After three years of renovations, Peckham Palais – now known simply as Palais – is back. And while it’s staying true to its roots as a nightclub, its new owners weren’t afraid to try something “new and different”.
“It’s been going really well – people are really excited,” says Louis Hyams, co-founder and director of the Night Group (Hackney’s Night Tales, NT’s Loft and Netil360). The imposing neo-Renaissance building – its exterior currently covered in scaffolding – has been transformed into a “late-night, multi-room experience” which the Night Group hopes will integrate into Peckham’s existing scene, with its “energy, diversity and strong sense of identity”.
Three of the building’s five floors are currently open, with a 500-capacity basement club, The Ballroom cocktail and listening bar, and an outdoor terrace – all with a 6am licence.
Annie Harrison, founder and creative director at London interior design studio Fare Inc (Lina Stores, Kolamba East) designed The Ballroom.
“When you walk in, it almost feels like you’re in a bit of a building site, but when you walk up the staircase and enter The Ballroom, there’s just a complete change in atmosphere,” Harrison says. “It’s got this cosy, moody ’70s feel that makes it somewhere you want to be late at night.”
This feel is achieved by a low, layered lighting in a colour-drenched red interior with a mix of glossy tiles and seating; a variety of textures on the walls; and intricate woodwork on the bar.
Despite the new look, Harrison didn’t want to stray too far from the previous iteration of Palais, which closed in 2011 and played mostly house, dubstep, and techno.
“We kept the layout of the room pretty much intact to pay homage to what people did in the space 15 years ago,” she says. “And we also kept the windows the same – they have this really cool patchwork effect from years of graffiti and being repaired with different types of glass.”
Designed to “live up to the grandeur of the room”, cocktails include a “moreish” Sazerac with a banana-liquor twist; a golden Margarita with Aperol and tangerine; a savoury olive and tomato-flavoured G&T; and Hyams’s favourite, a papaya Mezcalita.
The bar’s bestseller is a vodka Martini, stirred through with hay-smoked olives, while New-York-inspired pickleback shots are popular later in the night.
Those who start their night in The Ballroom may be drawn down to the basement: a 500-capacity dance floor kitted out with a Funktion-One five-way sound system which Hyams says creates a sound quality rivalled only by a few other clubs in Europe.
The Ballroom is free to enter, while the basement club requires a ticket – which have been selling quickly in past few weeks of soft launch, especially when resident DJs Chaos in the CBD are on the line-up.
“We want people to move through and explore the building over the course of the night, and for the spaces to work well together,” Hyams says. “So, you might start upstairs for some Martinis and then drop into the club for a dance, or alternatively escape the dancefloor for The Ballroom at 2am for a breather between sets.”
Hyams hopes that the design of Palais – alongside the no-phones policy in the basement – allows people “have fun, let go, and connect without distractions … all in one place”.
Palais
1a Rye Lane, SE15 5EW
Hours:
Hours vary: check website for schedule.
The Ballroom will be open from Wednesday March 4 from Wed–Sat from 5pm (closing hours vary).
