Last days of Peckham Rye Station Arcade

The Arcade in front of Peckham Rye station is empty and awaiting demolition - in fact signs around the site say that it demolition was due to start in summer 2025.

The two-storey building was built in around 1935 to occupy the square in front of the Victorian train station. It was designed by Scottish architect John James Joass who was also responsible for some of the buildings at London Zoo and for Whiteley's department store in Bayswater. Its demolition is part of a plan to reinstate the original square. 

I can't say the Arcade has particularly happy memories for me, the many hours I spent there were mainly in the dentists chair, though there were some really nice dentists there over the years.  Others have had more pleasant experiences, including in recent years some great soul and jazz nights at the CLF Art Cafe upstairs.

While I might not be going to the barricades to save it, there is a faded art deco grandeur to the place and in its current state of graffiti'd dereliction the classic example of a kind of early 21st century Peckham grime that is gradually being cleaned up and swept away.

In its earlier life the Station Arcade hosted an Irish dance hall, the Brian Boru Social Club, in the late 1930s. During the Second World War the Camberwell district of the Young Communist League had its HQ at 1a Station Approach and after the war the London County Council ran one of its Civic Cafes there.