Registration Act 1965:

No

Protected under London Squares Preservation Act 1931:

No

Local Authority Data

The information below is taken from the relevant Local Authority's planning legislation, which was correct at the time of research but may have been amended in the interim. Please check with the Local Authority for latest planning information.

On Local List:

No

In Conservation Area:

Yes

Conservation Area name:

Sceaux Gardens

Tree Preservation Order:

Not known

Nature Conservation Area:

No

Green Belt:

No

Metropolitan Open Land:

No

Special Policy Area:

No

Other LA designation:

Gardens, Tier Two

Lucas Gardens - Photo: Colin Wing
Date taken: 03/10/24 14:38

Click a photo to enlarge.

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