Peckham Rye station to be refurbished

[teuchter]

At present, there's not much info about exactly what's proposed, but there are plans for quite a major refurb of Peckham Rye station:

Peckham Rye station upgrade - Network Rail

We are working with partners to develop designs for a fully accessible Peckham Rye station with more capacity and better facilities for passengers.

www.networkrail.co.uk

In June 2020, we received £1m from the Department for Transport to develop designs to improve the station for passengers.


Currently, Peckham Rye is the busiest interchange station in the entire country without step free access to platforms or accessible facilities for passengers.


The station is also not designed for the current number of passengers using it today. Platforms, passageway and gate lines are too narrow, leading to overcrowding at peaks times.

Our proposals

We are currently developing designs for which would aim to:

• Provide new lifts to all platforms and accessible toilets
• Wider platforms, larger passageways, new lifts and staircases
• Larger gate lines and entrances
• Improved integration with the surrounding public realm, including better access into the station

 

[Jimbeau]

At present, there's not much info about exactly what's proposed, but there are plans for quite a major refurb of Peckham Rye station:

Very interesting. If they can reopen the forecourt onto Rye Lane that will be a major win.

I saw some outline ideas a few years ago during Doors Open Day when the upper rooms were opened to the public. They've all been completely gutted but are great spaces nevertheless.

Now all we need to do is convince Lambeth/Network Rail that reinstating the old Brixton station building on Popes Road with a proper multimodal transport interchange is a good idea...

 

[teuchter]

Those grand spaces like the old waiting room have been partly restored but the NR statement doesn't seem to mention them as part of this project so I'm not sure what their status is at the moment.

Old Waiting Room - Peckham Vision

www.peckhamvision.org

It looks like the bit involving the forecourt is Southwark BC led, rather than Network Rail

Peckham Rye Station Square

www.southwark.gov.uk

I see that it involves removing the buildings that sit on the street edge at present. They are very delapidated, but if you look carefully you see they are the remains of what must have been a quite modern looking Art Deco style thing when it was first built.



I actually thought I saw something recently suggesting that these buildings could be restored, but maybe I'm imagining that.

 

[Brainaddict]

So a load of local businesses are to be turfed out? To make the station more aesthetically pleasing to middle class people who care more about such things?

 

[Puddy_Tat]

mixed feelings about this.

the station buildings are part of a cluster of art deco buildings that anywhere more fashionable would either have been redeveloped years ago, or would have been restored now.

they are possibly not the greatest example, arguably should never have been put there in the first place (hiding the original station buildings) and have clearly been neglected in recent years (although developers will often neglect a building then use its current state as an argument in favour of demolition)

and they are small traders / local shops for local people - haven't read the plans in detail but the usual with schemes like this is that they will get gentrified out of existence (by being offered an 'alternative' that's smaller, somewhere inconvenient and at about three times the rent) so that there's a nice space for a farmers market for yuppies every saturday.

 

[Brainaddict]

Also, I'm just gonna say I like the fact that the station is hidden away in a rabbit warren. It's eccentric and unusual and not once have I thought 'They need to make this all a fuck-off big boring forecourt so everyone can admire the station building better'. All this is going to do is make Peckham more like other places. Which is what is happening to every place and it's fucking depressing.

 

[JimW]

I understand there's also going to be an enormous expense because of essential landscaping to bring ground levels up higher in line with the rest of the system, because low lie the fields of Peckham Rye.

 

[Crispy]

Note that there are two sets of proposals here. Network Rail are going to update the station. The forecourt scheme is Southwark's.
Some enabling works have already been carried out, so it's very much in the "happening" phase.

More details of that here:

Peckham Rye Station Square

www.southwark.gov.uk

Inevitably some businesses affected by the work will have to relocate. The council has built Peckham Palms to help re-locate some businesses, especially the Afro-Caribbean hair and beauty shops along Blenheim Grove. Peckham Palms was completed in February 2019 The majority of other affected businesses, including the bank, dentist and café will be relocated in the scheme.

 

[Brainaddict]

I'm glad the council have built a new place for the traders, but hardly comparable in terms of passing traffic, and I wonder how the rents compare.

