By the 1870s the St Mary le Strand charity estate stretched for 789 feet along the Old Kent Road. It was covered by about thirty houses and shops; the terrace along the south side was known as St Mary-le-Strand Place.
In 1866 the London Brighton and South Coast Railway Company bought seven of the shops to build a railway station. Old Kent Road station opened on a viaduct and bridge crossing the road on 13 August 1866. Trains ran to London Bridge.
It was renamed Old Kent Road and Hatcham in 1870. The passenger train service to East London was withdrawn on 1 June 1911 and the track removed in 1912.
The station closed temporarily on 1 January 1917 during the First World War as an economy measure, but never reopened after the end of the war.
From Peckham Society News Spring 2023 Issue No. 171
