RENEWING THE OLD FIRESTATION COMMUNITY CENTRE
What are we doing?
Calling all friends and neighbours, past and present. The Old Fire Station Community Centre N16 ran the Looking Out! project until May24-April 2025 which was part-funded by Historic England and was all about finding out more and celebrating the working history of this much loved community building, and reaching out to get more people involved in its future.
Looking Out! came out of community consultations around our exciting plans to make the Old Fire Station more sustainable and accessible (see bottom of page for architects designs)
Check out our Looking Out insta @lookingout_ofs and check out it’s webpage to find out more.
Scroll down further to find out about our exciting future plans for updating the building. And watch this space to hear more about our plans for Summer 2025 and beyond…
COMMUNITY TEXTILE SESSIONS FEB/MAR 2025
Old Fire Station Nursery and Latch Key protest float circa 1983 Image courtesy of Rio Tape Slide Archive
Highlights of 2024
At our Looking Out project launch in May, saw us meet our community young and old, (to a soundtrack of 80’s tracks put together by the Leswin Road WhatsApp group) and group tours of the building guided by architectural historian Billy Reading, gifted us with the stories of retired firefighters who worked from the building, and a relative of a baby who was born in our building at a time when firefighters whole families lived here.
We also met a pantomime horse or two in the Old Stables
Summer open sessions saw us link up with different community organisations based in the building, past and present, and our local neighbours to hear more about what they value and want to discover about our history
August marked an important moment as our community came together to stand in solidarity with Hackney Migrant Centre in the face of far right threats
Our Autumn sharings as part of Open House Fortnight and London Design weeks gave us opportunities to capture more histories: we started digitising Jamboulay Carnival Arts archive, and lucky tour participants got impromptu previews of new carnival costumes as well as insights into the history of Carnival from the hugely talented and knowledgeable Rubena and Ruthven at Jamboulay
So nice to remember the sunshine that carnival brings in these grey days!
Not to forget delicious free refreshments provided by the amazing Muslim Sisters
We encourage people with history and connection to the building to bring us your photos and memories, and for those new to the building we hope you can be a part of our journey to make it more open and accessible through your involvement with us
Our Summer session flyer
We are still really keen to reconnect with organisations and individuals that used the Old Fire Station (it opened as a community centre in 1982) so please spread the word widely, and drop in if you can, we’d love to see you! You can also contact us at ofsn16lookingout@gmail.com if you’d like to get involved or find out more.
OUR PLANS FOR UPDATING THE OLD FIRE STATION COMMUNITY CENTRE
What are our plans?
In 2022 The Old Fire Station obtained funding from the Architectural Heritage Fund for Viability and Development studies and appointed architects and consultants to work with our tenants, users, stakeholders and community to thoroughly investigate the building and its potential.
Our initial study triggered £800,000 of essential roof and parapet repairs from Hackney Council (which ended in Spring 2023)
Through further consultations Pringle Sharratt Richards Architects (responsible for Springfield Park and Victoria Albert Museum redevelopments) have identified key priorities and developed outline plans for planning approval which, if secured, will form the basis of a larger future funding bid. Highlights include:
– Sensitive renovations to existing historic features
– Increased accessibility including a redesigned ground floor
– A new reception/entrance and addition of a lift serving all floors
– Energy efficiency, futureproofing with new heating, solar, insulation and double glazing
– Derelict third floor updated into new community space
– Additional outdoor terraces including for childrens’ play
– Better storage, flooring and lighting, new WC’s, a communal kitchen and tea points