The Guy Chester Centre is responsible for areas of the North Bank Estate in Muswell Hill, North London, which is owned by the Methodist Church of Great Britain. The Centre manages Chester House, which is a student hall of residence.
The Guy Chester Centre, in
Muswell Hill, manage
Chester House a student hall of residence.
North Bank Estate
The North Bank Estate takes its name from a large old house with extensive grounds, which was purchased by H Guy Chester
OBE
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
in 1924. Chester and his family lived in Hazlehyrst, an Edwardian villa on Colney Hatch Lane, which is still part of the grounds.
In 1932, an extensive programme of alterations and redecoration was carried out at the North Bank house and it was then placed at the disposal of the local Methodist church. On his sixtieth birthday, in February 1947, Chester handed over the whole estate to the national Methodist Church. The estate was again extended in 1960 and presently covers around including housing for
MHA (formerly Methodist Homes for the Aged).
Chester House
For many years Guy Chester had "looked forward to a time when it might be possible to build a residential centre for young men and women who were either studying or working in London." The need to find new premises for the Methodist Youth Department (MYD) led to a committee being set up in 1955 which agreed that a joint project "was not only feasible but also desirable." Chester donated the site and the first £50,000. It opened in 1960 and was named Chester House (without his prior knowledge).
Guy Chester Centre
In 2000, when the whole of the Chester House building was made available, the title of the Guy Chester Centre was used for the property and grounds management of the North Bank Estate.
Grounds
The estate has large grounds, which include formal gardens, lawns, ponds and a wood. Wild fauna includes
fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
es,
rabbit
Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit speci ...
s and
ducks. The grounds are open till 4pm and are classed as a
"Quiet Garden".
References
{{coord, 51, 35, 40.5, N, 0, 8, 43.8, W, type:landmark_region:GB-HRY, display=title
Methodism in the United Kingdom
Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Haringey
Methodism in England
Methodism in London
Muswell Hill