Lyndhurst Hall, Warden Road - Before Demolition 2005

Lyndhurst Hall was an Victorian mission hall built by

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

's Lyndhurst Road

Congregational Church Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...

. Located in Warden Road,

Kentish Town Kentish Town is an area of northwest London, England in the London Borough of Camden, immediately north of Camden Town. Less than four miles north of central London, Kentish Town has good transport connections and is situated close to the ope ...

, it was later sold on and used as a community hall, before being demolished in 2006 to make way for flats.

Construction and early use

The hall was built in 1891 under the leadership of Dr Robert Forman Horton, then minister of the Lyndhurst Road, Hampstead church. The foundation stone was laid by local MP Samuel Smith on 29 July 1891 and the building formally opened to the public on 14 March 1892. It was extended in 1911, with a new memorial stone laid on 8 April 1911 by Dr Horton, and the official opening took place on 30 October 1911. Funding for the building and extension was provided by members of the Hampstead Church congregations. The architects for the extension were Spalding and Spalding who were connected with the Lyndhurst Road Church (and were probably responsible for the original building). Lyndhurst Hall was a resource for the local community a time of general poverty in Kentish Town – Charles Booth poverty maps (1898–99) describe the locality as: "very poor, casual, chronic want". It hosted a range of events, including clubs for boys, girls, men and women, bible classes and Sunday services, as well as entertainment and legal and financial advice. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

it was an emergency shelter and operation centre for voluntary aid detachments. Similarly, in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

it was used as a shelter. It was itself hit by a bomb, which shattered most of the glass in the building.

Later use

During the 1950s, community activities at the hall included the

Boys' Brigade The Boys' Brigade (BB) is an international interdenominational Christian youth organisation, conceived by the Scottish businessman Sir William Alexander Smith to combine drill and fun activities with Christian values. Following its inception ...

, Sunday schools, youth club and children's nursery. The youth club was taken over by the Christian Teamwork Trust from 1958, with activities run by the club's membership and minimal input from the Trust – a controversial management style for the time. Hampstead's Lyndhurst Road Congregational Church sold the building to

Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras St Pancras was a civil parish and metropolitan borough in London, England. It was an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, governed by an administrative vestry. The parish was included in the area of responsibility of the Metropolitan Boa ...

(later to become part of Camden Council) in 1963 and it reopened as a community centre two years later. It was available for hire for private functions — such as the 1972 and 1973 editions of

Comic Mart Comic Mart is the catchall term for a series of British comic book trade fairs which were held in the United Kingdom from 1972 until the early 1990s. The Comic Mart was one of the earliest recurring public comic events in the UK, predated only by ...

Burton, Richard. "Meditorial," ''Comic Media News'' #29 (Jan./Feb. 1977)."The February Comic Mart," '' Comic Media & The Comic Reader UK Edition Newsletter'' #3 (Feb. 1973). — and was also home of St Pancras Amateur Boxing Club (SPABC). In the mid 1980s, most of the ground floor was taken over and run by Camden Workers Social Club. SPABC moved into alternative premises in 1984 and the youth club closed in 1989. By early 2000, Camden Council had decided to close and sell the premises. The building was finally sold in 2005 and demolished a year later, with anger being expressed by some residents about loss of facilities and a mural inside the building. A block of flats now stands on the site, and the 1911 memorial stone has been incorporated into the foundations and can be seen at street level in Warden Road. Hampstead's Lyndhurst Road Congregational Church, founder and original owner of the Kentish Town mission hall, closed in the 1970s and is now a recording facility for

Air Studios Associated Independent Recording (AIR) is an independent recording company founded in London in 1965 by record producer Sir George Martin and his business partner John Burgess, after their departure from Parlophone. The studio complex was founded ...

References

External sources

Lyndhurst Road Congregational Church records at The National Archives
{{Coord, 51.5484, -0.1490, format=dms, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Demolished buildings and structures in London Former buildings and structures in the London Borough of Camden History of the London Borough of Camden Congregationalism Kentish Town