Quick progress being made on our Guides Hall. Left to right: Heng Khoo (Operations Manager, Coram’s Fields); Tim Cross (Contracts Manager, D Hammond Refurbishment); Gerry Goonan (Managing Director, D Hammond Refurbishment).
Visitors to the park may well have noticed the fencing off of our Guides Hall in recent weeks. We are thrilled to announce this is part of a thorough refurbishment programme being carried out on this vital community resource. The refurbishment is possible thanks to an incredible grant of £75,000 awarded by the HS2 Community and Environment Fund.
Named after its historical connection with the local Holborn Guides and Brownies, the hall is used weekly by both these groups, as well as Holborn Beavers, Cubs and Scouts. At weekends, the Guides Hall is frequently booked out for children’s parties and other events. Crucial in helping fund our services for young people, these hires also give local families and community groups the opportunity to host their event in a space with unique access to our seven-acre children’s park. We are therefore hugely excited to be undertaking a full refurbishment of this valuable community space.
Reopening in the beginning of February 2022, our fully refurbished Guides Hall will boast new flooring, paintwork, kitchen and appliances. Moreover, in our continued efforts to improve Coram’s Fields’ green credentials, we are installing new lighting and night-storage heaters that will be both more effective and, crucially, more energy-efficient than those currently in place. Beyond the Guides Hall itself, we are also fully refurbishing both the toilets and corridor shared by the Guides and Band Halls. As such, these wide-ranging improvements will be felt by users of both halls, including our Out of School Club service which runs out of the Band Hall.
We were delighted to secure the grant of £75,000 from the HS2 Community and Environment Fund after our application for the Guides Hall project. The Fund has been created by HS2 to add benefit to communities along the route that are demonstrably disrupted by the construction of Phase One of HS2 from London to West Midlands. The administration of these funds is managed on behalf of HS2 Ltd by a community charity, Groundwork. Thank you to HS2 and to Groundwork for your transformational support of our project.
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hank you so much also to the 40 wonderful community members who took our survey about their use of the Guides Hall, your feedback earlier this year was invaluable for our application.
We are currently taking bookings for our Guides Hall once it reopens in the beginning of February. For more information, visit our Hall Hire webpage here or get in touch on info@coramsfields.org.uk.
