A NEW fund-raising project to transform a former public convenience on Clapton Common into a community centre, Liberty Hall, is being supported by the Bishop of Stepney, the Rt Revd Adrian Newman, and other faith leaders in the community.

The project has received a grant of £218,000 from Hackney Council after a five-year campaign to save the mock-Tudor building. The estimated £70,000 required to complete the renovation, which will include a kitchen and bike-repair-clinic, will be raised through a crowd-funding campaign led by an alliance of community groups, Clapton Commons, which includes St Thomas’ Stamford Hill, and its Vicar, the Revd William Campbell-Taylor, who also attended the launch.

Bishop Newman said at the launch of the campaign, this week: “This new village hall is the result of many different community groups coming together with a common goal. So it’s fitting that it will provide a space for the people of Hackney to continue to build friendships and work with one another for the benefit of the whole community.”

Rabbi Avrohom Pinter, the principal of Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls’ School in Hackney, who was also at the launch, said that the inclusion of a bicycle repair clinic was an “excellent” idea. “I am certain it will be in high demand here in Hackney. The Orthodox community has some keen cyclists and where there are bikes there is also need for bike repair.”