Frank's Cafe and Campari Bar
Perched atop a disused Peckham car-park, Frank’s Cafe and Campari bar is an innovative pop-up eatery designed by Lettice Drake and Paloma Gormley (Practice Architecture). The temporary cafe appears for the second year in a row as part of the Bold Tendencies sculpture project by Hannah Barry Gallery which has attracted more than just local interest in this culturally overlooked corner of South London.
Frank’s cafe is run by Frank Boxer, owner of Vauxhall’s Brunswick House Cafe and Bonnington Square Deli, and head chef Michael Davies of the Hope and Anchor, Waterloo. Diners can enjoy an al-fresco set-up that offers outstanding views of London and its landmarks, the London Eye, Millennium Dome, to Crystal Palace and beyond.
The structure was built over 25 days by a team of volunteers working alongside Lettice and Paloma, whose collaborative studio specialise in design-build architecture and social spaces. It is made up of nine 50m long ratchet straps that ‘loop around the entire floor plate and lash a bright red PVC canopy to the car park roof’. Reclaimed timber columns constructed from bolted together scaffold planks support the straps. The same reclaimed timber has been used for the structure, bar and furniture resulting in a pared down look that suits the starkness of the car-park and allows the striking colour and form of the roof to stand out. The red roof and ratchet straps were fabricated in a factory that produce drop down canvases for commercial lorries.
Frank’s Cafe and the sculptures of the Bold Tendencies project are open Thursday to Sunday, 11am to 10pm on the 10th Floor of Peckham multi-storey car-park, 95A Rye Lane, London, SE15 4ST.
