Peckham’s feverish renaissance began in 2015, when British Vogue dispatched a team of models and photographers to a bar on top of a car park, and dedicated 16 pages of praise to this rough-edged corner of south-east London. Today, Peckham has become as common a place for Londoners to spend a Saturday afternoon- as Brooklyn has for New Yorkers or Canal Saint-Martin for Parisians. And as a result, new independent eateries, bars, galleries and co-working spaces are opening apace.
The latest addition is Coal Rooms, sister restaurant to Old Spike Roastery, Aside, Spike + Earl, and the coffee-based charity Change Please. It occupies the Grade II-listed former ticket office of Peckham Rye station, and features a sexily lit coffee shop-cum-bar out front, and a light and airy 30-cover restaurant that looks out across the railway tracks in the back.
All the bespoke ash carpentry is by local architecture firm Kennedy Woods, who are also responsible for the restoration of the space. Parquet flooring, sage green banquettes, Danish-style chairs and orb lighting look sleek against original marble fireplaces. In the middle section, 13 bar stools perch around a sunken kitchen, where chef Sam Bryant and team char grill a meaty menu of 40-day aged Dexter, slow-cooked goat and lamb and mallard, to serve alongside equally gutsy accompaniments featuring offal, and a rotation of creative vegetable side dishes and sauces.
Adjoined to this are the original station toilets, complete with original tiled floors, indoor plants, wooden lavatory seats and peeling posters warning against common Victorian ailments. For architect Chris Kennedy, the most exciting part is the private dining room; ‘It’s a vaulted space with a Victorian mosaic floor that will function as butchery and bakery in the day, before transforming into a candlelit dining space at night.’
ADDRESS
11a Station Way
-
Wallpaper* checks in at Granger Hotel: an intimate, maximalist charmer in San DiegoSet in the historic Gaslamp Quarter, Granger Hotel is an oasis of design blending history with modernity
-
A cavalcade of Kias is announced as the South Korean manufacturer bolsters its EV line-upThe 2025 Kia EV Day in Tarragona saw a new concept and new production cars as Kia moves into electric commercial vehicles and smaller family cars
-
'I'm trying to examine what it's like to be a person': Author Curtis Sittenfeld on her new book, 'Show Don't Tell'As Curtis Sittenfeld publishes her new book, 'Show Don't Tell', she tells Wallpaper* why she is drawn to her ambiguous characters
-
London's coolest design-led coffee shops for your Fashion Week fixCoffee shops are the heart of London’s neighbourhoods, discover those fusing speciality beans and stylish interiors for the perfect brew
-
Shakara is a stylish new addition to London's West African dining sceneShakara, a new Marylebone bar and dining room, adds to the city's ever-more impressive high-end West African dining scene
-
First a fishmonger then a restaurant, how Applebee’s became a Borough Market stapleIn line with the London seafood restaurant’s 25th anniversary, Applebee’s is reopening with a new menu and a new look courtesy of design studio A-nrd
-
Mayfair restaurant Silva is a dainty ode to the MediterraneanEnvisioned by Studio Wren, Silva is a dynamic, textural restaurant that reflects nature’s rhythms through its cuisine and design
-
Peek inside Heathrow’s new VIP terminal: exclusive travel from door to departureThe Windsor is Heathrow’s newly refurbished private terminal boasting a private gallery, cuisine from a Michelin-starred chef, and butler and chauffeur services
-
Night at the museum: the best art hotels to book nowSleep amid surrealists at London’s Broadwick Soho, or wake up to contemporary favourites at New Hotel in Athens – indulge in an immersive art hotel experience
-
London’s Piraña restaurant combines Japanese-Peruvian fusion with lavishly moody surroundsPiraña restaurant wraps a delicious Japanese-Peruvian fusion menu in an alluringly moody atmosphere in central London’s Mayfair
-
Wallpaper* checks in at Park Hyatt London River Thames: ‘Luxury meets the skyline’Tour the long-awaited debut of the Park Hyatt brand in the UK, soaring within a KPF-designed sleek glass tower in Nine Elms
