Seasons Greetings to All near and afar from the BCCA Trustees, our in-house team and growing number of active supporters. 

HEARTFELT THANKS to all who have donated time, effort and a spirit throughout the recently completed yearlong transformation of our carefully and thoughtfully renovated Community Café. The main body of work is now achieved and a freshly committed momentum toward a vibrant New Year of rededicated local community activities and events is well established. 

As the season turns so we return to the shortest day, and to the longest night that locally will occur on December 21st 2022. With the sun at its greatest distance from planet earth, as chill arrives so the warmth of family, friends and community soothes to sustain us with the sharing of festive food and good cheer, contemplations of the passing year, and anticipations of a New Year of fresh potentials about to dawn. 

We trust that the increasing flow of creative potentials and resources will enhance inclusive local well being. It has been a long year! Particularly so in the still reverberating wake of Covid and the current surge of economic and political challenges. Indeed the world seems not a happy place! Yet it remains hugely encouraging for all involved at BCCA to receive heartfelt acknowledgements and enthusiasm from a constant flow of good neighbours and local folk, inquisitive passers-by, Café users, exhibition viewers, and a healthily growing number of Centre users who offer steadfast support, encouragement and ideas toward a fresh and vibrant blossoming of BCCA during the seasons to come.

Please be aware of friends and neighbours in need and help to ensure that no one is ‘left out in the cold’. Share your winter warmer and merry living tips and anything other that might encourage resilient good health and cheer of body, mind and spirit to help generate natural soothing delight of shared friendship and community. 

Lambeth Council offers means of support at lambeth.gov.uk/cost-living-crisis-support

Monday 28th November, 10am-11.30am.

Meeting at the Bonnington Centre Community Café, sharing ideas for a new Death Café as a local community resource.

Everyone is welcome.

What is a Death Café? (from the Death Café website)

At a Death Café people, often strangers, gather to eat cake, drink tea and discuss death.

Our objective is ‘to increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) lives’.

A Death Café is a group directed discussion of death with no agenda, objectives or themes. It is a discussion group rather than a grief support or counselling session.

Death Cafes are always offered:

• On a not for profit basis
• In an accessible, respectful and confidential space
• With no intention of leading people to any conclusion, product or course of action
• Alongside refreshing drinks and nourishing food – and cake!

Death Cafés have spread quickly across Europe, North America and Australasia. As of today, we have offered 14675 Death Cafés in 82 countries since September 2011.

Death Cafés already exist in other parts of London, but none are, as yet, south of the river.

For more information:  https://deathcafe.com or call 0790 691 6524.

Community Writing Project
EXPLORING NEIGHBOURHOOD THROUGH WRITING
Saturday November 26th 2022
10am to 1pm at Bonnington Café.

Booking essential as places are limited £15 –  Concessions available
Further details, please contact 0794 922 9256

Warm Greetings.

As autumn gold turns to chill please share your winter ‘keeping warm and healthy tips’ at the BCCA website, or by email to BCCA Admin. We are eager to support our Members and local community in any way possible during the approaching winter months. Keep updated about opportunities and offers by reading notices posted in the Cafe windows and on BCCA web and social media pages.

THANKS TO ALL WHO HAVE DONATED time, effort and resources toward the BCCA Community Cafe’s transformation. It is hugely encouraging for all involved to receive such good-spirited and enthusiastic encouragement from the continuous flow of inquisitive passers-by, Cafe Exhibition viewers and increasing numbers of Centre users. Members of the local and extended community continue to pledge support and have inspired a final burst of effort toward the Cafe’s reopening that will be celebrated wholeheartedly as soon as remaining minor works and licensing are achieved.

BCCA Membership continues to increase at a steady pace and feedback from community within the local area of benefit is gloriously bright and encouraging. Please continue to invite your friends, neighbours and colleagues to visit the Centre to learn more about available resources and potentials for hosting activities, and to become Members.

