News & updates

Hyde Housing circulated a letter to all residents at the end of July saying that they are planning to redevelop the Community Centre and Oval Arts Depot site. The letter said that they plan to demolish and then rebuild the Centre and Depot buildings, and to build new flats on the site. This letter can be seen below.

Many residents will remember that Hyde made similar proposals nearly a decade ago. When those plans fell through, Hyde handed management of the Centre over to volunteers from the Tenants’ & Residents’ Association and supported us in forming a charitable Community Benefit Society to run it democratically. Despite having to close during Covid-19 lockdowns, the Community Centre has flourished. It is financially viable, and provides space for many groups, including a drama school and historical fencers, faith groups, a youth club, several after-school clubs, Zumba exercise for older people, and a venue for residents and our neighbours to hold parties, meetings, and social events. With grant funding from Lambeth Council and in partnership with Simply Smiley, we host highly popular school holiday fun and food projects for our kids. Last winter we opened our doors as a warm hub offering a free hot lunch on Mondays – and we plan to do the same this winter.

With Hyde’s blessing, Shannon and her team took over the derelict building fronting Harleyford Street during the first lockdown, renovated the building, and turned it into a highly successful arts venue, putting on events at Christmas and during test matches, and providing space for rehearsals and other activities. She has created a ‘secret garden’ in the heart of the inner city. The Arts Depot and the Community Centre work closely together, using both buildings and courtyards for several of our children’s activities; and we have told Hyde that the whole site should be considered as one.

We believe it’s important that Estate residents and users of the Centre and the Arts Depot have an early say on Hyde’s proposals. We recognise that their plans are at an early stage but that is all the more reason for our voices to be heard.

Our plans for organising a residents’ meeting in early September have had to be put on hold due to technical problems but we aim to hold it within the next few weeks. Watch this space!

KPCC will again partner with Simply Smiley and Lambeth Council to provide the scheme, which will run for four weeks from 31 July to 24 August, Monday to Thursday, 10am to 4pm, for children aged between 4 to 14.

As well as a fabulous programme of fun and creative activities, we are providing a healthy hot lunch cooked on site and fruit and snacks throughout the day.

Activities include:

⭐ Arts and crafts ⭐ Drumming ⭐ Sport ⭐ Yoga

⭐ Adventure play ⭐ Dance party

Registration will open shortly.

Come along to our warm winter welcome sessions on Mondays, 12.30pm – 2.30pm! You can drop in anytime during these hours.

Lola’s Menu

Monday 6 March – Chicken and chips

Monday 13 March – Soup

Monday 20 March – Tofu stir fry and rice noodles

Monday 27 March – Jollof rice, jerk chicken and sweetcorn

Activities with Dominique and Kelly

Monday 6 March – Quiz

Monday 13 March – Spanish

Monday 20 March – Bingo

Monday 27 March – Cooking

Please note Monday 27 March is the last session. We hope to see you there!

Click here to register: bitly/kpcc-spring-2023

Come along to our warm winter welcome sessions !

Lola’s Menu

Week 1 Chicken, chips & veg

Week 2 Jollof rice, bbq chicken & plantain

Week 3 Soup & sides

Week 4 Vegetable pasta

Week 5 Fish & Rice

Week 6 Sandwich selection (cheese/ tuna & sweet corn/ falafel mix) & Pastries (sausage rolls, cheese rolls)

Just one of the above will be cooked each week.

Workshops with Dominique and Kelly

You get to choose which you want to do when! If it’s something which needs equipment or a tutor, email us in advance and we’ll see what we can do and when we can do it.

• Stretch
• Meditation
• Cooking
• Art
• Mosaic
• Cupcake decorating
• Drawing
• Knitting/crochet
• Cinema

Invitation to Registered Shareholding Members of
Kennington Park Community Centre Community Benefit Society
to the 2022 Annual General Meeting of the Society
to be held at 1900 on 22 September 2022

Dear Member,

As a Registered Member of the Society, you are invited to join us for the 2022 Annual General Meeting.

The meeting will be held online and you can register in advance to attend the meeting here:

https://bit.ly/3e8D6X5

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

We look forward to welcoming you to the meeting on 22 September 2022.  Apologies for absence can be sent to kpcc.cbs@gmail.com.

Best wishes,

Marilyn Evers
on behalf of KPCC Community Benefit Society

The KPCC Spring Fun and Food Scheme is now full. You can join the waiting list by emailing kpccsummer@gmail.com.

Alternatively, you can find details of all the hubs taking part in Lambeth’s Summer of Food and Food 2022 here: Holiday Activities | Lambeth Council.

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KPCC will again partner with Simply Smiley and Lambeth Council to provide the scheme, which will run for five weeks from 25 July to 25 August, Monday to Thursday, 10am to 4pm, for children aged between 4 to 14.

As well as a fabulous programme of fun and creative activities, we are providing a healthy hot lunch cooked on site and fruit and snacks throughout the day.

Activities include:

⭐ Growing and Eating Healthy Plants⭐ Yoga ⭐ Hula Hooping

⭐ Dance ⭐ Drama ⭐ Games ⭐ Free Play ⭐ Nerf Wars

This year we also have a couple of really great projects: our drama project: Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and our living wall project.

