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WHO WE ARE
About us
We are dedicated to providing opportunities for our local community to have access to health and fitness, education, recreation and friendship in order to reduce isolation and loneliness and build resilience within our community.
Originally a church, called St Peter’s, the Uxbridge Community Centre was established around
1983/84 mainly through the efforts of the Chaplin of Brunel University Reverend Theo Samuel.
Theo was aware that the congregation of St Peters was declining which would see the church
being made redundant. Rather than see the church being sold Theo wanted to see it could be
maintained as a space for the community to be able to come together for social and
recreational activities. After consulting with the Bishop of Willesden, consent was given to set
up a small steering committee to create a feasibility study to see if the project was viable. The
biggest hurdle was to be cost of converting the church to a community centre. The feasibility
study came up with a figure of £50,000. Fortunately the funding for the conversion was
obtained in full as a grant from the Greater London Council (GLC) which was still in existence at
this point.
The use of St Peters church was granted to a committee made up of local residents through a
formal arrangement called an Albermarle scheme; this allows a church building to be rented by
a charity for community activities whilst the local parish landlord has free use of the building at
pre agreed times for church activities.
By allowing a variety of user groups providing a diverse range of weekly activities, from a daily
nursery for pre-school children through to Brownies, a range of wellbeing and exercise classes,
to a Line dancing group that attracts people up the age of 90 plus we hope to provide
opportunities for local residents to maintain social contacts, extend their knowledge whilst
staying well and healthy hopefully! The Management Committee feel it is important that local
residents have the opportunity to use the halls for private family functions to celebrate the
important milestones such as birthdays, marriages, special anniversaries and the passing of
loved ones, so both the large hall and small hall can be hired at the weekend. We also host the
Local councillors ward surgeries and the halls are also regularly used by the NHS for Blood
Donations.
The day to day administration of the centre is provided by a Co-ordinator who is employed on a
part-time basis by the Management Committee and they are the main point of contact for the
user groups and members of the public. Every year the committee hosts social fundraising
events and two of the most popular events have been Christmas wreath making and bi-annual
Quiz Nights. The Uxbridge Centre is a registered charity, is completely self-funding and run by
volunteers. The management committee has been well served in the past by many local
residents who have committed their time, energy and skills voluntarily to keep the building in
good repair and available to benefit the local community. We are always looking for new
volunteers to join the committee. If you are community minded or love to organise events and
want to give back to a good cause in the local area then please get in touch via the Contact Us
page or send us an email. We are always keen to welcome new people and hear new ideas on
how to improve what we do!