IT MAY be known for its wheeler-dealers and high crime rate, but Peckham has been named as the country’s most vibrant cultural “hotspot” by a panel of arts critics.

Del Boy Trotter — who in Only Fools and Horses sought to glamorise that corner of southeast London by writing “New York, Paris, Peckham” on the side of his Reliant van — was vindicated yesterday when the area was named above Glasgow city centre and Brighton in a top 20 of creative hubs.

The area’s proximity to Goldsmiths College and Camberwell College of Arts and its low rents have created a thriving arts community in Peckham. Zandra Rhodes’s fashion museum is in nearby Bermondsey, and residents include Antony Gormley, the sculptor best known for Angel of the North.

It also hosts an award- winning public library, designed by Will Alsop, that is so successful that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has urged other libraries to “Lend it like Peckham”.

The list, commissioned by The Fish Can Sing agency, was compiled by arts experts such as Ekow Eshun, head of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, and Richard Benson, former editor of the Face magazine.

The panel awarded second place to Glasgow city centre, which schooled two of this year’s Turner Prize nominees, and third place to Totnes. The Devon town was nominated for its independent surfer clothing companies, organic textiles and guitar-making school.

The artist Tracey Emin helped the City of London fringe — which covers Spitalfields, Whitechapel and Brick Lane — to win fourth place. The Rich Mix Building, a culture centre, will open shortly, joining attractions such as the Whitechapel Gallery.

Hebden Bridge, the West Yorkshire birthplace of Ted Hughes, was also praised as an unrecognised creative hotspot, at No 5, ahead of Huddersfield, home of the poet Simon Armitage.

Other places to watch included Newport on the Isle of Wight at No 7, and Anstruther in Fife, recognised for its musical influence over artists.

Banksy, the graffiti artist who sprayed subversive images on Israel’s controversial security wall in the West Bank in July, was named as a local hero for the rundown St Pauls area of Bristol. St Pauls has also fostered the talents of Roni Size and Massive Attack.

Hay-on-Wye, an easygoing town in Powys, was placed at No 14 because of its celebrated literary and folk festivals.

The full results will be published in CreativeWorld, a book that suggests where the established creative areas will be in the next ten years.

Dan Holliday, of The Fish Can Sing, said that Peckham had so far managed to avoid copying self-consciously trendy areas such as Hoxton. “Peckham is cheaper than anywhere else so close to the centre of London and it has yet to become pretentiously fashionable, possibly because it still suffers from the Trotter effect of the sitcom,” Mr Holliday said.

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