Hackney Council press release: Investment agreed for new East and South-East Asian Community Centre A much-loved building which for more than 30 years was used to support Vietnamese families in Hackney is to be refurbished for use as a new East and South-East Asian (ESEA) Community Centre, after Council investment was agreed to bring it back into use. Vacant for the last few years, the building in De Beauvoir was at the heart of one of the UK’s largest and most-valued Vietnamese communities for generations, but had become underused and fallen into a state of disrepair. The Council approached Hackney Chinese Community Services in 2017 with a proposal to provide a community centre in the building, which would include use by the former occupier An Viet and develop and sustain its long-standing history and legacy, as well as support other local residents. A joint investment of £1.4 million has been agreed to safeguard and refurbish the building to an acceptable standard, with the Council helping HCCS secure Greater London Authority ‘Good Growth’ funding of more than £450,000 towards the project, alongside £950,000 direct investment from the Council. Services provided will include helping those from Hong Kong achieve ‘British National Overseas’ Visa status - as well as offering training, education, advocacy and advice, migrant support, health and wellbeing help and arts, culture and social activities. HCCS has appointed Hackney Central-based practice 00 Architecture to develop proposals for the project. From 1981 to 2017, the building was occupied by An Viet Foundation (AVF), which was set up in Hackney to support Vietnamese settlement in London after the Second Indochina War. It offered these families support with housing, health outreach, English language, and mother-tongue classes, as well as a well-known community led restaurant. "Hackney is a place where diversity is celebrated, so it is with pride that we announce this investment for a new community centre, which will provide a vital facility for an estimated 8,000 people living here who were born in East and South-East Asian countries. The An-Viet Foundation was integral to the Vietnamese community and other ethnic minority groups for decades and it is fantastic that HCCS will continue this legacy. Unfortunately, the pandemic has seen an unacceptable rise in hate crime targeted towards people from the diverse Asian communities who call Hackney their home. Chinese people have been living in Britain for over 160 years and Hackney was one of the first settlements. Hackney’s Vietnamese community are such an important part of what makes the borough so special, and anyone who has visited Kingsland Road will have experienced the incredible cultural and culinary contribution this brings to the borough - which is not just celebrated in Hackney but attracts people from much further afield. These communities have brought so much to the borough in terms of enriching our heritage, culture, business and civic life, and I hope this restoration will help repay their contribution to Hackney and help meet their aspirations for the future, starting an exciting new chapter for all the organisations involved. Without this intervention from the Council, treasured memories, including mine, risk being lost and the building would deteriorate further and likely remain empty for the foreseeable future, resulting in a great loss for the community." Mayor of Hackney, Philip Glanville “We are thankful and encouraged by the Mayor of Hackney and the Cabinet for their investment into this historical building, enabling the establishment of the UK’s first East and South-East Asian resource centre. The building witnessed the Vietnamese ‘boat people’ transition from being a new refugee community to becoming a settled community making social, cultural, and economic contributions in Hackney and beyond. Hackney Chinese Community Services is currently in the process of rebranding to prepare for the move to the renewed building. The resource centre will be a space for people of ESEA heritage to meet, work, relax, learn, and seek advice and support. This centre will be welcoming anyone who wishes to learn about ESEA life in the UK and meet ESEA people in the UK. We look forward with high spirits and promise for more opportunities for ESEA people to flourish in the UK at the renewed building." Jabez Lam, Centre Manager and Lead for The Old Bath House development at Hackney Chinese Community Services

Hackney Council press release "Investment agreed for new East and South-East Asian Community Centre": https://news.hackney.gov.uk/investment-agreed-for-new-east-and-south-east-asian-community-centre/

Dear Supporters, I hope this finds you well. It has been another 11 months since my last update on this project. At the time of this crowdfunding effort for the East Asian and Southeast Asian (ESEA) community kitchen, Hackney Council approved a budget of £400,000 towards the costs of landlord works. In December 2020 Hackney Council conducted a fresh survey and evaluation of the landlord works, the estimated cost for the landlord works increased to £950,000. The ESEA community kitchen is just one element of the vision of the first ESEA community resource centre at the Old Bath Community House. work will start after the Council Landlord works are completed. The Mayor of London extended the deadline to the end of March 2022 for his crowdfund pledge of £35,000 to this project. Last year, HCCS worked with Hackney Council, Greater London Authority, and others to find additional funding to progress the project. I am pleased to inform you that HCCS has now secured £400,000 from the GLA Good Growth Fund (GGF) to invest on the interior of the Old Bath House. With the confirmation of the GGF investment, Hackney Council approved to meet the full cost of the building’s landlord works. The project is now moving to the phase of inviting contractors for the landlord works, which will start this winter when the contractor is commissioned. It is estimated that this will last 12 to 16 weeks. We are hopeful that works for the ESEA community kitchen can be complete by end of this financial year. The GGF works on the interior of the building will follow upon completion of the landlord works. The generous responses and pledges from you to this ESEA kitchen put the Old Bath Community House in the public domain. Your support to this project set us on the path to establish the first ESEA community resource centre at the Old Bath Community House. I will continue to update you on this in the coming months as the works commence and progress. Thank you very much for your patience and your continued support. Best regards, Jabez Lam Project Delivery Manager for The Old Bath Community House

