Campaigners are pushing for Peckham Rye Station’s recently restored Victorian waiting room to get special protected status.
Local community group Peckham Vision wants the Old Waiting Room – where Victorian commuters once played billiards and rested between journeys – to become an asset of community value (ACV)
If approved by Southwark Council, ACV status would offer the space better protection against private development and increase its chances of remaining in public hands.
Eileen Conn, chair of Peckham Vision, wrote to Southwark Council: “The Old Waiting Room in itself has social interest from an architectural and historical perspective, which its grade-II listing is testament to. It is a beautiful room demonstrating the best in Victorian design.
“The local community can visit and be transported back to the lives of those who lived and worked in Peckham over 150 years ago.”
To gain ACV status, applicants must prove the building is being used to further the community’s social well-being.
Since being officially reopened to the public last summer, the space has hosted art exhibitions, community workshops, historical talks and more.
In May, it hosted artist Sarah Sze’s exhibition ‘The Waiting Room’ a combination of light and sculpture that got rave reviews from critics.
Grade-II listed Peckham Rye Station was built in 1865 by renowned Victorian architect Charles Henry Driver.
While the entire station is celebrated for its architectural merit, the Old Waiting Room has truly captured the public imagination.
Designed in the French Second Empire Style, it has a vast vaulted roof and imposing iron beams.
In its heyday, it would have been adorned with large gas chandeliers, a plaster ceiling and four crackling fireplaces.
After 1962, it was left abandoned and forgotten for decades. But in 2009, Peckham architect Benedict O’Looney embarked on a loving restoration of the building supported by Network Rail, the Railway Heritage Trust and Southwark Council.
According to Peckham Vision, Southwark Council hasn’t responded to its submission yet even though the deadline was on October 23.
A council spokesperson said: “The ACV panel has met and asked for comments from the site owner about the current use of the building. Their response is currently being reviewed by the panel and a decision will be made shortly.”