About us

St Mary’s Eltham Community Centres Association offers five community buildings, managed collectively, giving a range of rooms and halls to suit most needs from small private rooms to large halls.

 

 

Our affiliated community group members benefit from discounted hire rates.

We are an established Community hub serving Eltham. We are a registered charity and an independent company limited by guarantee.

Our constitution states our mission is:

  • To promote for the benefit of the people of the area without distinction of sex, sexual orientation, race, age, disability or of political, religious or other opinions, by associating together those people, the local authorities, voluntary and other organisations in a common effort to advance education, citizenship, community development, and social cohesion and to provide facilities for recreation, leisure and community activity with the objects of improving the conditions of life for those people.
  • To establish, or secure the establishment of, community centres and to maintain and manage these whether alone or in co-operation with any local authorities or other persons or bodies in furtherance of these objects.

We have increased community involvement and cohesion, encouraging and supporting community groups.  We have also engaged local people in educational, leisure, health and well-being, social welfare activities, and also helped to reduce loneliness and isolation.

As well as delivering on our community purpose, we also offer hall hire to businesses and the general public.  We offer:

  • Meeting rooms and halls to suit between 2 and 150 people.
  • Light catering in St Mary's Community Centre Eltham, High Street, from tea and coffee to buffets at very affordable prices.
  • Facilities offered for own catering arrangements.
  • Audio and other equipment hire for use on our premises.

St Mary's Eltham Community Centres Association is run by a Board of Directors and Trustees, elected annually from amongst its affiliated groups and individual members.

Our History at St Mary's in Eltham

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St Mary’s Community Centre, together with the arcade behind it, takes their name from St Mary’s Primary School, the previous occupant.  

The building has not always been known by that name although it seems a house has stood on the site for hundreds of years.  In 1837 it was owned by William Stace and he let it to William Henry Goschen and his family (recorded in the census returns of 1841 and 1851) but by 1853 the house is recorded as empty.

The Goschen family were again residing in Eltham from 1859 to 1863 and William’s son George became MP for the City of London and later First Lord of the Admiralty and Chancellor of the Exchequer.  In 1900 he became Viscount Goschen of Hawkhurst.

By 1861 a William Knightly was using the house as a private school for young gentlemen.  In 1870 the house, now known as Torrington Lodge, was bought by Father Cotter of Woolwich to start a revival of the Roman Catholic faith in Eltham. 

The Sisters of Mercy opened an industrial school for girls at the Lodge and a poor school next door but by 1887 they needed larger premises and moved to Croydon.

By 1888 the Bishop of Southwark bought the property and Father Martin started a Poor Law School for Catholic workhouse boys and this brought the return of the Sisters of Mercy to Eltham.  

The next wave of reorganization saw the Poor Law School move to Mottingham and St Mary’s Convent, by which name the house was now known, was converted into a hospital orphanage for Catholic children.

By the mid-1920s there were plans to convert the building into a Catholic day school, at a cost of £6,000.  St Mary’s School opened on 17th April 1928 and was administered by the London County Council.  Opening with 186 children, new space was bought with the roll increasing to 449 by 1934.

During World War II St Mary’s was requisitioned by the Civil Defence and housed the Eltham Rescue Service and the school did not return until the war had ended.  St Mary’s School began catering exclusively for the 5-11 age range when St Thomas More Secondary School opened in Footscray Road in 1964.

In 1984 the school moved to larger premises in Glenure Road, Eltham leaving a site of considerable size with St Mary’s Convent, by this time a listed building, as the Eltham High Street frontage.

THE COMMUNITY CENTRE PROJECT

In 1983, a number of local residents, tenants associations, and grant-aided groups came together to discuss the provision of community facilities in the south of the borough.

The South Greenwich Forum met monthly for discussion and the exchange of ideas and membership quickly expanded.  Within a year the Forum was acting as an umbrella organisation of nearly 50 voluntary and community groups and agencies.

A need for a focal point in central Eltham arose from the experience of the local community itself which first saw the potential of St Mary's Convent as a community centre. So when the St Mary's School site became available for redevelopment, at the planning stage, the South Greenwich Forum successfully opposed office development in favor of full community use.

South Greenwich Forum acted as the initial mover for the project and from that first idea there grew a partnership between the local community, the local authority, and the developer - Sainsbury’s. Development work started on the restoration of the listed building in 1986.

St Mary's was sympathetically restored to its former glory. Services were installed, one of the ground floor rooms being converted to provide toilets and space for a kitchen. A lift was installed to provide first-floor access for people with disabilities with a new rear entrance with an extensive ramp added to give the building wheelchair access.

The partnership between Sainsbury's and the Council resulted in the lease of the building on a 60-year peppercorn rent to the London Borough of Greenwich. Elegant though the building was it could not be used until it had been fitted out. Starting in 1987 the South Greenwich Forum met regularly with Council officers to put forward proposals for the best use of the building. The Council was able to find basic revenue funding and the Forum undertook to raise the capital which was initially £20,000 and eventually rose to over £30,000.

The Forum had to look beyond its own member groups and the partnership widened. Trusts, both national and local, plus other organizations were approached and the many that generously responded are shown in the fuller history of the building available on request from St Mary's office.

The necessary fitting-out work was extensive and again the partnership extended further with considerable help from the Council's Building and Design Officer. The kitchen was fitted out, one upstairs room was converted into two confidential advice rooms, and another converted for media resources (duplicator, electric stencil cutter, photocopier, and Kroy lettering machine). Downstairs, the main double room required some alteration and also needed a floor. A no longer used floor from Plumstead Baths was recycled to provide a wooden floor that was in keeping with the building. Every effort was made to maintain the standard of restoration begun by Sainsbury's in conjunction with English Heritage.

The Community Centre was initially managed by Greenwich Council but budget restraints forced the Council to re-think its ability to fund community centres fully.On 1st April 1993, following negotiations with the local community, management responsibility for St Mary's and four local community halls was devolved to a voluntary management committee, elected from community user groups and interested individuals.

In June 1999 St Mary’s became a company limited by guarantee and in September 1999 it received approval as a charity from the Charity Commission.

The new organisation was St Mary’s (Eltham) Community Complex Association.  In October 2017 it was renamed St Mary’s Eltham Community Centres Association.  The Royal Borough of Greenwich continues to give support in the form of a contribution towards the running costs.  They also maintain the external fabric and the heating of the buildings.  The remaining funding required to run all five buildings comes from the community and private hires.

The board of trustees and directors is made up of elected community user group members and other interested local people, to ensure that those who regularly use the community buildings can take an active role in how they are managed.