Peckham’s creativity reaches a higher level in a multistorey car park
The high street is dead – long live the multistorey car park. In the fun-and-gritty south London neighbourhood of Peckham, seven levels of a car park have been reinvented as a creative and entertainment hub. The car park already had creative form, with the roof top café Franks, and Bold Tendencies commissioning artwork up there, and the Multi Story Orchestra operating on one level. Now Carl Turner Architects has created Peckham Levels by converting parking bays into studio spaces, and devoting a whole floor to eating, drinking and enjoying yourself. The venue is operated and managed by social enterprise Make Shift.
Levels 5 is open to the public and houses seven street-food kiosks run by local outfits with seating for diners provided at yellow timber trestle tables. There’s also a cocktail bar and restaurants including the vegan offering Wild Flower, a hair salon, and a children’s play area, with colourful 3D obstacles on a rubber floor, and curved walls for running up and down. Meanwhile an event space can be cordoned off with a brightly patterned curtain from an African textile supplier on nearby Rye Lane.
There is no disguising the building’s former use, so Carl Turner Architects' Paul O’Brien used a light touch. He left the big yellow arrows on the floors and brought light into the corridors from the outside through polycarbonate opaque panels in the studios’ walls. These are occupied by local creatives including Hilary Cottam, who was named UK Designer of the Year in 2005.
“The big challenge with the building was that it had no services,” explains O’Brien. He put in toilets and a water point in the centre of every level. Another issue was that “everything slopes to the edge for drainage”, making constructing studios tricky for the builders.
While long-standing stores continue to close on the UK’s towns and cities, things couldn’t be more vibrant at Peckham Levels. And its oh-so local bent makes it an antidote to the more heavily curated, privately-operated public realms of the capital.
INFORMATION
For more information visit the Carl Turner Architects' website
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
-
The visual feast of the Sony World Photography Awards 2024 is revealed
The Sony World Photography Awards 2024 winners have been revealed – we celebrate the Architecture & Design category’s visual artists
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Don’t Move, Improve 2024: London’s bold, bright and boutique home renovations
Don’t Move, Improve 2024 reveals its shortlist, with 16 home designs competing for the top spot, to be announced in May
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Perfumer H has bottled the scent of dandelions blowing in the wind
Perfumer H has debuted a new fragrance for spring, called Dandelion. Lyn Harris tells Wallpaper* about the process of its creation
By Hannah Tindle Published
-
Don’t Move, Improve 2024: London’s bold, bright and boutique home renovations
Don’t Move, Improve 2024 reveals its shortlist, with 16 home designs competing for the top spot, to be announced in May
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Timber-framed Wimbledon house is a minimalist, low-energy affair
A new timber-framed Wimbledon house is designed to blend into its traditional surroundings with a neat brick façade, careful massing and pared back interiors
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
London Science Museum’s Energy Revolution gallery champions sustainable exhibition design
The Energy Revolution gallery opens at London’s Science Museum, exploring decarbonisation through sustainable exhibition design by Unknown Works
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
This South Downs house stands as a testament to the value of quiet refinement
At one with the landscape, a South Downs house uses elements of quintessential country villas and midcentury gems with modern technologies
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Ash Tree House offers a contextual approach to a north London site
Ash Tree House by Edgley Design is a modern family home in a north London conservation area's backyard site
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
In memoriam: John Miller (1930-2024)
We remember John Miller, an accomplished British architect and educator who advocated a quiet but rigorous modernism
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
River Wing at Clare College responds to its historic Cambridge heritage
University of Cambridge opens its new River Wing on Clare College Old Court, uniting modern technology with historic design
By Clare Dowdy Published
-
Camden Workshop offers flexible family space in a transformed north London warehouse
Camden Workshop, a transformed industrial space in north London, was designed by architects McLaren Excell to combine residential space and a creative studio for its owners
By Ellie Stathaki Published