It’s been a busy few months at the Primrose Hill Community Association.
In March, we held a Beatles talk; a sell-out Village Disco; and Martin Sheppard’s brilliant talk on ‘The Most Important Day in the History of Primrose Hill’.
April is the month for our AGM, when we said our fond farewells to outgoing Chair Amanda Dickins and welcomed incoming Chair Marijke Good. Marijke is already familiar to us, as she has chaired the Primrose Hill Community Library for many years; we look forward to working more closely with her. Also in April, we held a Jumble Sale to get rid of two years of surplus possessions; a hustings, with 9 of the 10 candidates attending; and the ‘Last Friday in the month’ bar, with an Irish theme and some wonderful live music.
In May we had the local council elections; the popular Top of the Hill Quiz; and another sell-out event, Bollywood on the Hill, hosted splendidly by Gurinder Chadha, pictures of which you will see in this magazine.
In June will be our Jubilee event: the Primrose Hill Royal Garden Party in and around Chalcot Square on Sunday 5 June from 2pm to 5pm. There will be all types of live music throughout the afternoon. For drinks, there will be free non-alcoholic refreshments or buy from our beer stall or Pimms stall. You can enjoy cakes galore: bake and donate one if you’d like to contribute (prizes for best-looking and best-tasting), or bring your own picnic. Of course there’ll be lots of children’s activities, including crown making! So put the date in your diary, and come and join your neighbours to celebrate Her Majesty’s platinum jubilee in style.
For July, we have started planning our third Primrose Hill Art Trail on the afternoon of Sunday 3 July. Contact trail@phca.cc to take part.
As well as these one-off events, there are many regular activities taking place every week: on Wednesdays, Open House, a free film, talk, or outing; Thursday walks (moving from Wednesdays from 9 June), often with specific themes; plus Zumba Gold, Online Yoga, Last Friday in the month Bar, Mah Jong, Life Drawing and Sunday Bar.
Volunteers
As you can imagine, organising such a lot of events and activities takes a lot of planning and volunteer support. Huge thanks go to our Events team, our On The Hill team, our volunteers, our donors and our IT and tech team who keep all the cogs turning. If you would like to help too, please get in touch.
Neighbourhood Nosh
One of our big projects that brings help to our area is Neighbourhood Nosh. The dedicated team manage to provide over 100 cooked meals (3 courses) each week to those in need. It is hard work and often difficult to manage logistically, but the team just get on with it and deserve high praise and recognition for the amazing work they do. They are looking to expand to run a drop-in ‘Welcome Café’ at the centre. They always need more cooks, so if you enjoy being in the kitchen, please get in touch.
Finally, we must thank our regular and one-off donors and supporters who help make all the above possible. It is an incredible community here in Primrose Hill, and long may that continue.
By Mick Hudspeth (CEO)
