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Met’s hard to imagine now, but there was a time when roof bars weren’t really a thing. It’s time to see and modern outdoor sculpture park. Time even, if you can think about it, in the face of deep skill. Back in 2007, this wasn’t the case – the UK was a poor place for the arts. Then Courageous Behavior they showed up, cut down a lot of sculptures in the Peckham car park, painted the stairs bright pink, built a shop on the roof, and changed everything.
Now heading into its 20th summer season, Bold Tendencies is celebrating twenty years of sometimes sun-kissed, often windswept and artful fashion. During this time, it welcomed more than 3 million visitors in its concrete building behind the Peckhamplex cinema, presented new art, hosted countless plays and theaters, built a hall and a concert hall, and paved the way for countless experiences that have followed.
And the art hasn’t been too bad, either. Anthea Hamilton was arrested the entrance to heaven through the outstretched legs of man in 2010. Jess Flood-Paddock parked a Del Boy tricycle on the roof in 2011. James Bridle flew a black balloon filled with wifi routers from the roof in 2014. Adam Farah-Saad installed a decorative water fountain in 2024. on spikes. Almost all are newly posted, and all are free to view.
“Part of our role in doing work like this is to give the joy of feeling welcome to as many people as possible,” says Hannah Barry, influencer of Bold Tendencies and owner of Peckham’s long-standing Hannah Barry Gallery. People come here for different reasons and can stay for a short time or stay for a long time.
You can’t overstate the difference, not just in Peckham in 2007, but the whole culture of the country. This was years before the likes of Vinyl Factory or Frameless, and long before Hayward and Tate rushed down to find the most TikTok-ready, Instagram-friendly shows.
The only major works of sculpture at that time were the fourth plinth and Tate’s annual works for Turbine Hall and Duveen. Nowhere else could you see new sculptures by young artists.
There wasn’t much going on in Peckham at the time. But what the area did have were a few project sites, a single bar called Bar Story, cheap rent and – because it was squeezed between Camberwell College of Arts and Goldsmiths – a more of artists. Combined and isolated a few days before the London Overground, it boasted a unique style. “I felt it was a very possible place,” Barry said, “and it still feels that way.”
Barry was exhibiting in a derelict house off Lyndhurst Way, and developed a relationship with people responsible for property management at Southwark Council. The council realized that artists could be the caretakers of empty, derelict buildings awaiting renovation, and Barry saw that the buildings could be used as exhibitions. It’s a model still followed today by other cultural institutions, which some see as a front-line force that has surrounded the city ever since.
Barry says: “We looked at a lot of interesting buildings, but none really worked.” Then one winter evening, we climbed to the top of the parking lot and I saw the length and breadth of the building. “It’s simple, but it was a great place with a very interesting view. And you have different challenges: the change of light, the change of weather, the outdoors, the life around the city – it was all very interesting.”
There are two permanent installations at the heart of Bold Tendencies: a rooftop bar called Frank’s Cafe, and the now pink Simon Whybray staircase. Frank’s was the simple answer to the question of how you get Londoners to sit around a cool, windy park in Peckham. You serve them cocktails on the roof, obviously. But it was also about providing opportunities that did not exist at that time. “Why wasn’t there a lot of social work in the cultures that went to the original builders?” Barry asks. Why did you decide not to rebuild the house?
Whybray’s pink steps, called hi boo i love you, were also ahead of the curve. Countless channels these days try to search for “Instagram moments” in their programs, but Whybray’s work was among the first viral, everyone-must-take-a-selfie-here photos in London. The response, which Whybray describes as “overwhelming”, was huge. He said: “No other major organization has ever had the courage to hire me. Bold Tendencies is a powerful reminder that global trends can happen in unconventional places.”
It is possible, but not easy. “The real truth is that it has been difficult from the beginning and it was difficult,” says Barry. “Starting from the beginning every year is difficult. Wanting to be good is difficult. Management problems are difficult.”
One of the biggest challenges, clearly, is financial. Does Barry see Bold Tendencies continuing for another 20 years? “The logical answer is if I had at least five years of operating costs and program costs, then yes, of course there are five years, and five years, and five years. But we have no savings.” He takes a painful pause. “There are many considerations and many difficulties. But what surpasses those problems is the joy of doing it. And I have continued to do it because I felt that every year would always be better.
