Statement from Rohan Silva, Sam Aldenton and Hannah Barry
We are disappointed by Southwark Council’s decision to award the Peckham multi-storey car park site to a Mayfair-based property developer.
The critically-acclaimed art commissions and cultural programmes created by Bold Tendencies have attracted over 900,000 people to Peckham over the past nine years, and this decision now leaves the future of this award-winning art project in jeopardy.
Southwark Council’s decision also means that the BOLD | HOME proposal, developed by Bold Tendencies and Second Home to create 800 ultra-affordable artist studios in Peckham, cannot go ahead.
With so many artist studios in Southwark and across the city having disappeared over the past decade — and the remaining 30% forecast to disappear in the next five years — this is a terrible result for London.
Under the terms of our detailed proposal, Southwark Council would not have had to invest a penny — we would have invested the entire £3 million construction budget ourselves, and also paid Southwark £200,000 a year in rent, which would have been fantastic deal for the local community.
Bold Tendencies and Second Home are determined to keep fighting on behalf of London’s artists and creative entrepreneurs, and we are already looking for a new home for BOLD | HOME.
We’ve been overwhelmed by the generous support and help of so many people over the past few weeks as we’ve worked to bring BOLD | HOME to life. It’s been a wonderful group effort to create affordable studios for London’s artists, and we won’t quit until this important goal is achieved.
Hannah Barry, founder of Bold Tendencies
Sam Aldenton, co-founder of Second Home
Rohan Silva, co-founder of Second Home
