Cockpit Deptford's transformation represents a significant evolution in London's cultural infrastructure. The centre has been reimagined to strengthen its role as a creative production hub.

Cockpit Deptford’s transformation represents a significant evolution in London’s cultural infrastructure. Home to makers since 2001, this craft centre has been reimagined to strengthen both its role as a creative production hub and its connection to the wider community, dramatically enhancing how craft culture is experienced and shared.

The project makes two key moves to enhance Cockpit’s
relationship with the city:

• First, breaking through the building’s solid street frontage creates a 6m-wide opening that transforms the relationship between makers and public. This intervention activates a previously hidden craft garden, providing a welcoming threshold that invites exploration.

• Second, a striking new public art piece by local artist Amber Khokhar animates the street façade, created through collaborative workshops with the local community. This vibrant mural celebrates Deptford’s craft heritage while signalling the cultural activity within, making the building a distinctive marker in the urban landscape.

New public-facing amenities including education spaces, a café, and exhibition areas create multiple points of engagement with craft practice. These spaces facilitate workshops, demonstrations, and informal interactions, fostering understanding of making processes that might otherwise remain hidden behind studio doors. The carefully designed front yard serves as both making space and gathering area, with plants selected for their relationship to craft materials and processes.

A purpose-built timber workshop provides specialist facilities for woodworking, supporting craft disciplines that require taller ceilings and specialist equipment. The project significantly expands Cockpit’s cultural capacity through 20 additional affordable studio spaces.

Throughout, the design was shaped through close collaboration between the architects, the Cockpit team and their community of 60+ makers, ensuring spaces respond precisely to cultural production needs while creating meaningful opportunities for public engagement.

The project enhances both creative output and cultural participation, creating a model for how craft centres can serve makers while enriching their neighbourhoods.