Brookside Community Centre
Brookside Road, Hayes, Middlesex UB4 0PL
Tel: 020 8589 0780
Brookside Community Centre is a short walk from the main Uxbridge Road where the 207 or 607 buses from Hanwell to Uxbridge stop outside MFI.
It is a few minutes drive from the Hayes Bypass (A312) which links directly with the M4 motorway. Brookside, once a sports hall, with showers & changing rooms for the football teams that used to use the local fields, was handed over to a group of local people in 1991, after having become delapitated through lack of care & use. They set about using it for the local Community by starting clubs for pensioners, mothers & toddlers, scouts groups, etc., and decorating it to become a presentable Community Centre. It is quite unique in the area catering for all races and creeds: these range from Bhangra Dancing, Asian Ladies group, Islamic Education, Indian Classical Dancing, Indian Drummers, Tamil Language Classes & Choir, to a Senior Citizen Club, an After School Club and a Baptist Church. Brookside is also one of 3 Community Centres that helped set up a charity called CHAD, Consortium for Housebound & Disabled Pensioners, to take out local housebound pensioners. A playscheme was run in the summer holidays which became so successful that 100s of children would turn up and so other Centres were encouraged to open their doors in the summer holidays for somewhere for young children to go. Now there are at least 12 such schemes running each year, with the help of funding from the L.B.H. Brookside also runs a scheme for older youths, and the Park View Baptist Church also ran a scheme for a week in the holidays too.
With the help of a lottery grant of £100,000.00 an extension was built giving three other rooms for the use of groups which could also be converted into a large hall thus doubling the size of the existing hall. A temporary doctors surgery was placed in its grounds with the hopes that the building would eventually have another facelift to house the surgery inside the building. Sadly Brookside burnt down in July 2003 but after a major facelift it was finally re-opened in March 2005. Many of the original groups have found other venues but some have returned. Original Groups meeting at the centre were:
- U3A Art Class (alt.weeks now meets at Childs Court, hemmen Lane, Hayes)
- Bhangra Dancing Gurvi
- Friendly Club (now meets at Mabel Evetts Court, St Christophers Drive, Hayes)
- After-School Care Club
- Mothers & Toddlers run by Sure Start*
- Islamic Education
- Asian Ladies Group*
- Beavers & Cubs
Scouts
- Art Class & also childrens art class
- Drummer Boys
- Bhangra Dancing
- Indian Classical Dancing*
- Asian Music Group*
- Tamil Language Lessons
- Tamil Choir
- Also Private Lets for Childrens Parties
For details of groups now using the centre or to start up a group contact
the centre on the above details. Please note that groups marked with a * have already restarted at Brookside.
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