For 30 years, Hornsey Vale Community Centre has been a vital and vibrant resource for the surrounding community. On Sept. 26, the centre hosted a special lunch and family day to celebrate its birthday. The event also served to launch a project aimed to preserve its heritage with oral history and archive work, leading to an exhibition in the spring. The project has been generously supported by a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Around 50 supporters of the community centre attended the lunch, a delicious meal cooked by chefs Kally Chaggar (main), Clare Heal (dessert) and Anna Maria Raco (cakes). Attendees included the Mayor of Haringey, Councillor Adam Jogee, who grew up near the centre, and recalled memories of looking out of his window at the building in anticipation of the football practice he would attend at the gym. Jogee was on hand to cut a cake crafted for the event by Dunn’s Bakery.
“This is genuinely a place I feel a real connection to,” he said. “It’s been a very difficult 18 months for the community, and the fact that we’re all together today is a testament to both the community spirit, and the effort and contribution of so many people in our community.”
The event was followed by a family day in which visitors could take part in a toddler yoga session, watch a circus performance (and try their hand at some tricks), participate in a treasure hunt, tuck in to a slice of cake at the low cost sustainable cafe, and dance to music from 1991, the year the centre was “born.” Children also participated in craft activities, and attendees were invited to share their thoughts on what the centre has meant for them, and their vision for its future.
Special thanks, and a gift of a bouquet of flowers, were given to Ursula Bury and Pien Maltz Klaar for their many years of service to the community.
If you are interested in sharing your thoughts about the centre’s impact, or contributing to the oral history and archive project, please email Emma Watson at info@hornseyvale.org.