Crunch time for the hall. CAN YOU HELP?!
These are the facts so far (you probably know them):
Camden council is planning to turn a beautiful and historic hall into two private houses to sell. However, they have said that they will cancel this plan if we can raise ONE AND A HALF MILLION POUNDS – by 31st July 2019 -in order to buy the hall from them.
‘The People’s Gospel Mission Hall’ (lately home of the ’Fresh Youth Academy’, in Winscombe Street, London N19 5DG) dates from 1892 and for over a hundred years has been a treasured community hub providing a huge variety of activities for people of all ages and abilities.
• The hall is the only theatre space for miles around.
• It has a stage, a large screen for showing films, and its exceptionally fine acoustics have been lauded by internationally renowned musicians.
• The hall was refurbished in 2015 for hundreds of thousands of pounds.
• We think it would be an appalling act of vandalism to destroy it and a deplorable waste of taxpayers' money, particularly in these times of funding cuts and rising violent crime.
• We wish to retain the hall for community use as a thriving community arts centre.
To raise the one and a half million needs a mighty concerted effort! Can you help? Here are suggestions of how you can help if you’d like to:
* We now have a Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/The-Peoples-Hall-2302710853351628/ and a Gofundme account, the link for which is:
https://www.gofundme.com/save-the-people039s-hall
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING FOR US TO DO IS TO GIVE EVERYONE WE’VE EVER KNOWN OR HEARD OF the GOFUNDME link in every way we can – social media - it's on our Facebook Page - or word of mouth - and ask them to give everyone THEY know the Gofundme link, so that as many people as possible who want to help the fundraising effort can do so. It doesn’t matter how little (or much) we give – everything will help. If we fail to raise the necessary amount all donors will have their money returned.
* If you, or anyone you know, is a generous private or corporate benefactor who will buy the hall for the community, or who will contribute to the one and a half million we need, that would be truly wonderful! Or perhaps you are an arts organisation or a charitable foundation who will do the same.
* Do you regularly shop at a particular supermarket / other outlet which you could ask to contribute funds?
* Would you like to be a cheery, enthusiastic PUB co-ordinator-person? So far two pubs - the Star pub (c/o Bertram Street and Chester Road) and Southampton Arms (c/o Wesleyan Place and Kentish Town Road) - are up for having a competition between pubs in the area to see who can raise most money for the hall. Would you like to co-ordinate this and stoke up enthusiasm in local pubs (between pints if needed)?
* Do you know, or know of, any local celebrities – philanthropists, media people, musicians, etc... who you would be prepared to ask either to be a sponsor/patron, or to contribute funds? You could speak or write to them on behalf of the ‘Save the People’s Hall Group’ using the information above and just tweaking it a bit to fit whoever you’re writing to. It might take a bit of research to find out where they live.
Apparently the following famous people live in the area. Maybe you know others: Naomi Daley; Akala; Miss Dynamite; Trevor Bannister; Alison Steadman; Benedict Cumberbatch; Ed Milliband; Sue Perkins (Boscastle Road); Steven Severin; Madness; Cara Theobald; Emma Thompson; Pierce Morgan; Tracey Chevalier; does Paco Pena live in the area? .....
Or can you:
* help in other ways with fundraising?
* or with admin jobs?
* Can you contribute computer skills – maybe you’re a young computer whizz with people skills and a reasonable command of English who can get your head round facebook/ twitter/ instagram... and perhaps would like helping a charity on your CV?
* Have you successfully applied to the lottery for funding and can you help us with that?
OPEN DAY AT THE HALL – COME AND PARTY!
We are having an EVENT in the hall on Sunday 16th June, partly so that people can enjoy the space and partly so that potential donors can see the hall if they would like to. See FLYER for this Event.
We need lots of help with this too. For example:
* We would like to have live music playing throughout the event. Are you a musician and member of a chamber music group, choir, early music group, folk group, jazz group, pop group, etc., who will donate your musical abilities to the event?
* Would you donate legwork and distribute flyers?
* Will you, and/or a bakery/foodshop you know, donate sweet or savoury things to eat?
* Angela Burdett-Coutts donated The People’s Gospel Mission/ Fresh Youth Academy Hall to the ‘people’. Are you an actor who would like to mingle among visitors to the event in the role of Angela Burdett-Coutts?
* Can you bring as many people as possible to the event?
* Can you help on the day? There’ll be a lot that needs doing (holding donation buckets, moving chairs, being there chatting, eating, etc).
If you can help in any of the above ways please email Tamar Swade <tamarswade@gmail.com> so that we can all see who’s doing what and don’t duplicate unnecessarily. Thanks everyone !!!
from Tamar, on behalf of ‘Save the People’s Hall’ group.