Over the past months, visitors to the Pastures or the Recreation Ground will have seen the progress being made on the new Community Centre.
The builders, Snowdon Homes, are progressing well and are delivering a fantastic quality product for the community of Stondon. They have completed the structure and roofing and are now well into the internal fit out of the building.
The new Centre is expected to be completed early in 2025 and open for hire around Easter, allowing private hires and community groups to flourish in the new, larger centre.
When complete, the new Centre will provide a new home to the community groups and private hires that previously used the Village Hall on Hillside Road, allowing Stompers to become the sole tenants and expand their Pre-School facilities and offerings.
The new Centre will continue to provide the changing facilities that were encompassed within the old pavilion, allowing various sports groups to use the refurbished sports pitches.
In addition to maintaining the changing provision, the centre will have double the indoor hall space previously available at the old Village Hall. This larger space will have a movable partition which will allow the large hall to be dividable into two smaller areas, each roughly equivalent to the old hall. The hall will be able to accommodate all-seated shows and events up to 150 persons or tabled events up to 100 persons.
A commercial kitchen is provided, which is linked into the hall via a servery and has been designed to facilitate small parties up to large community or celebration events.
A bar / café area is provided, which is linked to both the main hall and function room with roller shutters will provide space for a bottle bar for events or small café should there be interest.
The new function room, off the main hall, is designed to accommodate meetings and training events with furniture and integrated audio-visual equipment to suit. When not being used for meetings, it will be furnished for use as a café or social meeting space. It will open onto a patio area with furniture to make use of the outdoor play spaces in good weather.
The Site Plan drawings show the layout of the new building.
The new Centre will provide a greater opportunity for community activities and events based around the Centre and Recreation ground. We hope to be able to start sharing these ideas with you in the coming months.
If you are interested in using the new Community Centre, please get in touch via email to bookings@stondonvillagehall.org.uk.
Please keep up to date with all news on the Community Centre and associated events, please visit the website at https://stondonvillagehall.org.uk/.
The existing Village Hall and the new Community Centre are run and operated by a group of four volunteers who give their time to make these community spaces of Stondon what they are.
We would welcome any assistance support in making the most of these new community spaces and the exciting potential they can bring. If you can provide some ideas, assistance to help organise and plan community events, please reach out to enquiries@stondonvillagehall.org.uk.