Peckham Affordable Workspace Hub
Background
In the summer of 2025, Southwark Council introduced a new Affordable Workspace Strategy which sets out the Council's approach to increasing the supply of good quality, fit for purpose, genuinely affordable workspace in the borough. The aim is to support start-ups and businesses of all sizes and to help our diverse communities access the spaces they need to thrive.
The cost of workspace is a challenge. It’s difficult for small to medium enterprises (SMEs), creative enterprises, voluntary organisations and start-ups to access suitable, secure and affordable space. This limits the potential of individuals and enterprises alike. The strategy supports the Councils ambition to nurture a thriving local economy, where economic opportunities are within reach.
The Council currently supports the delivery of affordable workspace within it's local plan. Planning policy is in place to secure commitments from developers to deliver affordable workspace within a variety of schemes which incorporate employment space and have secured planning consent. While this method will still be in place, the new strategy sets out how the Council can deliver its own operator run affordable workspace hubs using pooled payments in lieu from larger developments in the borough. This allows the Council to target specific locations with an existing demand for affordable workspace, providing hubs which will seek to provide discounted rents and/or other support to increase accessibility for all.
The strategy sets out a vision for a number of Council owned affordable workspace hubs across the borough. The former car park of the Peckham Pulse Leisure Centre has been identified as the pilot site, with a design team commissioned to develop the proposals currently being consulted on.
Further reading:
The Site
Located on Melon Road, the site is the former car park of the Peckham Pulse Leisure Centre. On the eastern boundary is the leisure centre itself, to the north is Jocelyn Street and the west is Melon Road. To the south of the site is part of Peckham Square and the connection to the square has been identified as an opportunity to activate this space.
The Proposals
The Council has appointed an experienced and passionate team to develop the designs for an affordable workspace hub on this site.
Design Principles
The proposal has been developed in direct response to the brief and its context — balancing the need to protect neighbouring residential amenity with the ambition to deliver an efficient, sustainable and adaptable affordable workspace building within the constraints of budget and site. This includes:
- Massing and facade designed to minimise overshadowing and overbearing impact on adjacent residential neighbours
- Retain existing trees where possible and introduce new planting and biodiversity opportunities throughout
- Deliver an improved public realm for the wider area
- Adopt a simple, efficient structure — avoiding complexity while maximising adaptability for a wide range of affordable workspace types
- Ensure design decisions deliver multiple benefits — e.g. exposed concrete structure to provide thermal mass, a robust finish and cost savings simultaneously
- Orientate massing to reduce solar gain and utilise oversailing decks for additional shading
- Pursue a passive-first approach across all disciplines: critically assessing active systems to reduce embodied carbon, operational complexity and running costs
Massing Strategy & Uses
The designs for the affordable workspace hub propose a robust and flexible business centre with a public-facing, active base. The building is comprised of three main elements:
- A public-facing base providing lettable F&B/retail/micro units alongside a reception with informal lobby space. The double-height ground floor unit could potentially function as an secondary, informal entrance to the workspace.
- Upper levels (L01-03) providing flexible subdividable workspace floorplates
- Reduced top volume (L04-05) suitable for shared amenities, which could also be let to a single larger tenant as a self-contained unit. L04 also provides an external amenity space, with intention that this would be shared and accessible by all workspace users.
- In total, the building will offer over 3,900sqm of high-quality, lettable affordable workspace.
Phases
Online Consultation
A key engagement objective is to give local residents, business groups and the general public an opportunity to review and comment on the proposed design for the Peckham Affordable Workspace Hub. This is offered via a series of online questions on the hub page. A public drop in session will be held at Peckham Pulse Leisure Centre, with members of the design team on site to answer questions about the proposal. Hard copies of the survey will be available from the leisure centre reception.
Your responses will help the council to understand community opinions on the design as well as the affordable workspace use.
How to get involved
Please complete the survey to share your views. The dates and details of engagement events will be published on this page.
By email: Peckham.workspace@southwark.gov.uk
By post: FREEPOST PO Box 64529, Planning and Growth (Sustainable Growth South Team), Resources, London SE1P 5EX.
If you have any questions about the process, please email: Peckham.workspace@southwark.gov.uk