KPCC is delighted to announce that our Summer of Fun and Food for local residents is back by popular demand for 2022!

KPCC will again partner with Simply Smiley and Lambeth Council to provide the scheme, which will run for five weeks from 25 July to 25 August, Monday to Thursday, 10am to 4pm, for children aged between 4 to 14.

We are planning activities to include growing and eating healthy plants, yoga, hula hooping, dance, drama, games and free play. New for this year will be Nerf wars, our drama project: Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and our living wall project.

Please bear with us while we finalise the details.

Applications are not yet open but if you would like to join our waiting list, please email us at kpccsummer@gmail.com.

Hosted by KPCC Oval and Simply Smiley Productions
Funded by London Borough of Lambeth

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The Winter Food and Fun Scheme is now full.

To join the waiting list, please email kpccsummer@gmail.com. We will let you know if spaces become available.

Our winter scheme will run from Monday 20 December to Thursday 23 December, 2021.

As well as a fabulous programme of fun and creative activities, we are providing a healthy hot lunch cooked on site. and fruit and snacks throughout the day.

Activities include:

⭐ Karate ⭐ Arts & Crafts ⭐ Drama ⭐ Music ⭐ Dance

⭐ Games & Free Play ⭐ Storytelling ⭐ Singing 

The summer scheme is for children aged between 4 and 14 years and will run four days a week, Monday to Thursday, from 10am to 4pm.

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Kennington Park Community Centre Community Benefit Society was delighted to be able to help the kids in the area with an online project to keep the kids active and entertained during the lockdown.

KPCC Hoop Hop Troop, was a Saturday morning class teaching the kids to hula hoop, culminating in a routine put together by the kids and made into a professional film once lockdown eased.

Local performance artists Theo Alade and Charlene the Hoola Queen provided the lessons and the fun.

https://youtu.be/Ps6bQoFl24Y

The KPCC HOOP HOP TROOP was a project delivered by the Kennington Park Community Centre and Simply Smiley Productions. It was funded by the National Lottery Community Fund distributed by Power to Change.

Invitation to Registered Shareholding Members of Kennington Park Community Centre Community Benefit Society to the Annual General Meeting of the Society to be held at 1900 on 23 September 2021.

Dear Member,

As a Registered Member of the Society, you are invited to join us for the 2021 Annual General Meeting.

The meeting will be held online and you can register in advance to attend the meeting here:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0kfuGrqjooGtX4TN1obgghd4GSitgQZ95o

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

We look forward to welcoming you to the meeting.

Best wishes,

Marilyn Evers
on behalf of KPCC Community Benefit Society

Kennington Park Community Centre is now partly open for some of our regular users. Depending on Government guidelines, we will be accepting bookings for parties and social events in August and September. They will be restricted to Saturday afternoons, 2pm to 6pm, and capacity will be limited to 30 indoors plus 20 outside. Enquiries via our contact form

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Simply Smiley Productions new office is Oval Arts Depot which is a fantastic new space for creatives! From a building that was left derelict for 10 years Shannon and her team have transformed this space into a vibrant, artist workspace with everything you need for meetings, shoots, events, virtual office, a space to practice in and much more … including a piano!

Pumping life, creativity, music, art and entertainment into the Oval community! Just over the road from Oval Tube Station!

In celebration of this incredible achievement during this hard time of Covid 19 and when many buildings are being torn down and turned into flats everywhere you go we have some amazing events going on!

Click here to find out more!

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We have risk assessed what we need to do to reopen the Community Centre so that it is as safe as possible for our visitors, staff and volunteers during this hazardous time.

We will be opening on Monday 27 July and then every Monday and Tuesday from 10am to 4pm until 25 August to provide a free hot dinner, healthy snacks and oodles of fun for local children aged 4 to 14.

Shannon and her Simply Smiley Productions team have put on activities at KPCC Oval for the past couple of summers and, depending on government guidance and the weather, will again be running arts and craft, dance, singing, drama games, hula hooping, planting, yoga and capoeira workshops.

This programme is part of Lambeth & Southwark’s Summer of Food and Fun, which is being organised by Kitchen Social with the support of the Mayor’s Fund for London, Lambeth and Southwark Councils to keep our kids fed and active during the school summer holidays.

If you would like more information, including a registration form, please write to kpccsummer@gmail.com. If you would like to donate to fund more activities our crowdfunding page is waiting for a visit at https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/free-summer-food-and-fun

In September we aim to open on three days a week for the All In Actors drama school https://www.allinactors.com/; and shortly thereafter to welcome back our Youth Club and other activities run by Active Communities Network.

We hope to be able to then welcome our regular user groups back to KPCC Oval during the autumn but at the moment we cannot say when.

Until we can be sure that everyone will be safe, we are not yet taking bookings for parties, social events, sporting activities or conferences, or from groups whose attendees are likely to be from those in our community more vulnerable to Covid-19.

Thank you for your support – we look forward to welcoming everyone back soon!

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We are raising money for local children to attend a summer scheme providing much needed food and activities.

Please visit out Crowdfunder page for more information and encourage your friends and colleagues to donate as well!

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