Tag Archives: Peckham Rye Station

Peckham Rye Station neglected by Network Rail

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Network Rail’s redevelopment plans for Peckham Rye Station are more about profit and less about what they actually should be: renovation. The pictures linked below, of the bad condition of Peckham Rye, are a clear example of how Network Rail do not take care of buildings and facilities they own and their customers that use them. These puddles, and sometimes floodings are the direct result of the lack of maintenance, bad drainage and no roof to protect commuters from the rain. Network Rail has decided, in the name of profit, to bring big chains to the area and by doing so, kick out local businesses and communities, rather than simply tidy and refurbish their property, as the Peckham locals have requested.

Watch the trailer of our short film on Network Rail’s development plans, “Bleacher on the Rye”

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Click Bleacher on the Rye to purchase our short movie on Network Rail’s redevelopment plans

Screening at Peckham Vision Community Public Event

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Spectacle’s latest film ‘Bleacher on the Rye’ will be screened 6pm Wednesday 23rd July in the CLF Art Café, 133 Rye Lane as part of the launch of the community-built model of central Rye Lane as it is now.

The Peckham Vision event is from 3pm until 9pm which includes exhibition and creative activities, meetings and the screening of the film at 6pm.

 

Community-built model

Picture 10As explained on the Peckham Vision website “The Station Gateway site is a complex one with commercial buildings nestled amongst railway buildings, viaducts and arches. The site is divided into properties with addresses on Rye Lane, Holly Grove, Blenheim Grove, Station Way, Dovedale Court, and Blenheim Court. So we created a site map showing exactly where these places are and how they related to the plans for total clearance that we were beginning to hear about. This aid to discussion proved invaluable as during 2013 we took two deputations to the Cabinet, attended a Scrutiny Committee, and took part in many community fairs, events and meetings, and discussion about the issues raised by the plans. Then Network Rail published their proposals to clear the site and redevelop it completely. To be able to have clear discussions, local people needed to have a model of the existing buildings and their layout on the site and also the areas around the site. We had suggested to the Council during the consultations last winter that a model would be very useful for this purpose. But the Council turned down the idea as too expensive. So Peckham Vision decided to ask local people on our networks if they would be interested in making a model with us for use in the planning discussions. Many people responded enthusiastically, and over 30 are now taking part in our model making group under the expert guidance of local architects Benedict O’Looney and Clyde Watson from Peckham Vision. Local organisations supporting the project are the Peckham Society, Whitten Timber and Complete Fabrication, Khan’s Bargain Ltd. We acknowledge with much thanks their support for this community project. The model is at a scale of 1:100 and is slowly taking shape building by building. It should be ready for use in a few weeks.”

Picture 4Read the Guardian City article by Matthew Ponsford: Could ‘co-design’ help Peckham where community consultation failed?

 

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Bleacher on the Rye screenings

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Our new film ‘Bleacher on the Rye’ on the proposed redevelopment on Peckham Rye Station by Network Rail has had two recent screenings in order to make local people and businesses aware of this plan that is threatening the station area. Tonight, 6th June 2014 6.15-7.15 there will a third screening at Goldsmiths University as part of the event ‘A Tale of Two Cities: Class and Space in Paris and London.’

The screening is free and open to all. Details here.

The film is still in development but has had two recent local screenings to raise awareness of the plans. At every screening the film is more developed and tweaked to respond to audience feedback.

Wednesday 28th May, ‘Bleacher on the Rye’ was screened at the exhibition ‘CO-IMAGINE the re-development of Peckham Rye Station‘ at Peckham’s CLF Art Cafe (Bussey Building). The exhibition brought together an array of imaginative visions for the future of the station and its surrounding area and an open forum panel discussion with speakers; Eileen Conn from Peckham Vision, local architect Benedict O’Looney and Mark Saunders of Spectacle. The purpose of the event was to provide the necessary space for discussion ahead of Southwark Council and Network Rail’s open ‘co-design’ workshops this summer, in an attempt to actively involve local residents and stakeholders in a collaborative design process to consult on plans for the imminent redevelopment of Peckham Rye Station Gateway.

Friday 30th May Cinema6 screened a slightly updated version of ‘Bleacher on the Rye’ in a Gentrification Double Bill ‘There goes the neighborhood‘ with ‘Concrete Heart Land‘ which documented the attempts by local Heygate residents, in Elephant and Castle, to resist the ongoing process of dispossession and gentrification. Hosted in the cosy arch of artist studios Arcadia Missa Cinema6 together with Full Unemployment Cinema and Southwark Notes opened a lively and fruitful audience discussion with other local activists and artists on shared experiences and strategies.

If you would like to organise a screening of this film please get in touch.

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Finding Peckham’s Lost Lavatories

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In recent years there has been a strong local campaign for a decent provision of public lavatories in Peckham Town centre.

We think that there are lost lavatories at the junction of Rye Lane and The Peckham High Street (Peckham’s village core). A look at maps and historic photographs suggest that a substantial subterranean public lavatory was built around 1900 and was used by the community until about 1955. Photographs show the entrance to lavatories with tall decorative wrought iron railings and flights of steps, north and south, to what must have been substantial, tiled, subterranean Sanitary Courts.

1905 outside Jones & HigginsHere they are in 1905, just outside Jones & Higgins, when Peckham was in its heyday.

1930 Peckham's Public LavatoriesHere are the lavatories as they stood in 1930, next to the tram.

1955 Peckham's Public LavatoriesLastly, here they are in 1955 (note the damage to the department store after the war).

Could these interiors be intact? With the original Edwardian sanitary ware? Under a 1950s concrete slab? We think it is unlikely that this facility was ‘filled in’.

Below is a composite of ordinance surveys from 1914 and 2014, showing the location of the lavatories in relation to the street now. We wonder if the pressure for public toilets in Peckham could be relieved by the re-discovery and restoration of this ‘lost’ facility.

1914 and 2014 Ordinance Survey Composite– Local architect Benedict O’Looney and Mark Saunders of Spectacle

 

Please feel free to leave your comments below.

Get in touch if you would like to contribute to our film about the Peckham Rye Station and Gateway Area Redevelopment Project. Just email: production@spectacle.co.uk

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