OWR exhibition photos

See also

This page shows a selection of photos to give some indication of the exhilarating three days when the Old Waiting Room was open again to the public. Further details about different aspects can be found on the exhibition page and the exhibition displays page.

Preparations for the Exhibition started in April 2012 ,including introducing the atmospheric space to new volunteers helping to develop ideas for the way to use it. By the end of July the new displays about the town centre had been created, more volunteers recruited and much material and furniture carried through the station to prepare for the opening on 2nd August.

Setup and first visitors

Opening session Thursday evening

The exhibition opened at 5pm. Very soon people were flowing through the ticket barriers up the stairs, escorted by the team of volunteers, and through the door on platform 3, into a gathering of over 200. At 7pm there were some informative talks to open the exhibition, and energetic questions and discussion about the historic restorations.

Enjoying the displays

For the next two days, visitors arrived either responding to the networked publicity or wandering in wide-eyed from a train or waiting for one! There was much focused attention on the displays about the historic buildings, the town centre economy, the public plans, and the interaction of them all. See here for more details about the displays.

Platform 3

The Old Waiting Room is immediately above the large ticket hall. To get to it people have to come through the ticket barriers and walk up three flights of stairs, walk along a passageway and emerge onto Platform 3 for the trains to Victoria, Blackfriars, St Pancras and Bedford from Sevenoaks and Dartford. Then going through a door closed to the public for over 50 years into a huge Victorian room is like the Harry Potter platform 9¾. Direct access from the forecourt to the room should be ready in the next year when the restoration and extension of the original Victorian staircase is completed.

Reception

All visitors were met by a welcome from one of the volunteers and an explanation of the exhibition. We collected another few hundred supporters for the mailing list.

Refreshments

Delicious snacks and soft drinks provided by local businesses were enjoyed by all. Great thanks to Anderson's, Ganapati, Persepolis and the Montpelier.

Dog visitors: well behaved!

Children’s section

This delightful children's oasis was masterminded by Rebecca McCutcheon and gave small children and some grown up children hours of fun, and gave some adults the freedom to focus on the exhibition.

Other activities

The Peckham Society contributed its local history bookstall. Peckham Vision produced a T-shirt and badge for the exhibition. The T-shirt design was inspired by a detail from Charles Henry Driver's cast iron works at the station, and was worn by all the volunteers to identify them. The badge, available to all visitors for a donation, showed the slogan Look up in Peckham conveying the importance of looking above the ground floor level to see the beauty of the historic buildings, and the role of vision to help the community lift its spirits and aspirations.

Visitor feedback

Visitors could give their feedback in several ways: in additon to the numerous discussions throughout the exhibition, they could complete the feedback form in the comments circle; write up a comment on the blackboard; and write a town centre comment in a 'vox pop bubble' and post it on the wall in the vox pop corner. A summary report on each of these is available for download below.

Comments circle download