How Peckham in London became one of the coolest places in the world: multiculturalism
- People, and food, from many corners of the world, art spaces and craft businesses – the once blighted south London neighbourhood has come a long way
- For visitors it’s a one-stop shop, easily navigable on foot and prime Airbnb territory
When a global survey spotlighted Peckham as one of the coolest places on the planet in September, the reaction from the south London ’hood’s 70,000 residents was a predictably ironic shrug: “What took you so long, man?”
The rash of hipster locales that is Peckham 2018 has an unlikely forebear. At the turn of the millennium, Will Alsop – the grown-up enfant terrible of British architecture and, as one interviewer decorously put it, “obviously not a man familiar with gyms” – came up with a joyously surreal creation that he envisaged as Peckham’s public library. Clad in pre-patinated copper, shaped like an inverted capital L, it was a building that shouted: “This ain’t a pile of fusty old books and stuff, it’s somewhere to hang, learn and have fun.”
Opened in March 2000 and showered with unstinting praise, the library continues to act as a beacon for Pecknarm, as the area is nicknamed with cautious affection. (The “narm” is a reference to Vietnam, and is added to reflect Peckham’s now fading reputation for crime and gang violence.)
If Alsop’s library set the new template, Frank’s Café (star dish: roasted cauliflower, zhug, pitta), on Rye Lane, provided the gold standard for the Peckham renaissance. Open every summer, it occupies the top floor of a former multistorey car park, welcoming children and dogs with alacrity, and staff hand out blankets on chillier evenings.
The six storeys beneath Frank’s host Peckham Levels, which are open year-round: a gallimaufry of international cuisine (mezze platters, Hawaiian poke, vegan pizza), a yoga centre, art and ceramics studios and Ghost Notes, a live-music bar. Tickets for the latest Hollywood releases and independent films at the ground-floor Peckhamplex cost a mere £4.99 (US$6.40), less than half the price of cinema admission in London’s West End. All in all, perhaps the absolute best use of a used car park anywhere, ever.
