In March 1936 the Goldsmiths Company stated that ‘Little has hitherto been done in the way of meeting the need of buildings in which beneficial social activities can take place. On new estates there are no old buildings’.

The Goldsmiths Company recommended that the sum of £12000 be offered to the London Council of Social Service, who engaged the architect Granville Streatfeild, and that the local authority met the salary of a warden at £450 per annum.

In early 1937 discussions incorporated a nursery and health centre (maternity and child welfare clinic) and a school treatment centre was proposed for minor ailments, dental and vision treatments. Four rooms were to be set aside for this purpose. Later that year it was proposed to incorporate a nursery school and evening institute. The Goldsmiths Company gave a grant of £200 for a Warden of the centre to live on the estate for 2 years and by October a site had been identified on the corner of an open space of 15 acres at Whitefoot Lane.

Miss Albery, a social worker who worked for the London Council of Social Service and lived in Longhill Road, helped with the formation of the Community Association. About 2 dozen families had moved in to the new estate by November 1937. While the centre was being built the Association rented 103 Boundfield Road (now a GP surgery and formerly the tenants’ office) for their meetings. The Association was called the North Downham and Hither Green Community Association until 1972, when the name was changed to reflect the name of the centre.

The trust deed and lease, granted to the community association for 99 years, were based on the model of the Watling Community Centre, in Burnt Oak, north London, and stated that the ‘building to be erected on the site shall be used mainly for the purpose of providing social amenities. Lessees to the best of their ability shall arrange for suitable accommodation to be available on reasonable terms for the use of approved organisations connected with the estate. The lease shall contain the usual covenant prohibiting the sale and consumption on the premises of excisable liquor’.

When the plans were drawn up the centre was designed to house a concert hall, nursery, a maternity and child welfare clinic, a gymnasium and separate wings for adults and juveniles with individual rooms for games and committee meetings. Each wing had its own canteen. The concert hall and gymnasium were equipped with sprung floors. It cost £14,441 to build; the Goldsmiths Company gave £13,500 and the Physical Training Council £2000.

Work on the centre began in April 1938 and at its official opening on 16th May 1939 there were Gymnastic, Goldsmiths Community Wrestling Club and Ju-Jitsu Displays and on August Bank Holiday 1939 the first annual flower and vegetable show was held. The amateur dramatic society was formed in the autumn of 1939. In 1940 the open space was converted to allotments and in 1945 the pre-fab estate was constructed. Read more...