This is the restored Old Waiting Room at the station.  What kind of use would be well used? What would make Peckham town centre an attractive place to visit? What would make the area more attractive for other commercial investment? What would be a good business proposal? Would you like to see:
- Refreshments, & what kinds of refreshments?
- Art gallery exhibitions?
- Training workshops for young people?
- Community meetings?
- Theatre performances?
- Office & workshop spaces?
- Other ideas?
Everyone is asked to send their suggestions and comments to oldwaitingroom@gmail.com
further information: www.peckhamvision.org/wiki/Peckham_Rye_Station
This is the secret room above the ticket hall, brought back into life by a local community initiative funded by small grants, 2008 – 2011, from the Community Council CGS programme. The Community Council applauded at their 8th December 2010 meeting the latest reports and pictures, and started the discussion about suitable commercial uses to make the best of the wonderful space.
Further funds are being sought to continue the restoration to the external staircase, & to improve the station walkways. This would be the public entrance to the space and make it useable for public activities.
Local residents are developing a social enterprise project to bid for the lease from Network Rail for a multi purpose flexible venue. For more information, see brief  here,  and blog here  http://peckhamresidents.wordpress.com and .
If you want to get involved in this exciting project email oldwaitingroom@gmail.com
I think this would be a good place to facilitate or host training for young people because they are our future and we need to make them feel proud of Peckham so they can contribute back to the community.
The place will also be ideal for community meetings because of it’s size and layout. Funding may be an issue though…
I think it would make a fantastic tea room. There are plenty of spaces for training/ meetings and so on already. As something that is in the heart of Rye Lane it is best used for something that can be used at any time of the day by anyone.
A tea room is something that I think would appeal to all ages, cultures and could see the room bustle with people all day long whilst raising revenue for upkeep. Live music/ recitals could take place there as well.
Whatever it is used for….let’s have something a bit different to what is already available.
It was great to be able to have a poke around the nooks and crannies off from main hall during meeting there the other evening. Benny and Eileen did a fantastic job attracting such a large crowd to the illustrated talks. I have photos I can forward if required.
Further to the above I got so enthused about Peckham’s history I have been online and found a few links many may like to explore if not already discovered…
Check out (‘click’ or more likely ‘copy & paste’) “Ideal Homes – A History of South-East London Suburbs†See internet links to the history of Peckham and much besides…
Click links below for view of old data and pictures:
http://www.ideal-homes.org.uk/southwark/assets/galleries/peckham
Also for list of other historic London suburbs data and pictures:
http://www.ideal-homes.org.uk/a-z-galleries
And general Google Images to numerous Peckham links:
http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&nord=1&q=pictures+peckham&revid=808579350&ion=1&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&sa=X&ei=J3iXTbH_PMGahQfb0ZHWDg&ved=0CEUQsAQ&biw=1057&bih=689
I think it should be a “Very Special Events Hall”: For Weddings, Birthday Parties,Bar/Bat Mitzvahs, Graduations, Fundraisers, and other special receptions and or meetings. It is a beautiful hall, it is central and should be used for those events that will allow it to continue to hold on to its old world charm and mysticism. (Could also be used for a dance studio (ballet) no rough stuff.
Cora Dixon
I think this space has the potential to make a really WONDERFUL live music venue.
For example, the man that ran the Crypt in Camberwell has had to move on and may be looking for a new space… there are lots of interesting live music evenings happening in East Dulwich (The Magnolia, Dulwich Hamlets, etc with African/World Music, Jazz, Folk, Country, Rock… all sorts) but less so in Peckham. The person who runs the music events at The Hamlets might also be interested…
They could serve simple home-made food (like they used to at the Crypt… which was deeeeeelicious!!!). It could become a real landmark for Peckham, launching new talent, local talent and is brilliantly accessible for those coming to the venue for outside the area…. YES PLEASE… live music for all!
The Old Waiting room is tucked between the two lines and so there would be limited if any impact on residential properties. It could also double up as a gallery (as does Petit Tout, Blue Mountain, etc.) to provide a space for the many artists in Peckham and the surrounding areas to exhibit their work.
it would be a wonderful space for community groups.
Book Clubs, Writing Groups etc
Hopefully it could be multipurpose. Films could be shown in the evening, I don’t mean the boring mainstream stuff that’s shown in the multiplex but world cinema and more experimental films and vintage greats. How about guest lectures for free education in Peckham! And of course, healthy, tasty cheap food would always be welcome, such a glut of rubbish grub in the vicinity. Perhaps a non profit cafe, where people could come together to learn to cook different things using local produce. So, for instance I could learn about all the amazing vegetables in The African shops in Rye Lane and a book swap club. People can leave their books for others to browse. Could do the odd fund raiser with jumble sales, say, to maybe help with local anti-cuts groups for instance.
I agree with one of the previous comments that it could be multi-purpose.
I think it would be a good area for a small indoor market, not regularly but on certain days of the month.
Used for Exhibits.
Presentations, gigs etc etc
It definitely has lots or potential to be a good, recognised focal point for events/activities in Peckham.
I hope I’m not too late with my suggestion but it would be wonderful if the space could be used as a gallery for local art and a tea room. Peckham has so many wonderful local artists. Once an area gets known for being rather bohemian it attacts visitors to the area and then becomes a desirable place to live. I think this is happening throughout south east London and the Lordship Lane area is an example of this. Whatever the space is used for, I do think using the walls for local art would be great but it would need to be accessible to people during the day.
Thanks everyoen for your commetns. All these ideas are really good and helping us think through the issues involved in developing a proposal to put to Network Rail. There is still work to be done to make the Room accessible from outside the station, and to repair some floor rain damage. We hope the work on the stairs will start in the first part of 2012, and the floor repaired soon after that. If you want to join the mailing list please email info@peckhamvision.org, and mention your interest in the Old Waiting Room.
An art gallery for young artists will attract educated and arty people. A nice bar with live jazz music will contribute to young people’s interaction with each other, and will be enriching for all kinds of public. It will help funding the place. Art and cultured evening entertainment is badly needed.