---
title: "Rye Lane Baptist Chapel, Peckham"
description: "Located in Peckham, Greater London. Built 1863 (successor to an 1819 chapel); halls rebuilt after 1943 bomb damage, reopened 1960. Grade II. Classical Revival style."
category: "Church"
tags: ["Church","Baptist Church","Greater London","Peckham","Grade II","Classical Revival","S K Bland"]
canonical: "https://thebritishgazette.com/post/rye-lane-baptist-chapel-peckham"
pubDate: "2026-09-06T02:28:42.977Z"
dateModified: "2026-09-08T18:58:12.887Z"
location: "Peckham, Greater London"
country: "England"
county: "Greater London"
town: "Peckham"
address: "Rye Lane, Peckham, Greater London, SE15 5EX"
postcode: "SE15 5EX"
built: "1863 (successor to an 1819 chapel); halls rebuilt after 1943 bomb damage, reopened 1960"
architect: "S K Bland"
denomination: "Baptist Church"
grade: "II"
style: "Classical Revival"
website: "https://www.ryelanechapel.com/"
openingHours: "Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm. To book a heritage tour please leave a message for Barry Evans, Church Historian, on our answerphone or email."
parish: "Rye Lane Baptist Chapel"
listEntryUrl: "https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1385853"
gridReference: "TQ 342 765"
accessNotes: "Accessible toilets in church"
---

# Rye Lane Baptist Chapel, Peckham

Rye Lane Baptist Chapel at 59A Rye Lane, Peckham, is a Grade II Victorian nonconformist chapel on Peckham’s main shopping street, in the Rye Lane Peckham Conservation Area.

## Overview

The congregation began around 1817 with services in a house, then a barn, in Hill Street. A first chapel of 1819 on the Rye Lane and Blenheim Grove corner was demolished when a railway station was authorised on the site. Geograph and the Peckham Society record the present building as begun in May 1863 to designs by S. K. Bland and opened on 18 November 1863. The three-bay front has a central pediment dated MDCCCLXIII on giant freestanding Tuscan columns. The sanctuary is Classical Revival; its ceiling was based on that of Bond Street Chapel, Brighton (1788). A pipe organ of 1902–3 has gold-painted pipes. Gallery pews survive; most ground-floor pews were removed in 2003.

Memorial stones record the old chapel, the 1863 rebuilding, wartime bomb damage in 1943, and reopening for worship in 1948. The halls and offices were destroyed in 1943; the rear was rebuilt in a Scandinavian-influenced modern style and opened in April 1960. Wikidata gives National Heritage List for England number 1385853, listed 27 September 1972.

## Further Information

- [Historic England list entry 1385853](https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1385853)
- [Peckham Society: Baptist chapels](https://www.peckhamsociety.org.uk/?page_id=886)
- [Geograph: Rye Lane Baptist Chapel](https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4792555)