Dear Supporters, I hope that you and your family are keeping well and safe during this second lockdown. I would like to take this opportunity to provide an update to you. At present, HCCS and Hackney Council are working together to finalise the work schedule for the structural renovation and safety compliance of the Old Bath Community House. The proposed work is as follows: Exterior - To restore and preserve many original features, demolish unstable structures, repair, renew or replace the damaged roof, glaze panels, ensure wind and water tightness, and install security measures. Interior - To restore much of the original layout of the building, install fire doors, install health and safety-compliant windows and doors, remove partition walls to widen the community area. Rear garden - To level the ground, demolish the boiler house, stabilise the plant building and the original boiler house chimney, and remove debris. Three original baths to be repaired and used as flower beds for garden projects. Kitchen - To remove old fixtures and fitting, create fire-safe structure and doors, leaving an empty and safe space for the Community Kitchen project to install equipment and appliances. Hackney Council projects this work to be completed by June 2021. After completion, HCCS will commence work on the Community Kitchen. It has been a long journey since your pledge to this project, I will continue to update you in the coming months. Thank you for your continued patience. Regards Jabez Lam Project Delivery Manager for The Old Bath Community House

Hi, As a backer of the Old Bath Community House crowdfund project, we are writing to let you know about some important changes. The project is still progressing to deliver a community kitchen that is open to all, but the nature of the partnership managing the project has changed. Originally, a partnership between Hackney Chinese Community Services (HCCS) and Bahay Kubo Housing Association (BKHA), the lead organisation in the Kanlungan Filipino Consortium, was proposed to deliver the project. Following the project successfully reaching its crowdfunding target, the nature of the relationship between the two organisations has changed and this partnership is no longer active. Hackney Chinese Community Services will now act as the sole lead project delivery partner. The community kitchen project to be delivered remains substantively unchanged. The project will still deliver a community kitchen space which is open to all project supporters and wider community members to use and visit. The Mayor of London’s pledge remains unaffected. If you are happy to continue to support this project, you do not need to take any action. If your willingness to support the project is affected by the changes described above, this update serves to give you the opportunity to withdraw your existing pledge. Spacehive have agreed to manage any refund requests, so if you would like to withdraw your existing pledge, please fill in this form (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdUo8x9z-b-YENRzeFRZgV3RgA-QqR44u_Ttrc4ugY8EAE95Q/viewform?usp=sf_link) by 5pm on Wed 19th February 2020 to make this request. Refund requests received after this date cannot be processed. If you have any questions about the refund process, please contact [email protected]. Regards, Jabez Lam, Project Delivery Manager for The Old Bath Community House.

Dear Backers, Thank you for your pledges in helping us reach our Crowdfund London target for our new community kitchen. We wanted to update you with our news, as a lot has happened since we reached the target. We have now completed the project’s administrative matters with GLA. You may have noticed that GoCardless started collecting your pledges in the last couple of weeks. The Old Bath Community House had been squatted since the beginning of April this year and the Council finally took control of the building at the end of September. In the next few weeks, they will dispose of all items in the building to enable the contractors to begin work. A new survey will be conducted to prepare for a new schedule of works, as the squatters caused extensive damage, which is likely to increase costs. The Council aims to start works at the site this month, and is estimated to take about 20 weeks. We will start work on the kitchen once this work is complete. The building had housed the An Viet Foundations filings and records and a post graduation resource library on South East Asia. It contained an archive and historical records of the Vietnamese refugees arriving to Hackney in the 1980’s. Most unfortunately, the squatters threw most of these unique documents onto the roof and several of them are soaked and destroyed. Volunteers have tirelessly helped us to retrieve this irreplaceable archive from the roof, and they have also helped us box and remove the An Viet Foundation library of books for storage. We have now sought support from the University of East London to restore these precious documents. We hope to save some or most of them, and we will update you in the coming weeks on our progress. If you would like further regular updates from us, please follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/hackneychinese Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HackneyChineseCommunityServices/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hackneychinese/ Website: www.hackneychinese.org.uk Regards Jabez Lam