The building continues to improve and develop with the Cafe space functioning for the past five months as an Art Gallery, workshop and meeting space and drop-in. The kitchen will very soon be in use. Any help or assist that you can offer will be much appreciated. Please read our ‘Wish List’ on the Café window. We will gladly receive anything you might like to contribute though your personal input is most treasured.

The one-to-one Therapy Room and homely middle floor meeting room continue to gain healthy bookings with local and visiting practitioners now delivering various wellbeing treatments. Craniosacral Therapy is one example being offered by a final year student of CTET as professional training (donations towards the Centre are welcome) For more info and booking please email to bcc-cranio@gmail.com

BCCA Archive

The BCCA Archive project is gathering momentum and will continue to move forward throughout the coming winter months. Initial siftings and logging of material including local, BCCA Centre, Cafe and 4th World Arts documentations and images is already revealing unique and fascinating material such as the adjacent image, that if you know anything about please let us know? The archive will include audiovisual references relating the Centre’s history and development and seeks to record stories and recollections from members of the local community past and present. If you have or are aware of anything whatsoever that might be of interest please let us know as soon as you can via BCCA Admin. Updates will be posted regularly at the Cafe.

Current Activities

Activities have different charges including concessions (please enquire). BCCA Members are given priority when booking.

Monday
C.A. (Cocaine Anonymous) 7pm to 8pm Attendance by donation
Death Cafe 10am to 12.00am on alternate Mondays by donation
www.gofundme.com/f/24xar-community

Tuesday
Tango Dance 7.30pm to 10pm private classes contact le-tango@zen.co.uk
Pilates 6pm to 7pm private classes contact lalondedenise@gmail.com

Wednesday
Community Pilates 10am to 11am Attendance by donation
www.gofundme.com/f/24xar-community

Thursday
Finger Style Guitar 5.30pm to 7pm Attendance by donation

Friday
Community Drumming 2pm to 4pm Attendance by donation
Community Iyengar Yoga 5.30pm to 7pm Attendance by donation www.gofundme.com/f/24xar-community

Saturday
C.A. (Cocaine Anonymous) 10.30am to 12pm Attendance by donation

Sunday
There are plenty of available slots remaining throughout the week and at weekends. If you are interested in starting-up or exploring ideas toward new activities using any of the available spaces, or simply in exploring and discussing potentials, BCCA is committed to encouraging and facilitating local community initiatives, access and involvement in personal and shared activities that promote inclusive intergenerational connections, creative community, good health and general wellbeing. Contact Maria, Centre Admin’ for further information.

Highlights

Wednesday Morning Community Pilates Classes offer an excellent opportunity to stretch, strengthen and de-stress. Join sessions every Wednesday 10am to 11am to experience a unique series of exercises in a safe, warm and welcoming environment, and feel the benefits. Classes are held in the Top Room. Attendance is by donation. Contact Denise for further information.

Regular groups, meetings, rehearsals, workshops, classes, concerts, exhibitions and one-off events that are BCCA sponsored are intended to benefit and strengthen local community resilience and wellbeing. We ask attendees to make an affordable donation of their choice for attending and to support BCCAs ongoing work at: www.gofundme.com/f/24xar-community

Spaces for Hire

Improvements continue toward making our online room and Cafe booking system easier for users to negotiate, and for the BCCA team to manage and maintain. The Centre offers a variety of fine, intimate and homely spaces for hire, with toilet and catering facilities at amongst the lowest rates in London. Click here for details.

BCCA Membership

Membership to the BCCA currently remains an astonishing £1 minimum donation per year!

Is your membership up to date? We are encouraging all past BCCA members to renew and inviting new friends and associates to join.

We will soon enable easy online membership enrolment. In addition to the existing £1 annual membership, a £25 lifelong membership is available.

BCCAs immediate ‘Area of Benefit’ is Vauxhall Grove, Langley Lane and Bonnington Square. Full Members reside within this area and are able to vote at Annual General Meetings, to gain prioritised bookings, discounts and other advantages relating to room hire and use of Centre resources.
Associate Members are those who live outside of the stated ‘Area of Benefit’. They cannot vote at AGMs, but are welcome nonetheless to attend and speak at meetings, and can also gain discounts and other advantages.

