26 Sep 2017 | history
We took part in Open House London for the first time this September. This annual event is the world’s largest architecture festival, giving free public access to 800+ buildings, walks, talks and tours over one weekend in September each year.
We weren’t sure what to expect when we opened our doors to the public, and were pleasantly surprised at the number of visitors and at their interest in our favourite old building, the Wheatsheaf Hall.
Our volunteers were on hand with their well-researched handouts on the history of the building and showed over 40 people round the building to admire the architectural features and hear abou the hall’s interesting history.
A copy of our potted history can be seen below. [pdf-embedder url=”http://www.wheatsheafhall.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/History-of-the-Wheatsheaf-Community-Centre.pdf” title=”History of the Wheatsheaf Community Centre”].
4 Jul 2016 | history
The fourth of July 2016 was the 120th anniversary of the opening of the Wheatsheaf Hall in 1896. Here’s a little extract from an account written at the time which gives a flavour of the importance of the event to the local community.
“The rebuilding of the Wheatsheaf Hall recalls the early days of the public library movement in South Lambeth. It is now 12 years Mr W S Caine, the well-known temperance reformer, set to work to establish a mission centre in this locality. Long did he hunt the district for some suitable premises, and at last found an old villa in Wheatsheaf Lane, standing in a small garden, a survival of the day s when Vauxhall Gardens occupied the site of the gasworks, and Wheatsheaf Lane literally ran through corn fields.
Here Mr Caine gathered round him a band of workers, and social and religious work was started straight away, societies, reading rooms and guilds began to flourish until the premises had to be considerably enlarged and now an entirely new hall is being erected.
Within the boundaries of the district covered by the Wheatsheaf Hall there is a total population of 21, 668. For the spiritual needs of these people there are eight places of worship, great and small, church, chapel and mission hall. These seat less than 2,500.
Mr Caine had the attendances of these counted on a favourable Sunday evening, and the total was less than 800 of which two fifths were at the Wheatsheaf Hall.
In the same area there are 38 public houses, some of the largest in London. From 6 toll, one Saturday night recently, a larger number of persons entered one of these public houses than was to be found in all the places of worship the following Sunday evening.”
14 Feb 2015 | history
The earliest reference to a building on the present site of Wheatsheaf Hall is in 1880 when there was a small villa standing in its own gardens.
