Great news! Peckham Rye station to reclaim its public square by next year!

[Dogkennelhillbilly]

Demolition of the crappy dishevelled shopping arcade in front of Peckham Rye station is going ahead, and by end next year there will be a public square on Peckham's main shopping street. This is excellent!

Hopefully it unlocks vision and funding for an upgrade to the station itself for lifts, accessibility etc.

https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/demolition-of-the-shopping-arcade-blocking-peckham-rye-station-to-start-this-summer-80737/

[CPR Dave]

Hopefully it fares better than the public space outside the library / leisure centre

[jazzer]

believe it when it happens as their is so much work to be done to achieve what will be a beautiful square and in keeping with what the station probably originally looked like. 

[malumbu]

Thank you DKH, it's a shame the next two posters brought the mood down, with two others thinking that this was appropriate.

Edited; and further doubt,doom and gloom, and opportunities to moan about Southwark following that.

Edited yesterday at 17:34 by malumbu

[jazzer]

Mal - shame you don't like my comment. Bringing the mood down, what planet are you on. I was stating facts, and those can't be disputed, even by you. 

[Nigello]

Great! Can’t wait for the added embellishment à la spray can, to fit in with the general Rye Lane “ambience”. 

[ArchieCarlos]

The reason why this time it feels believable that it will actually happen is that the council has at last awarded the contracts for the works to BAM Nuttall. 

[Earl Aelfheah]

Looks like it will be a massive improvement.

Edited yesterday at 18:16 by Earl Aelfheah

[rollflick]

Yes it could be a massive improvement and useful to hear that contracts have finally been awarded. I totally understand though why doubts are expressed about when the new square will open.

This 2012 BBC article about mayoral funding after the London 2011 riots says "In Southwark, which saw parts of Peckham hit by the rioters, there are plans to redevelop Peckham Rye station". https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-19167948

A decade later, the first phase on Blenheim Grove - the white buildings with the new roof deck - was kind of completed by summer 2022. Yet three years on those buildings are still covered with hoardings, gathering ever more graffiti. There has been no clear or coherent explanation from Southwark why, just some excuses of water ingress. How much rent must have been lost in that time and who has taken the resultant financial hit?

In that context is it unreasonable to doubt that the new square will be fully opened next year - rather we'll get a fenced in walkway leading through an 80% completed square that we're forced to squeeze through for years to come? Dare I also remind people that the reality of what was built on Blenheim Grove didn't look as good as the renders. With construction inflation recently so high, it's valid to ask how the resultant funding gap for the main phases of this scheme will be bridged.

It's not just Southwark's inability to manage major projects that are a concern but also its senior leadership's reluctance to be transparent about problems let alone make any visible efforts to tackle them.