OUR MISSION

To be known & referenced locally as the go-to place for empathetic community support & resources. We identify & implement programmers & partnerships that empower & elevate local people every day, across generations & cultural identities. By nurturing community confidence and creating cohesion we offer a non-judgmental & inclusive place with support services & spaces. Our door, hearts & ears are always open. Every day the focus is on helping people feel better.

OUR VALUES

Community – Our centre is built on the principles of connection, belongingness, encouragement and support. We invite everyone to feel at home and a part of our family. We encourage and support people to feel well both mentally & physically, and to have enjoyment and fun in their life, despite any challenges and hardships.

Diversity – Hand in hand with our respect & celebration of every person, we welcome every background, ethnicity, ability, and gender into our centre, as we are committed to respect and inclusivity.

Equity – We act fairly, and with integrity at all times, in the way we behave towards our people and every stakeholder. We bring genuine attention & consideration to every person that comes through our door. We campaign on important issues to ensure that the needs of those who access our centre are represented in local policy and governance.

Advocacy – We aim to support and help the needs of everyone in our community, paying particular attention to those who are vulnerable. We bring an attentive, compassionate approach to our work with a high level of responsiveness and reliability.

Approachability – With a non-judgmental spirit, we offer a friendly and empathetic space where all members of our community can feel able to be themselves and supported with their individual needs.

The Hanley Crouch Community Association was set up in 1972 by local parents who needed somewhere for their children to play. The first step was to appoint a community development officer. Then came the building of an adventure playground and the purchase of a second-hand bus.

In 1976 the association took over part of a derelict laundry on Sparsholt Road. A hall was added in 1985 together with a large first-floor office, committee/training room, under-fives room and toilets. An outside garden was created in 1993.

Over the next three decades, the Laundry, as it had become known, launched a range of community activities, from playgroups to youth and after-school clubs, leisure activities for older residents, voluntary schemes, projects for young people with learning difficulties and holiday trips.

Official recognition came in 2012, when the Laundry became the first London community centre to achieve the Visible Standard award: the nationally accredited standard for community organisations.

In 2018, Hanley Crouch moved to new premises: the purpose-built Brickworks Centre on Crouch Hill. The complex, designed by the architects Brady Mallalieu, includes 23 council homes, along with spacious halls and reception area, a community nursery, rooftop garden, kitchen and cafe and went on to win an international award for building design.

The new build Brickworks project provides a new 1,000 sq.m community centre – now the largest in Islington and twenty three new homes located in Crouch Hill, North London. Our team worked closely with the community through extensive community consultation and design workshops to develop the proposals. An existing car park at the corner of the Holly Estate was used as the footprint for the new building with minimum disturbance to the residents and protecting the mature trees surrounding the site.

The 23 new one, two and three bedroom flats are arranged around two staircases with two accessible flats at ground floor. Flats are dual aspect throughout, many benefitting from corner windows with views across the leafy Holly Estate. All of the flats are designed to Lifetime Homes Standards, Islington’s Accessible Housing standard, Secured by Design and the Mayor of London’s London Housing Design Guide.

The new community centre is the amalgamation of the Hanley Crouch centre in an old laundry building and the Ivy Hall community centre in the ground floor of a two storey car park. The laundry site is now  a separate small housing scheme which has been sold to help fund the new centre and affordable housing. The design of the building by Brady Mallalieu was especially effective in creating a unique set of spaces which responded to all the feedback from the community.  The interior of the community centre is designed to be robust using naturally finished materials of brick and wood and is flexible to allow different groups to adapt and inhabit the space over time as their own to suit their needs.

A range of facilities including a sports hall, children’s centre, roof garden, offices, music recording space and residents office spaces are organised around a central ‘inhabited’ lobby. This double height space provides a focus for the community centre combining circulation areas, with links to surrounding rooms and the potential for it to host events. The centre provides support for the whole community including space for study, computer and internet access, spaces for music rehearsal and tuition.