Queen’s Road, formerly known as Deptford Lane, was renamed in honour of Queen Victoria.
Queen’s Road extends eastwards from Peckham High Street to New Cross Road.
The surrounding neighbourhood area was market gardens until about 1840 when a network of terraces called New Peckham began to be laid out.
Albert Road, a turning out of Queen’s Road, was formerly known as Cow Walk.
The first branded cigarettes manufactured in Britain - Sweet Threes- were made at a factory on Queen’s Road around 1859 by Robert Peacock Gloag. Gloag had been paymaster to the Turkish forces during the Crimean War, where he is reported to have seen locals smoking. Gloags business was largely responsible for the popularity of cigarettes in the UK.
In 1926 the first holistic health centre in Britain, known as the Pioneer, later known as The Peckham Experiment, was opened at 142 Queens Road. Opened by doctors George Scott Williamson and Innes Pearse of the Royal Free Hospital, it was purposefully located in the area due to the deprived nature of the area, the low income and poor level of education of the population. The centre provided regular medical checks and gave advice on healthy living. In 1935 the centre moved around the corner to St Mary’s Road.
Modern housing developments in the Queen’s Road area include Peckham’s Acorn estate and the Somerville estate in New Cross.
