Updates
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
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
Dear supporters, I hope you are safe and well. It has been six months since we last updated you on the progress of the project. We scheduled a meeting with Hackney Council to discuss the lease of the Old Bath House on 18 March 2020. However, the meeting was postponed due to the corona virus lockdown. Upon easing of lockdown, we have written to Hackney Council seeking to resume the discussion. As reported in the last update, Hackney Chinese Community Services is now the sole organisation delivering the project; and we invited those who wish to withdraw their pledge to write to Spacehive to process the refund. This process has now been completed, out of the 424 backers pledged £53,360, 53 withdrew their pledges and requested refund of accumulate total £4,435. The total amount of refund is 8.3% of the total budget. It does not affect the viability of the community kitchen. During lockdown, HCCS diverted all its resources to supporting the communities it serves to cope with the impact of the corona virus, making sure our vulnerable members and users are sufficiently supported with food, shelter and health/mental health. From the beginning of the outbreak, there has been a 3 fold increase in reported race crime against Chinese to the police, and a 900% increase in hate speech on Twitter directed towards China and the Chinese. East and Southeast Asian communities became the target of racial abuse and attack. There are many reports in local and national media reporting Chinese, Thai, Korean, Filipino, Singaporean, Vietnamese being shouted at or physically attacked, because of their appearance. These recent events have confirmed HCCS’s belief that the common interests and concerns amongst East and Southeast Asians communities are far greater than our differences. HCCS will redouble its efforts in establishing the Old Bath Community House as the first resource centre for East and Southeast Asian communities. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our wonderful backers who continue to demonstrate confidence with HCCS in delivering this project, HCCS looks to redouble our efforts to make our vision a reality. 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 Friends of The Community Bath House, We share with you a bumper edition of news. November and December has been a busy month for us at HCCS. Following the eviction of the squatters by Hackney council, HCCS was given one week to save materials from the building before all contents were cleared for landlord works. We greatly value the An Viet Foundation (AVF) archive which represents a unique history of Vietnamese refugees, and the thousands of books in the SE Asian library. Many of the documents from the AVF had been damaged during the squatters’ occupation. Despite this, we are thrilled to announce that the University of East London Refugees Archive is working with HCCS to preserve the archive and will be the permanent home of SE Asian library after preservation. Meanwhile, the Council has now cleared all items from the building and obtained health and safety clearance. The initial assessment found that some of the landlord works requires planning permission because the building is in a Conservation Area. In the coming period, the Council will review and finalise the schedule of work. The works will be put out for tender, and a planning application will be made in January,for the works to start once the planning is granted. We are now able to access the building with contractors to plan and prepare for the community kitchen. The Council’s landlord works only covers structural and compliance works. We still need to find funding for the interior renovation and equipping the building for community use. Following the success of the Crowdfund campaign for the kitchen, we can now demonstrate community support in our application for the London Mayor’s Good Growth Fund (GGF) for renovation on all other parts of the building. If the GGF is not successful, the community kitchen is the potential source of income generation for internal renovations. We have now submitted the Good Growth Fund application and await news of the shortlist. We are very fortunate to work with the award winning firm Architecture 00, an organisation of Chinese heritage, with vast experience in designing large scale community buildings. They are looking to re-designed the interior to preserve the historical features of the building and simultaneously retain the building’s functionality for the community. It is very exciting to see our vision drawn up for the first time! In recent months, we have developed a Potluck lunch project to bring together first and second generation entrepreneurs and foodies with expertise in East Asian cuisine to share culinary experiences. The group is regularly attended by about 25 people, sampling food from Malaysian, Singapore, Vietnamese, Chinese, Burmese, and local East/West fusion food. We are working with this group to develop the Community Kitchen programme. We have also attended a number of workshops to discuss funding opportunities with other major funders, as well as private individuals. We are in discussion South East Asian community organisations and migrant communities in Hackney further afield in developing programme and activities in the building in the future. At our centre, we are also looking towards Christmas and arranging events for all our members. We will be hosting our pot luck meet up on 7th December, and hosting our in house Christmas lunch on 11 December. We hope you will be able to attend one of our events! 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
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
