OUR STORY

Clapton Commons was set up in 2013 by a small group of neighbours with the shared aim of improving their local neighbourhood for the common good of all residents.

Mike’s mum

Actually what happened was this.

Mike’s mother was in her 90s and he wanted to find someone to help her go for a short walk each day. Although Jewish by birth and atheist by inclination Mike decided to reach out and ask the local vicar, William, if there was anyone in his congregation who might like to help.

No one came forward. But at the same time both felt that there must be people who lived locally who could. Some might call this the crisis of adult social care, but at a very human scale it set up a puzzle that needed to be solved – the challenge of Mike’s mum.

Liberty Hall

They recognised that people did not really know each other as neighbours and consequently local ‘need’ was not in touch with local ‘resource’.

To attempt to build these connections, together with a few neighbours, they set up Clapton Commons.

At the same time when they looked around the area they realised that there were very few local spaces where people could come together to get to know each other and access the untapped resources available across the community.

Just at this moment Hackney invited expressions of interest for the abandoned toilet block on Clapton Common, which seemed like a perfect opportunity to turn this derelict building into a community asset that would be open to everyone. The plan for Liberty Hall was hatched.

Over the last six years, Clapton Commons has been working to deliver this project, whilst at the same time building its network, supporters and vision along the way.

Clapton Commons became a registered charity in 2020.

OUR VISION

A stronger community, working together for the common good of all its residents

OUR MISSION

To discover, celebrate and connect the assets present in our neighbourhoods.

our people

Joe Walker - Interim Director

Joe started with us as our new director in January 2022. He has over twenty years experience as a community development practitioner, activist and campaigner working in the UK voluntary/third sector, international development sector and politics. He has spent a significant amount of time working in Hackney, East London in the voluntary and community sector, and until December 2021 led the community work at the Round Chapel Old School Rooms in Clapton, which won the Mayor of Hackney’s Civic Award in 2020/21.

His work in the international development sector has largely focused on child rights and street children in Africa. He’s worked for Oxfam, Amos Trust and also co-founded street children charity Street Action, supporting and partnering with street children movements and initiatives in South Africa, Burundi and Kenya. Joe’s also worked on a range of policy issues relating to global education and child rights in his role as an advisor to former prime minister Gordon Brown.

Joe’s work in the voluntary sector includes charity governance experience, having served as a trustee on a number of UK and international charities. He is currently a trustee of Hackney Doorways and Surfers Not Street Children and is also co-Chair of a local school in Hackney.

Joe lives in Hackney with his wife and two children.

Emily Howarth - Community Organiser

Emily began working for Clapton Commons in 2023. She leads on the Tenants Club, a new gathering of local residents seeking to make systemic change in the wake of the housing crisis, and supports the Warm Welcome. Her role is a partnership with St Thomas church, where she is an assistant curate.

Before training for the priesthood, Emily worked for Home for Good - a charity advocating for the needs of foster carers and adoptive parents. Before that she was deputy editor of a magazine and has a background in church-based youth and children’s work. In her spare time, Emily loves to learn a new skill. Currently this involves learning dressmaking, boxing and quilting. 

Aga Rolkiewicz - Warm Welcome Host

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Petra Pavlaskova - Administrator

Petra has been providing administrative support to Clapton Commons since January 2024. She also carries out a similar support role at St Thomas’ Church. Petra has previously worked in a similar role in the charity sector for nearly a decade.

Petra has lived in the Clapton area for a few years and really enjoys how her work connects her and her family to its community. She enjoys cycling, good food and exploring the local area with her little son and her partner at weekends.

Trustees

William Taylor

William Taylor is the parish priest at St Thomas’ Clapton Common and was a founding director of Clapton Commons.

He has a professional doctorate in the civic practice of text study between Christians, Jews and Muslims (scriptural reasoning) from Princeton theological seminary in the United States and he helped to set up the Jewish Christian forum in Stamford Hill in 2012. Previously he worked as a research fellow at the St Ethelburga’s centre for reconciliation and peace in the city of London and a university chaplain. 

Over the course of sixteen years, from 2001, he served three terms as a councillor in the City of London and in 2014 he became the first Labour councillor ever elected to Guildhall. His book ‘this bright field’ about Spitalfields in the east end was published by Methuen in 2000 and was “paperback of the week” on Radio 4’s open book. He reviews books for the FT and blogs at www.hackneypreacher.com

William is acting chair of Clapton Commons, and oversees community relations, including organising work, as well as the charity's relationship with funders.

Pauline Campbell

Pauline Campbell is a senior litigation lawyer for a large local authority.  She was an accredited local government trainer for five years, training lawyers from across the country on litigation law. She has had a successful legal career, winning litigation team of year in 2016, and being shortlisted for solicitors journal awards, and the lawyer of the year in the law society’s excellence awards.  

Pauline has a great fondness and connection to Clapton, having grown up on Spring Hill, with Springfield park as her garden and Liberty Hall, being a constant landmark from her front room window.  She has been involved in Clapton Commons 2018 when she led successful community fundraising events for the Liberty Hall Spacehive. Pauline became a trustee of Clapton Commons in 2020 to assist and seek advice where necessary in a legal capacity.

Pauline is also an avid writer, having letters published in the law gazette, as well as recently publishing a short story titled Rice and Peas and Fish and Chips, a memoir about a black British family growing up in Britain. She is now working on a novel of the same topic that has been commissioned for publication in 2021. She also is a member of Be That Change, an organisation who work towards tackling racism within the local community. 

Holly-Gale Millette 

Dr Holly-Gale Millette is a Senior Lecturer in Intersectional Identity Histories for the University of Southampton. She has worked as a Research Fellow internationally and is a published author and artist working with history and archives to produce public and social display. She holds external examiner duties at other UK Universities and consortia and has been very active as a Lecturer in the Free University Movement and in the Learning Tent at Occupy. 

Outside academia she has experience as a writer, as a performer an artist and an organiser. Holly-Gale is an experienced trustee with a professional skillset who has lived locally for 28 years. She holds a unique and abiding connection to Clapton and can command a certain amount of local networking in this regard. 

Holly-Gale was previously a trustee in good standing with the Clapton Arts Trust (CAT) and the London Gypsies and Travellers (LGT). For LGT she has acted as a Board Member and the Chair of the Risk Assessment Committee. Previously, and for CAT, she has acted as Secretary and as a Fundraiser, writing large and small-scale bids for funding. Holly-Gale acts as Secretary for Clapton Commons. 

Ben Gilchrist

Ben is the Chief Executive of Caritas Shrewsbury the social action and social justice agency for the Catholic Diocese of Shrewsbury. 

He has worked for 22 years in leadership and senior management roles in the voluntary, community and faith sector has a background in collaboration and partnership work, facilitation, lobbying and campaigning, particularly in international and community development. He is passionate about asset-based approaches, social justice, peace-making and empowering people to make a difference.

As a trustee is valuing learning from the work that Clapton Commons undertakes and contributing based on his experience and skills. His shared interests and values concerning faith-based community development and community organising offer mutual benefit and excellent oversight.