COMMUNITY CENTRES AND THEIR FUTURE
By BRIGADIER-GENERAL SIR VVYNDHAM DEEDES
WHAT are Community Centres, where are they to be V ' found, what goes on there ? When a new term suddenly comes into use, you may be sure that it is expressing something vital. Ten years ago the term "Community Centre" was hardly known, and now, in certain circles at all events, it is on everybody's lips. But let us remind ourselves that although the term may he a new one, the idea or rather the fact is a very old one. In any country at all times there have been certain institutions or organisations around which the activities of the community have tended to cluster— in the Middle Ages the monasteries and later the churches were and, in the case of the latter, still are, to some extent such centres. Again in early days the up-country store was the social centre of the locality and the store-keeper might well be a naturalleader ; Abraham Lincoln was one such. In many partially developed countries today the railway station is still a place where folk gather to welcome and speed the only train in the day ; and many other illustrations might be given of natural Community Centres.* Our difficulty today lies to a great extent in the fact that we are creating Community Centres artificially. We think, or some of us do, that in certain places people need (and it will become a success when those same people consciously want) a Centre. And I believe that they will want it, if a Centre is provided of the kind which will be described later on.
Turning now to the questions asked at the beginning of this article, let me take the case of a Centre on the Wading Estate, Burnt Oak. This is a London County Council estate with a population of about 20-,000 people, with an average weeldy wage of £3. Some ten years ago, beyond schools and churches, there was little evidence of community life on this estate. Then a group of neighbours got together and by their own efforts and with the help of well-wishers off the estate they raised a sum of about £500, on the basis of which they were able to secure a grant and loan of £2,700 from the Pilgrim Trust with which to build their Centre on a site provided by the London County Council at a peppercorn rent. This was the first Community Centre which could be dignified by the name to be erected anywhere in England, and it was opened in 1933 by the then Prince of Wales. The management of the Centre is in the hands of a Community Association, which is a federation of voluntary organisations, together with an individual membership of about 700. And it is interesting to record that three-quarters of the salary of the Secretary of the Association is provided by the Middlesex Education Authority. The following are some of the activities which are carried on at the Centre : A guild of players, an orchestra, a horticultural association, a parents' group, a women's neighbourhood guild (which has meetings on such varied subiects as current events, French paint- ing, the county's mental hospitals, besides demonstrations in cookery and millinery). Young people are catered for in boys' and girls' clubs, scout troops and so forth, and in addition there is a personal service bureau and a poor man's lawyer.
- Up to a point the Centre has been a success. It has
* These illustrations are taken from Professor T. N. Whitehead's Leadership in a Free Society.
become a focus of life on the estate, and no one would deny that in many respects the estate would be poorer without it.
But it is not nearly big enough. It was planned to contain a halt to seat 400 people and other rooms, but applications to the local authority and to other sources for a further grant have so far failed. This is more than a pity, it is a tragedy, for the Wading Centre Was an experiment intending to prove that, given the chance, folk would prefer to organise their own social life or some part of it rather than to have it provided for them by enterprises run for profit and catering almost entirely for mechanised amusement. But in the absence of a complete scheme the latter have been able to get a good start in this new community.
And it is the same story elsewhere. Few, if any, Com- munity Associations are even as well off as is Watling. There are now about 25 Community Centres of sorts in different parts of the country, but so inadequate is the accommodation that they are not able to fulfil their purpose. Gallant efforts have been made. In many cases it has been the practice to rent a Council cottage from the local authority, to make that a provisional Centre and then perhaps to build a tem- porary structure in the back garden. But it is not possible in this haphazard way to meet the needs of estates which, in many cases, have populations running into tens of thousands of people. It is true that the Local Authorities have powers under the Housing Acts of 1925 and 1936 to build Centres on their new estates, and Local Education Authorities may build similar Centres for young people under 18 and may recover so per cent. of the cost from the Board of Education.• It is only in the last twelve months, however, that Authorities generally have begun to contemplate the exercise of these powers.
Now in about 15 places in different parts of the country definite decisions have been taken to erect Community Centres, and still more towns are expected to follow suit. Some of these Centres are being built on a liberal scale. For ideally a Community Centre should provide for a variety of needs. A good example is the Centre at Dalgarno Gardens, Kensington, which has been erected in the middle of a group of block dwellings. Here one room is used by day as a day- nursery and two rooms as a clinic ; in the evening two rooms are used by the Education Department of the London County Council as an evening institute while the rest is at the disposal of the community. This is a good example of co-ordination between voluntary and State agencies. (The building at Dalgamo Gardens was erected by private sub- scription.) But the absence or inadequacy of buildings has not been the only difficulty. Experience shows that if the affairs of the community are to be managed efficiently, a full-tinu: officer is essential. In the early days, thanks to a grant from the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, secretaries ( f associations were provided on several estates, and it is there that the greatest advance has been made. And now it seems likely that other Education Authoritiea will follow the example set by Middlesex and help to provide a full-time officer in cases where a Centre of any size is being erected. But if" one swallow does not make a summer," one leader does not make a Community Centre, and the lack of leaders in the different groups of the Associations is retarding the move- ment as much if not more than the lack of buildings.
The third difficulty has been to secure co-operation amongst the different voluntary organisations on an estate. On new housing estates the population is often very large, the residents are for the most part strangers to one another, and the estate is often a dormitory to which the workers return late at night. And there is no local tradition. Hence the importance of this movement. New houses are one thing, and they have been provided in vast quantities, but we want, or rather these new settlers want, new lives as well, and for this the Community Centre is essential. It is now to be hoped that this fact will be recognised by Local Authorities and by the public at large, for a development of great significance inheres in this movement and not without reason has it been called " a next step in democracy." A thriving Community Association representing every phase of life on an estate, with a Centre of its own under its own management, providing not only social amenities but also acting as a forum for the discussion of local affairs, is an important step in the diffusion of civic responsibility. It is not always easy to see what part we can play as citizens on the national stage nor how our thought and action can visibly affect national affairs. But on the local stage there is a part for each one to play commensurate with his abilities and status. In the words of that wise woman, the late Miss Ffollet, "The neighbourhood must be actually not theoretically an integral part of city, State or nation. Neighbourhood.gather- ings (in this case a Community Association) must be made a regular part of government. It is a place for sending the news backwards and forwards from individual to nation and naiion to individual, it is a deliberate effort to get people to identify themselves with a larger unit of government."
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