The Duke of Gloucester ‘dropped in’ to Hope Corner Community Centre in Mays Lane as part of his visit to Chipping Barnet yesterday (Wednesday, May 10, 2017).
His Royal Highness met staff, trustees and volunteers of the centre, which provides relief in need drop-in services to the community, and attended a brief session of Tea & Tech, an activity that empowers more senior and less technically-able members of the community to learn basic computer skills. This project Hope Corner runs in partnership with Barnet Rotary Club, assisted by Linx Networking, a local business network group that the charity is a member of.
Members of the Dollis Valley Regeneration Partnership Board were also on hand to explain to the Duke, himself an architect, the merits of the new housing that is being built on the estate as part of the eight-year regeneration project.
His Royal Highness commented that it was “good to see a project that not only improved the architectural level of housing in the area but which enabled the community to stay together as neighbours throughout the process with the facility of the community centre.”
Over an informal lunch, the Duke met some of the community groups that use the centre, including Hope Corner Homework Club (which runs three afternoons a week for Y6 and secondary school children), Fixation Theatre (a children’s theatre group), Breast Feeding Support Group and Community Space (a day service offering support for adults with a wide range of learning disabilities), together with local clergy and residents, who use the community café and the centre as a drop-in.
Finally, he unveiled a plaque to commemorate his visit to the new centre.
