Over the last 12 months, steady progress has been made towards the realisation of an exciting new community centre in Covent Garden. As you may already know, the Holborn Old Town Hall, a Grade II listed building on High Holborn, was sold by Camden to Safeland plc with the intention of turning it into a luxury hotel and bar/restaurant. With the loss of a once popular library, the CGCA fiercely campaigned for any new commercial development to include a major community facility.

The CGCA won this campaign and a local centre is now a guaranteed part of Safeland's building plans. As a result, the CGCA has spent the last year establishing a Trust and choosing the trustees who will guide it through its first years. It is now officially called the Covent Garden Community Trust (CGCT) and we are currently setting up links with the local primary schools, the City Lit and other local educational and social groups to decide the best way to utilise the space and meet everyone's needs.

In addition, we have been endeavouring to ensure that when the facility is eventually built, it is a useable and an economic space to run. To date this has been a thankless task, as the developers' agents have not consulted the CGCT while developing their overall designs, despite their innumerable applications and revisions. Camden have given little indication of being too concerned with the various designs Safeland's agents have proposed for the future community facility.

 

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