The site of The Garden was once common land, then farmland. In 1878 a small grid of roads was built on what had been farmer’s fields, adjoining the main road, and houses with gardens were built there. In 1890 the remains of the farm to the north were bought by the Camberwell Vestry, to expand the local common, and developed into Peckham Rye Park, which was opened four years later.

When The Garden was still a farmer’s field.
From GB/Ireland OS Six inch map, 1830s-1880s

Thus the site of The Garden is between Peckham Rye Park to the north and a wooded hill to the south, a remnant of the Great North Wood known as One Tree Hill.

The little estate of roads did not originally include the house with The Garden. The grid was expanded eastwards at some point, into what had been cricket grounds, to allow for further house building. Documents suggest that the house belonging to The Garden was built in the late 1920s, but the extended part of the road doesn’t appear on maps until later, in post-WW2 maps.

For viewing historical maps of the UK side-by-side, for comparison of different time periods, look at the wonderful National Library of Scotland website.