Graphic designer Morag Myerscough has created the Deptford Project Café - a café inside a 1960s commuter train carriage in Deptford, south east London.
The interior includes furniture designed in collaboration with Luke Morgan, while the toilet consists of a garden shed kitted out as a shrine to Elvis Presley.
The café, which opened in June, is part of an ongoing project to regenerate the old railway yard of Deptford station. Construction is due to begin in 2010 on a public square designed by Alison Brooks Architects and a residential building designed by Richard Rogers.
The yard and café are hosting installations, music and film events over the summer as well as a creative industries market.
The following information is from the Deptford Project organisers:
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London’s most unique café opens in a converted train carriage designed by Morag Myerscough:
A 1960s commuter train carriage has been converted into one of London’s most unique cafés by designer Morag Myerscough.
The Deptford Project café opened in the old railway yard of Deptford station – London’s first suburban railway station, built in 1836.
Commissioned by property developer Cathedral Group, the café is the first phase of The Deptford Project, a programme to bring back to life the disused railway yard and restore a listed Victorian carriage ramp that has stood derelict for some years.
The carriage will act as HQ for a programme of art and design installation, music and film that will be curated on the site until construction begins in 2010 on a major new public square designed by Alison Brooks Architects and a new residential building, attached to the restored carriage ramp, designed by Richard Rogers. A new creative industries market will also open at the weekend later in the summer, operated by Urban Space Management who run Greenwich Market and who originally created Spitalfields Market and Gabriel’s Wharf.
Myerscough was responsible for the creative concept of the train carriage, the graphic, interior and furniture design. The exterior of the 35 tonne carriage is decorated with images inspired by local history – an arm and hammer denote the local ship building industry, rope text recognises Deptford’s long history of marine rope-making and pictures of animals symbolise the livestock originally transported to Smithfield on the railway.
The interior has been kitted out with bespoke furniture (designed in partnership with artist Luke Morgan) including hand-painted stools with sitting-related slogans. The loo (also by Morgan), is set in a garden shed on the adjoining terrace and is a shrine to Elvis. Visitors are invited to photograph themselves as ‘The King’ in the painted mirror and text the pictures for display in the shed.
Having arrived in its new home earlier this year, after a painstakingly slow journey down the A11, through Greenwich and onto Deptford High Street - where it cleared the railway bridge with just two inches to spare - the train carriage, which pokes its nose onto Deptford High Street in place of two former shop units, will serve coffee sourced from sustainable farming projects around the world and home-made food made using locally sourced ingredients, including eggs from the café’s very own free range chickens.
The Deptford Project café is open from Monday to Friday 7.30am-7pm, Saturday 8am-6pm and Sunday 11am-5pm. It will be run by locals Rebecca Molina and Juan Martin-Zamora who will also curate and manage the creative activity on site.
121-123 Deptford High Street
London
SE8 4NS