The Sunday Painter in Blenheim Grove

From Peckham Vision Facebook: From Will Jarvis: Hello, I run an art Gallery and studios called The Sunday Painter http://www.thesundaypainter.co.uk located in a beautiful Art Deco building on Blenheim Grove, we recently spent over £20,000 redecorating the front of this incredible building. We are one of the sites proposed to be knocked down in favour of six storey generic flats. We currently lease studios to over forty small businesses, artists and designers and over the years we have helped hundreds of young creatives find a decent affordable studio, providing a platform for them to start the often arduous task of trying to get somewhere within the creative industries. Our studios act as an incubator for young creative individuals who go on to other initiates In and around the area.

 Our Gallery shows an international program of emerging art and attracts hundreds of visitors for every show, it’s free to the public and on opening night alcohol is provided to attendees. Visitors who make the effort to travel down for the Gallery often go on to perpetuate the local economy spending in shops, cafés and pubs. Press often attend and this has undoubtedly had an effect on the desirability of the area. We have never had any funding and pay full business rates totally over £50,000 so far. It’s obvious that gentrification is something that always happens and yes there is an argument that we are the architects of our own downfall. However I would suggest the area is naturally regenerating and that if it was allowed to do so at its own pace we may be lucky enough to retain some of the original and very unique culture that Peckham has become known for. Finally if this proposition goes ahead two thirds of Peckham’s creative culture will be removed including, Hannah Barry Gallery, Bar Story, Peckham Springs and the 30 artists studios housed within the arches. The wider issue is that if London continues to push aside it’s creative economies it will eventually end up like Paris, a wealthy elite in then centre and a marginalised populous on the outside with no cultural bridges between them. There is currently a richness in Peckham we must fight to preserve.

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