The Shop of Possibilities is the SLG’s social space for play for local residents in a former retail outlet on the neighbouring Sceaux Gardens housing estate. This newly renovated space was designed in collaboration with Febrik, a collaborative platform for participatory art and design research, and opened in May 2012.

Originally invited in 2010 by the South London Gallery to undertake a Making Play residency in a smaller shop unit on the Sceaux Gardens estate, Febrik worked with resident children to create The Shop of Possibilities in a much larger neighbouring unit. It serves as a free afterschool and weekend play space for children and families on a number of local housing estates, with a focus on bringing together children’s play and contemporary art practices. 

Febrik's interest in how abandoned objects can be transformed into play items has been carried through from the Palestinian refugee camps to the Sceaux Gardens estate, where they have worked with children to design The Shop of Possibilities, which includes an evolving interactive wall of play items made from recycled objects. As objects are donated or collected, their stories become part of the growing archive of play, giving new meaning and function to the objects.

The Shop of Possibilities is open on Saturdays from 2-4pm and, during term time, from 3.30-5.30pm on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

On Sundays, The Shop of Possibilities becomes a mobile unit which travels from Sceaux Gardens to the four other neighbouring estates: Pelican, Southampton Way, Elmington, and Wyndham and Comber.

Read about Febrik exhibition in the first floor galleries, entitledPlay, I Follow You, 17 May - 22 July 2012.

For more information please contact lauren@southlondongallery.org

Read The Shop of Possibilities blog

The Shop of Possibilities is funded by the National Lottery through the Big Lottery Fund, and forms part of SLG Local.