Peckham Rye station & Sarah Sze video art

I rarely go to Peckham, which is a suburb of southeast London. I have never used Peckham Rye train station and have never seen the station entrance as it is hidden by shops. 

When I read that the old Victorian station waiting room was open to the public for a free art exhibition, I went to have a look.

The station opened in 1865. It was an important junction station with one line going to Crystal Palace near Sydenham Hill, which had become popular after the Great Exhibition in 1851. The station was designed by architect Charles Driver, who also helped with the design of the pumping stations at Abbey Mills and Crossness. 

From May till September 2023, there is a Sarah Sze art exhibition in the waiting room above the station. The newly restored heritage staircase up to the waiting room has impressive rails -

In 1922 the waiting room was changed to a billiards hall. This was closed by British Rail in 1962 and the room has been closed to the public since and is still in its original state.

The Sarah Sze video artwork consists of a large central globe in a matrix of thin stainless-steel tubing. A large number of pieces of paper give the globe shape and these are illuminated by moving images from 42 video projectors. It gives a magic lantern effect. The artwork is named Metronome.

Images are also projected onto the walls, this one showed birds flying round the room - 

Projecting onto the walls gave people a chance to see the impressive unrestored waiting room -

See more on the exhibition, Sarah Sze, the Waiting Room.

Going back to the station, it was given listed status in 2008 and over the last 10 years parts of the closed station have been restored and there was a major restoration of the roof and facade by Network Rail in 2023. The front of the newly renovated station was only revealed in April. And there are plans to remove the shopping corridor in front of the station. 

See more on IanVisits, which gives a lot of detail and photos on the work being done on the station. Also on an earlier IanVisits page, a nice photo of the waiting room roof.