 

[teuchter]

Peckham doesn't currently have a "centre", really, and perhaps opening up the station forecourt will provide something like that, and maybe it's a good move in the long term.

It does seem a shame to lose those buildings though - and seems like the traders are being moved to somewhere not really equivalent at all ... and I also quite the warren-like nature of the entrance to the station as is.

Kind of interesting to reflect that it's now more than 20 years ( ) since the library was built. That similarly created a new public space - and potential centre of gravity - and maybe more could be done to make the most of that. Unfortunately it's cut off from Rye Lane - where everything actually happens - by the horribly over-trafficked main road.

If you think public libraries are boring, you should see what they've got planned down in Peckham

Peckham. A south-east London suburb best known as the tellyscape of Only Fools And Horses. Del Boy. Reliant Robins. Half-baked scams. That's the fictional face of an old quarter of the capital that is often felt by outsiders to be a 'no-go' area.

www.theguardian.com

 

[Brainaddict]

I am not always sure that centres are as important as many planners seem to think. In this country they're often where tourists end up, not where the residents hang out.

 

[jimbarkanoodle]

I'm not so fussed about the outside and immediate surrounding area around the station which is suitably scuzzy, but capacity of the station in rush hour could be looked at for improvement.

When a train pulls up at the same time on platform 1 and 2, everyone piles down the relatively narrow staircase, whether they are switching platforms or exiting the station, with people rushing up the other side of the stairs to catch the 2 trains waiting on the platform. Quite often a large, elderly woman with a shopping trolley will be struggling down the stairs blocking half the staircase with dozens of frustrated people backing up behind, i can imagine someone tripping up and a bit of crush happening one day.

 

[teuchter]

I'm not so fussed about the outside and immediate surrounding area around the station which is suitably scuzzy, but capacity of the station in rush hour could be looked at for improvement.

When a train pulls up at the same time on platform 1 and 2, everyone piles down the relatively narrow staircase, whether they are switching platforms or exiting the station, with people rushing up the other side of the stairs to catch the 2 trains waiting on the platform. Quite often a large, elderly woman with a shopping trolley will be struggling down the stairs blocking half the staircase with dozens of frustrated people backing up behind, i can imagine someone tripping up and a bit of crush happening one day.

As per the Network Rail statement quoted in the OP...

Currently, Peckham Rye is the busiest interchange station in the entire country without step free access to platforms or accessible facilities for passengers.
The station is also not designed for the current number of passengers using it today. Platforms, passageway and gate lines are too narrow, leading to overcrowding at peaks times.

 

[jimbarkanoodle]

ah yes. Always read the OP properly

 

[teuchter]

Radical revamp of Peckham Rye station proposed

Peckham Rye station, a cramped building with lots of narrow staircases could get a radical upgrade if plans by Network Rail are approved.

www.ianvisits.co.uk

A few more images have appeared on the Network Rail page

Peckham Rye station upgrade - Network Rail

We are working with partners to develop designs for a fully accessible Peckham Rye station with more capacity and better facilities for passengers.

www.networkrail.co.uk

 

[teuchter]

Some new visuals seem to have appeared

Benedict O'Looney Architects

www.benedictolooney.co.uk

Personally I find it unforgiveable that there is an inaccurate depiction of south london line / catford loop rolling stock in one of the station platforms.

 

[Brainaddict]

I spot a great local heritage feature in their referencing of the early 2000s Peckham Burger King with those glass sheds on either side..

 

[Puddy_Tat]

south london press have put this story out again

Peckham Rye’s new station would include a new town square and lifts to every platform

The 19th century station at Peckham Rye is currently the busiest in the UK without step-free access.

londonnewsonline.co.uk

although can't quite see what's new...

 

[spanglechick]

Also, I'm just gonna say I like the fact that the station is hidden away in a rabbit warren. It's eccentric and unusual and not once have I thought 'They need to make this all a fuck-off big boring forecourt so everyone can admire the station building better'. All this is going to do is make Peckham more like other places. Which is what is happening to every place and it's fucking depressing.

The hidden away rabbit warren is fine during busy times, but it is much more dangerous at night. Perhaps some male privilege on show?