All Members are automatically added to BCCAs general and Monthly Mailchimp Newsletter mailing lists, unless otherwise instructed.

BCCA Team members will soon be visiting homes within the area of benefit with hard-copy Membership forms for those who prefer personal contact (be sure to keep a £1 coin handy just in case!).

Email to request further information.

Bonnington Centre Community Café

The Café’s reopening as an evening vegetarian and vegan eatery is imminent. The Cafe will continue to function as a daytime community resource, hosting regular recurring and one-off events including workshops, clubs and pop-ups, and will continue to host an ongoing program of monthly arts exhibitions that will prioritise the work of local and associate artists.

BCCA pursues a policy of emphasis on the facilitation and participation of people living in the immediately local community, whilst remaining open and welcoming to all-comers from far, wide and beyond!

The Café aims to serve as a homely and inviting accessible venue for daytime activities that cater for the creative expression, inclusive access and the likes and preferences of local people. Evenings will be dedicated to the production and serving of a variety of good hearty and healthy affordable vegetarian and vegan food, with an emphasis on encouraging and showcasing local cooks.

The Bonnington Centre Community Cafe Cooks list remains open to anyone who would like to cook and host an evening event at the Cafe. All Cooks will be required fulfill necessary requirements before being granted licence.

Email Fabio, BCCA Community Café Administrator at bcca@btinternet.com to register your interest as a Cook or as an Exhibiting Artist.

Café Exhibitions

The ground floor is now operating as a Café Gallery with a rolling programme of exhibitions stretching well into 2023. We are continually gaining new requests for exhibition. The Artist’s list remains open. If you are interested in exhibiting contact bcca@btinternet.com.

Upcoming Exhibitions currently include; Andy Insh – Painter of Dreams, November 2022: Lucy Bodenham and Friends – Upmarket Market – December 2022: Geir Engine – Photography – January 2023: Kevin Jacobs – Paintings & Drawings from his studio at intoart.co.uk February 2022: followed by an ongoing and growing program of local, associate and invited artists and creatives. An annual group show will commence during 2023.

Keeping in Touch

BCCA’s part-time Administrator Maria is at the office on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 11am. Maria’s times at the office are posted on the front door of the Centre every week.

If you are interested in organising a community oriented activity and/or in using any of our available spaces for your personal or public projects please contact BCCA Admin for information about how to do so.

Office Telephone : 0207 820 7466 Email: bcca@btinternet.com

If you have anything that you would like to contribute toward this regular monthly ongoing newsletter please email Maria with details of your proposed content. Poems, local images, portraits, wildlife images, tree portraits, horticultural tips, short stories, general news, menus, cartoons, audiovisual materials towards BCCA growing Archive or any other items of interest to the Local Community will be appreciated.

Family, children and young people’s contributions are most welcome.

 

Monday 31st October, 10am-11am.

Meeting at the Bonnington Centre Community Café, sharing ideas for a new Death Café as a local community resource.

Everyone is welcome.

What is a Death Café? (from the Death Café website)

At a Death Café people, often strangers, gather to eat cake, drink tea and discuss death.

Our objective is ‘to increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) lives’.

A Death Café is a group directed discussion of death with no agenda, objectives or themes. It is a discussion group rather than a grief support or counselling session.

Death Cafes are always offered:

• On a not for profit basis
• In an accessible, respectful and confidential space
• With no intention of leading people to any conclusion, product or course of action
• Alongside refreshing drinks and nourishing food – and cake!

Death Cafés have spread quickly across Europe, North America and Australasia. As of today, we have offered 14675 Death Cafés in 82 countries since September 2011.

Death Cafés already exist in other parts of London, but none are, as yet, south of the river.

For more information:  https://deathcafe.com or call 0790 691 6524.