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 are running the Looking Out! project until Easter 2025 which is part-funded by Historic England and 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 read on to see what we’re doing, read on about our free community co-creation workshops in February and March 2025
Contact: ofsn16lookingout@gmail.com for more info and if you want to join our occasional mailing list for updates on activities and events
COMMUNITY TEXTILE SESSIONS STARTING WEDS 12th FEB 2025
Please join us for free banner design workshops with community textile artist Alice Blackstock starting on Wednesday 12th February at 6.30pm. These sessions are designed for people to come along and learn or share skills, in a friendly and relaxed way, all materials will be provided alongside warm refreshments.
The drop- in banner making sessions take place on:
- Wednesday 12th February 6.30- 8.30pm
- Saturday 15th February 1.30pm-3.30pm
- Wednesday 12th March 6.30pm-8.30pm
- Saturday 15th March 1.30pm to 3.30pm
No experience necessary. Participants are welcome to come to as many sessions as they can.
We’ll be looking at images and hearing stories gathered by our Looking Out! project to design/create a communal textile together.
Old Fire Station Nursery and Latch Key protest float circa 1983 Image courtesy of Rio Tape Slide Archive
Activities take place on ground floor with disabled and toilet access
To let us know you’re coming or for more information contact us at lookingout.community@gmail.com although drop ins welcome too. More information on insta @lookingout_ofs
Highlights of 2024
Our 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
In the background we’ve been busy collecting stories, in the archives and in person, from people key to the Old Fire Station’s legacy. We’re looking forward to be coming together again in 2025 with group sessions that are creatively responding to the stories we are discovering. Watch this space…
There will be opportunites to see the archive and new research, pulling the threads of new stories and histories uncovered in connection to the Old Fire Station.
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 in this Heritage project.
Contact lookingout.community@gmail.com for more info. Find out more about the project on our Insta
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.
More about Looking Out
*“The Old Fire Station N16, Looking out for our community since 1886” is being part-funded by 9.6k from Historic England’s Everyday Heritage grant programme, celebrating working class histories.
Our team will be working with past and present local community members who will be collecting, communicating and responding to stories from the buildings’ past, present and future in varied ways. The project runs from May 2024 – April 2025 there will be open day events, and opportunities to learn new skills, as well as interviewing and other research activities.
Together we will be celebrating and investigating the past, present and future of the space as a place of community, health, activism, education and resilience. Please bring your own memories and photos if you have any. Or if you’ve never been in before please come along and find out more about what goes on here!
We are really keen to involve people that have lived experience of the Old Fire Station so please do spread the word widely!
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