Hotel Elephant to expand community work at
“The Butterfly” in Southwark Town Hall development.
Southwark based not-for-profit
business Hotel Elephant has announced it plans to expand its community work by
opening a café gallery in the proposed development of Southwark Town Hall.
Reuben Powell, long term local
resident, artist and director of Hotel Elephant says ”It is an amazing
opportunity for us to be able to develop our cultural activities in Southwark
and provide something new for Camberwell”.
Hotel Elephant aims to broaden
access to cultural activities across the borough; it is established as an art
gallery and cultural venue in Elephant and Castle working with local artists,
schools and universities, hosting arts events, festivals and exhibitions. It
will be opening a vibrant new café gallery in Camberwell named The
Butterfly, on the ground floor of the old town hall building.
The Butterfly
(taking its name from the Camberwell Beauty, the rare species of local
butterfly) will open seven days a week as a café. The interior will reflect the
Edwardian past of the building, incorporating many existing elements and
“utilitarian grandeur” says Reuben: “I want visitors to the Butterfly to have a
sense of discovering something”.
More importantly it will be a
platform for the arts. The Butterfly hopes to meet the
needs of the local artistic community; as a shop window for local designer
makers, an exhibition venue for local students and artists, a venue for poetry
and literature and an occasional cinema. The aim is to bring as broad a
cross-section of the local community under one roof as possible.
The café will provide around 10
jobs and have a training capacity focusing on young people and marginalised
groups within the community.
“Culture is the glue that holds
communities together. By sharing experiences, opinions, even coffee, people are
brought closer together. The Butterfly will be so much
more than a café!”
The development of Southwark Town
Hall, 31 Peckham Road, is a planning application proposed by student housing
provider Alumno Developments. The
old town hall building will be refurbished alongside a completely new, purpose
built theatre building for Theatre Peckham on Havil Street. In addition to The Butterfly café, the
proposal includes 149 student rooms and affordable artists’ studios.
Information about the Southwark Town Hall development proposals at www.31peckhamroad.co.uk.
