Time and Talents is a vibrant community centre located in the heart of Rotherhithe village. Offering a wide range of activities, clubs and facilities, it is a key hub of a network of local interests and hobbies. The organisation reaches right back to 1887 and the Old Mortuary – their current home – has a history since 1860. However since a facelift and refurbishment in 2010, the centre has now begun to be at the cutting edge of social life locally. Run by a small team of eight, the building provides space for some key organisations to meet such as the Rotherhithe and Bermondsey Local History Society (last Wednesday of each month 7.30-10.00pm) and the Rotherhithe and Bermondsey Choral Society (Each Tuesday 8.15-9.45pm).
Time and Talents though also runs a range of groups and activities of their own. The centre is often alight with the energy of children and older people co-existing in harmony. On Wednesdays, the morning Stroke Club is followed in the evening by the local Brownie Pack. Yoga and meditation are regular fixtures alongside arts and craft work and children’s drama. The place welcomes all sorts of people and is creating new partnerships with other specialist organisations to help deliver a wide range of opportunities for local people. Recently a group of older people visited the Surrey Docks Farm and made jam with the produce of their land. Over the summer, the centre has been out visiting a range of places, most recently going sailing on Greenland Dock with the Tideway Sailability. From the pictures, the visitors chose a day with great weather to take to the waves!
Alongside the building’s facilities, the team are often out and about working with volunteers in the community. In partnership with New Leaf – a horticulture charity – Time and Talents has built a community greenhouse on part of their car park and are now providing free horticulture qualifications to young people from the local area. They have been working on three local estates to encourage the residents to become involved in planting, managing and harvesting from small plots of unused and underused land around the area. They’ve been planting up free balcony boxes with flowers and vegetables to help make the estates more attractive. (You can read more about the project in a previous post here.) The garden outside the Old Mortuary has been given a new life with raised beds and as a result, lots of people from the area are beginning to value their environment a bit more and befriend their neighbours through growing together.
Time and Talents is run by a small dedicated team and a Board of Trustees many of whom come from around SE16. The people who use their services are mostly living within walking distance of the Old Mortuary. The organisations, clubs and activities who use the spaces are drawn from Bermondsey and Rotherhithe. The volunteers are often locally rooted and give their time for free to make their own lives and that of others a little better. Embedded in SE16, Time and Talents is a warm and welcoming place where people are respected for what they bring and what they can offer.
Time and Talents www.timeandtalents.org.uk
Get in touch with the Director Kat Osborn on 020 7231 7845 or katosborn@timeandtalents.org.uk to donate, volunteer or to find out more. If you want to book a room, call Alyson Moore on the same number or email officeandlettings@timeandtalents.org.uk
