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Prince Charles opens the centre six years ago with actress Troy Titus-Adams
Interchange Studios |
Charity project in high rent row
Chief says discontent is ‘no great drama’
A FLAGSHIP community centre opened by Prince Charles six years ago after receiving millions of pounds of lottery cash has been criticised for charging too high rents to other charities.
Hampstead Town Hall in Belsize Park, a Grade-II listed building was controversially gifted to educational charity InterChange Trust by Camden Council ten years ago on a 99-year lease.
The centre was re-opened on July 11 2000 by Prince Charles after an £8.46 refurbishment. The money was raised by Interchange together with newly-formed Friends of Hampstead Town Hall, with £6m coming from the lottery. Interchange, which left its dilapidated premises in Dalby Street, Kentish Town, provides affordable space for other charities.
But six years on resident charities are complaining about high rents, and there is public criticism from the Friends of Hampstead Town Hall.
Two InterChange trustees have resigned within the last six months.
Tony Hillier, chairman of the Heath and Hampstead Society, writing in the group’s newsletter this month said the group was moving its annual meeting in June from Hampstead Town Hall to Rosslyn Hill Chapel in Rosslyn Hill, Hampstead.
He wrote: “We have changed the venue back, finding the cost and facilities at the Town Hall are no longer to our liking.
“We understand the Friends of Hampstead Town Hall and some other resident charities are concerned that current management practices do not reflect the full range of activities which was promised when the restoration took place.”
Earlier this year, anonymous members of the University of the Third Age, one of several educational charities renting space at the hall, contacted the New Journal after their rent was “substantially increased” by Interchange.
U3A chairwoman Sofie Landau declined to talk to the New Journal but wrote to all members informing them that subscriptions would have to be raised to cover the increase.
Omar Yousef, manager of the Somali Community Centre, said his group had already moved out of the building. It now keeps a “very small room” in Hampstead Town Hall but has moved to a former doctor’s surgery in Gospel Oak where it has four rooms, two toilets and a reception for the same cost as an office at Interchange.
Other charities based at the Town Hall quizzed by the New Journal – including Millennium Dance and the Akademi of South Asian Dance – declined to talk to the paper, with one – Spare Tyre Theatre – saying it had no problems with Interchange.
One of the biggest organisations, the Weekend Arts Club, which provides activities for teenagers also declined to comment, although
Interchange chief executive Alan Tomkins, said it had been recommended that the group split from Interchange.
Mr Tomkins also defended the charity’s management of the building. Interchange, which had a gross income of £2.131 million last year and spent just under £2.129 million, currently employs around 35 full-time and up to 240 part time staff.
Dr Tomkins, who was instrumental in securing the original funding for the building, said: “It’s a huge success story. We are still here after six years and we are getting bigger and bigger.
“Most of the charities who were with us originally ten years ago are still with us now.
“To have two or three changing is no great drama. The rents are very fair and they are comparable to similar centres like the London Resource Centre in Holloway Road.” |
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