Best Western London Peckham Hotel

The Best Western London Peckham is a budget hotel on Peckham Road, near Camberwell. The 2024 planning statement filed for the property explicitly recorded that the building has been used to accommodate asylum seekers pursuant to section 98 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, with the operator providing a mix of single, double and family rooms, en suite bedrooms with kitchenettes, and communal dining areas^[1]GOV.UK.

On the morning of 2 May 2024 a Home Office contracted coach arrived at the hotel to remove a group of asylum seekers to the Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland, Dorset. Hundreds of local residents and supporters surrounded the coach, with Lime hire bikes pushed under its wheels to prevent the vehicle from moving^[3]Press.

The standoff ran for several hours before the Metropolitan Police moved in to clear the highway. Forty five people were arrested for offences including obstruction of the highway, obstructing police and assault on police, with three later charged^[2]Press. A 2025 retrospective by Migrants' Rights Network confirmed the demonstration had been triggered by documented Bibby Stockholm conditions including a legionella outbreak^[4]Press.

At the £170 per person per night Migration Observatory benchmark^[5], a 130 room property in continuous asylum use implies headline taxpayer exposure of about £22,100 per night and roughly £8.0 million per year. The May 2025 NAO contract review put the average per hotel run rate across the wider portfolio at about £5.84 million per year^[6]NAO, putting Peckham at the upper end of the typical London asylum hotel cost band.