The common rooms 

As we begin to emerge from the pandemic Clapton Commons wants to increase its capacity to support locally driven projects and activities that will help rebuild our neighbourhood -  physically, economically and emotionally.  

We have been using the ground floor space (The Common Room) and undercroft at St Thomas’ Church since 2014 to support partner projects, host community meals, workshops and food bank drop in sessions.  

We now want to formalise our arrangement with the church and refit those spaces to deliver; a community canteen and kitchen, exercise studio, ground floor event and workshop space, and 6 studio/meeting rooms for any number of potential uses, including one-to- one counselling, podcast studio, offices, and meeting rooms. 

The newly fit out Common Rooms will be open for community bookings and host a range of activities and projects, from childrens craft sessions, perinatal outreach groups, intergenerational meals, and exersise classes.

We have launched a Spacehive crowdfund campaign to raise £58,000 needed to fund the first phase of the project.  If we’re successful, we’ll be able to launch The Common Rooms, along with some exciting projects within those spaces, in September 2021!   

Part of the money raised will go to support three partner projects:

• Mentoring for young people by Martial Arts leader Gary Mckenzie

• Community Meal Service by Carib Eats founder Ali Kakande

• An arts residency to follow on from our Grief Wall during the lockdown

How to help  

Please help us by following and sharing our campaign on social media, pledging (any small amount will help!), or help us fundraise by joining our team of local team of volunteers running this campaign leading the fundraising activities by emailing communitybuilder@claptoncommons.org.