Peckham multi-storey to be transformed into community hub

A rundown multi-storey in Peckham is to be transformed into a community hub for local artists and businesses. Southwark Council has selected Pop Community Ltd as the interim manager of the council’s six-level car park for the next five years. After that the site will be turned into a residential development, with affordable housing making up a third of the new properties, the council states. 

The Pop Community project, called Peckham Levels, will offer more than 20,000sq ft of artist’s studios, workshops and shared creative workspace. The project will offer free events space, training, education and employment opportunities to local people.

The bottom four levels will house artist’s studies, maker workshops and shared workspace for young creative businesses (47%), says Pop Community. Meanwhile, levels five and six will provide gallery, performance and multi-purpose events spaces (46%), some retail space (4%) where the artistic community can promote its work, alongside food and beverage units for independent traders from the local area (3%). There will still be parking on the ground level.

Although it is located near a supermarket, cinema, high street and rail station, for many years much of the multi-storey has been unused. The vacant floors attracted local artists and entrepreneurs, who started staging a range of activities, turning the car park into a venue. It has hosted film screenings, art exhibitions, classical music concerts while the top deck became home to Frank’s Bar during the summer months. Frank’s Bar will still operate from the top deck while arts organisation Bold Tendencies will continue to stage events. 

The competition to re-invent the car park attracted 14 proposals, which were whittled down to a shortlist of three. 

Bold Tendencies, which pioneered using the car park as a creative space, and workspace group Second Home had proposed turning the car park into 600 studios for artists and creatives. Meanwhile, Makerversity, which develops studio space for creative businesses, had proposed open studios and workshops as well as rentable space and food and drink outlets. 

But the council decided that the Peckham Levels proposal would offer the best range of opportunities for local people. Pop Community says that space will be available for free use by local groups at least 25% of the time, and it estimates that 600 jobs will be created. Pop Community has also pledged to contribute 10% of profits to a community fund, which will go to local businesses, community groups and projects.

Pop Community is a collaboration between Carl Turner Architects and lifestyle led property company The Collective. Turner is already involved in projects in the Peckham area, having worked on projects such as Peckham Library Square and new plans for Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts at Eagle Wharf.

“The popular Peckhamplex cinema will remain on the lower levels, with the new plans transforming the intermediate levels,” says Raza Merchant of The Collective. “In collaboration with the existing tenants, the scheme will turn the car park into a year round hub of creative activity.”

Architect Carl Turner says: “The car park has created an amazing platform for the arts during the summer months in Peckham, and our proposals seek to carve out spaces within the redundant middle floors of the building to extend these possibilities year round, while simultaneously providing a huge amount of much needed new creative workspace for Peckham.”

Cllr Mark Williams, cabinet member for regeneration and new homes, says: “As a council we have promised to create hundreds of new affordable work spaces for the creative industries, and this appointment is the start of us delivering on that promise. Although the car park is still earmarked for development in the long term, we have the opportunity now to help local residents set up new businesses and provide space for local artists.”