The Community Centre spent six years getting to a stage that an acceptable deal was on the table. The Centre inserted itself into a process between the vendors Lambeth Council and developers CLS who wanted to buy the site at 100 Vauxhall Walk as part of a larger ‘jigsaw’. Our key demand was that we wanted to see a Community Centre remain within the present block, that it had a lease long enough that VGCC would be a significant force for good over time locally and funding bodies would take seriously , and that if a new Centre was built we didn’t want a period where we were homeless ( or worse, in a position that without a home ‘plans changed’ and we were out on our ear).
In outline what the deal means is that:

• We remain at 100 Vauxhall Walk for a minimum of two more years (but hopefully, and realistically we think, given the state of the property market, three and an half to six years)


• We then move to a temporary Centre round the corner at 5 Glasshouse Walk as CLS get on with creating a new development and building us the shell of a Community Centre within the block.


• After 18 or so months we move into that new Centre and a VGCC lease begins on that building for 40 years.


• We then do some serious fundraising to kit the new building out.


• While we are in 100 Vauxhall Walk we will receive £50k which is pre-allocated for electric and roof repairs and some of which will pay half the salary of a person to develop the Centre’s strategy and links.


• We receive further small top-ups over four years to keep us focused.


• When we move into the temporary building at Glasshouse Walk it will have had a basic refit that knocks through the downstairs dividing walls and opens up a hall – which brings it up to ground floor DDA accessibility.

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