I expect many people are aware of the ongoing battle to secure the future of the wonderful 1930s Hornsey Town Hall in Crouch End. The Hornsey Town Hall Appreciation Society has been set up in order to ensure community use and access to the town hall and green in the long term.
Many arts and community groups from Crouch End and beyond have come together to agree a vision for the future of the town hall. This will be refined in partnership with developers who will be bidding for the opportunity to develop the site and the land to the rear in the coming months. Findings from the consultation carried out by Hornsey Town Hall Creative Trust earlier in the year are providing essential guidance for this process. After talking to hundreds of people, the main uses that people wanted to see are:
• Creative arts use
• Community facility
• Educational opportunities
• Business space
A petition has been started to demonstrate the strength of feeling for community ownership of the town hall and green. To date, it has been signed by over 2000 people, showing that there is a very high degree of local and wider support for the town hall and green to come in to community ownership in order to safeguard community use and access in the long term.
And mention must be made of Hornsey Town Hall Arts Centre, which has demonstrated all that is possible in the town hall, from theatre to markets, weddings to silent discos, kids’ art workshops to micro-business incubator space, community meetings to dance classes.
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