Rye Lane runs past West African grocers and fabric shops to a multi-storey car park whose rooftop appears in the 2023 film Rye Lane.
What Peckham looks like
Rye Lane is lined with West African grocers, fabric shops and fishmongers, produce and bolts of cloth set out under awnings along the pavement. A covered arcade off the street holds its own run of stalls, fruit and stacked boxes under a low glazed roof.
Co-operative House stands at the top of Rye Lane, a curved corner block in green and white with a plaque on its brick pier reading 1868, 1932 and 2008. A Money Shop and a Ladbrokes fill the ground floor under it. Further down, the terrace at 203 to 213 Queen's Road runs four storeys of brown brick over a white painted ground floor, arched windows and satellite dishes on the upper flats.
At 133 Rye Lane, the Bussey Building has stood since 1887, a former sporting goods factory that now holds artists' studios and a rooftop cinema behind its brick front. All Saints Church on Blenheim Grove is built in flint and stone, with a slate roof and a small turret.
Further up, the multi storey car park at 95a Rye Lane was built for Sainsbury's between 1980 and 1982. Its lower floors now hold cinema and Peckham Levels, and the roof clears the surrounding rooftops for a full skyline. A crew can drive straight onto it.
Commercial Way crosses an ornate cast iron bridge nearby, its underside marked with graffiti between brick piers. 's platforms sit under a metal canopy roof where Southeastern trains call.
Shot in Peckham
Peckham's own identity is what productions come for, not a fictional substitute. Rye Lane, the 2023 romantic comedy, is the fullest example. It used Peckham Soul Records inside the Bussey Building and the Peckhamplex cinema, both a short walk from Peckham Rye station. Channel 4's sitcom Desmond's filmed its barbershop exterior at , and the Netflix series Supacell used the railway bridge on Rye Lane near the station.
Rye Lane, 2023
Peckham Rye station
Rye Lane's Coal Rooms scene was shot inside Peckham Rye station's own Grade II listed 1930s ticket office and waiting room, now a restaurant. The film also used the station's exterior. Director Raine Allen-Miller walked Rye Lane and the surrounding streets with her two leads beforehand to work out where their characters would go.
Ridley Road Market runs off Kingsland High Street opposite Dalston Kingsland station, with traders selling from barrows and trolleys along a pedestrianised lane much the way stalls line Rye Lane. Traders here sell Afro-Caribbean, Asian and European goods side by side, the same mix of trade Rye Lane has. Dalston Kingsland's rebuilt station entrance gives it away in a wide shot back down the lane, so keep the camera on the stalls rather than the station. Try searching market stalls and barrows now.
Electric Avenue in London, United Kingdom
Electric Avenue is the market street of Brixton, lined with African and Caribbean grocers much like Rye Lane. The street's original cast iron canopies were removed in the 1980s, so it now stands open rather than covered. A wide shot needs to avoid or dress out the modern chain shopfronts along the street, Boots and Greggs among them. Try searching African Caribbean grocers now.
Flatbush Avenue's Little Caribbean runs from Empire Boulevard south to Brooklyn College. Its shopfronts serve Brooklyn's Caribbean community the way Rye Lane's grocers serve Peckham's West African one. Allan's Bakery has operated on the strip for more than sixty years, one of the long running independent shopfronts along the block. Wider American road markings, fire hydrants and yellow school buses would need keeping out of frame to hold the illusion. Try searching Caribbean grocers and shopfronts now.
