Peckham community celebrates town centre achievements

Peckham Town Centre Forum

Peckham Town Centre Forum

This was a fantastic community meeting celebrating recent achievements for Peckham town centre. Over 200 locals from Peckham’s diverse social, economic and ethnic communities crowded in to the CLF Art Café in the Bussey building, to hear the latest news from Peckham Vision and the Council. Senior figures from Network Rail, Southern Railway and the Railway Heritage Trust voiced their support for community initiatives at Peckham Rye station in Peckham town centre; see video clip. Read more

What would you like to see in this space?

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

Secret hall beyond Platform 3 holds key to Peckham’s future?

SECRET HALL BEYOND PLATFORM 3 HOLDS KEY TO PECKHAM'S FUTURE?

From Southwark News by Kevin Quinn

A waiting room left hidden on platform three of Rye Lane Station could be the key to unlocking future investment in Peckham.

Like something out of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter, this enormous space opened as a waiting room in 1865 and was turned into a billiards hall in 1890 until it closed in 1960.  Forgotten, over the years this space was left to fall into disrepair. It has only recently been opened to the public (albeit briefly), but for those wanting to attract future investment into Peckham town centre the space represents a way forward.

For over a decade the planners and officers at the council’s regeneration department have toyed with a multitude of ideas on how to improve Peckham as commercial hub.

In 2001 radical proposals to transform Peckham into ‘the Notting Hill’ of south London were being considered by Southwark Council’s Peckham Partnership. The head of this regeneration body, Russell Profitt, was looking at recommendations which would mean knocking down huge parts of the high street, pedestrianising large parts of Rye Lane, demolishing the dank and dark buildings around Peckham Rye train station and expanding the Aylesham shopping centre.

Years before in the 1990s, Peckham had undergone a huge regeneration programme, when £64 million (and £150 million in other funding) was given to the area, predominantly to transform housing in the north. As well as removing the notorious estates, some of the legacy from that money was the new Peckham Square and the iconic library within its boundaries.

Last year the council officers were back on the hunt for a way forward, producing a document entitled ‘Future Peckham’ in a bid to garner people’s opinions on what they wanted to see. This hefty 54 page document again suggested a myriad of radical changes in the area, including relocation of the cinema, the creation of three fifteen storey buildings for new homes and once more the redevelopment of the Aylesham centre and Rye Lane to produce a vibrant shopping environment.

But since the initial proposals from Russell Profitt for a ‘Notting Hill’ of the south much has changed on the ground in Peckham. Mr Profitt left the renamed Peckham Programme in 2008 and the subsequent abolition of a town centre management has left a vacuum in the council’s daily coordination on the ground.

In its place is a grassroots group, ‘Peckham Vision’, made up of local stakeholders including residents, community groups and business owners. It is becoming the driving force behind change and importantly they understand that in light of the present economic climate Peckham’s future relies on private investment. Read more…

Sun shines again on Open House walks

Following the successful Open House Weekend last year (see last year’s blog) people flocked again to take the Open House weekend walks led by The Peckham Society on Saturday and Sunday 20th and 21st September 2008 (see photos). This time there were around 100 on two walks. Again everyone enjoyed the magnificent views of Peckham and central London from the roof of the Bussey building. They enjoyed the refreshments in the CLF Arts Café and the Peckham Vision exhibition of the latest information about the tram & tram depot plans, and the ideas for that central area of Peckham town centre if the tram depot is not located there. The new images and plans for the emerging Copeland Cultural Quarter were included in the displays. They heard how the huge size and good solid condition of the historic Bussey building is providing spaces for new creative arts and music businesses.

The tours also looked at

  • the behind-the-scenes preparation for the next twice monthly exhibition at the new (since last year) innovative Hannah Barry Gallery which is next door to the Bussey building. This demonstrates the scope for creative development of the whole business site which would otherwise be demolished for the proposed tram depot;
  • the historic gems of Holdron’s Victorian arcades which, currently hidden by shop fittings, might be restored for commercial town centre use;
  • the way all that would complement the opening up of the piazza in front of the fabulous gem of Peckham Rye station (listed finally this year to protect it for the future).

20/21 Sep Open House Weekend – Peckham central walk

For the second year, Peckham Central features in the walks in the London Open House Weekend 20/21 September – see details from Peckham Vision and the Peckham Society below.
For an account of last year’s successful walks see Open House 2007
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London Open House Weekend
Peckham Central walks
Led by The Peckham Society

See some usually hidden parts of central Peckham: a walk between and around the recently listed Peckham Rye Station, the Bussey former cricket bat factory, the Hannah Barry Gallery, the Old Mill building, and more, all demonstrating the potential for re-using historic industrial buildings.
This is an excellent opportunity to enjoy the spectacular views from the roof of the Bussey building, see how that building and some of the adjacent buildings on the site are significant Peckham assets and have great potential for the emergent Copeland Cultural Quarter (CCQ). Visit the Peckham Vision exhibition and see the growing collection of images and plans illustrating ways in which the CCQ and the other areas around Rye Lane can become a more integrated collection of linked public spaces and
buildings.
Saturday & Sunday
20th & 21st September 2008
2.00pm-4.00pm
From 1.30pm assemble & Peckham Vision exhibition
Meet: 3rd floor, Bussey Building
Entrance through 133 Rye Lane, SE15 4ST

Sun shines on Open House walks

What a wonderful weekend in Peckham Central. The sun shone and over 140 people flocked to take the Open House weekend walks led by The Peckham Society on Saturday and Sunday (see photos). Everyone enjoyed the magnificent views of Peckham and central London from the roof of the Bussey building. They enjoyed the refreshments in the CLF Arts Café and the Peckham Vision exhibition of the latest information about the tram & tram depot plans, and the ideas for that central area of Peckham town centre if the tram depot is not located there.

The tours looked at the huge size and good solid condition of the historic Bussey building and how it is already providing spaces for new creative arts and music businesses; the scope for creative development of the whole business site which would otherwise be demolished for the proposed tram depot; the historic gems of Holdron’s Victorian arcades which, currently hidden by shop fittings, could be restored for commercial town centre use; the way all that would complement the opening up of the piazza in front of the station, now agreed as the aim by Southwark Council, the train companies and Southwark’s London Assembly representative; and how Bar Story and the Sassoon Art Gallery in Blenheim Grove behind the station show further signs of the burgeoning creative re-uses of historic architecture in Peckham Central.

See also:
CLF Weekender

Open House Weekend