Due to the generosity of Eric Reynolds, ( owner of Woodbridge Boatyard and founding director of Urban Space Management) Jetty Lane have been gifted cabin classrooms from Trinity Buoy Wharf so the charity can start addressing the huge pool of unmet need in greater Woodbridge, while continuing to fundraise for the building.
The Jetty Lane Centre project in Woodbridge was given an amazing boost last month by the sudden, unexpected and very generous donation of 2 cabin classrooms by Eric Reynolds, of Woodbridge Boatyard. These can act as temporary activity spaces while the charity continues to raise the £3.5million required for the final building work.
“The Jetty Lane Youth, Community and Arts Centre has been urgently required to fulfill unmet needs in Woodbridge since the previous longstanding Youth and Community Centre was of course demolished.And though the youth centre went, the need didn’t go away. In fact, as Woodbridge has become more expensive there has been much less affordable and available accommodation for community groups. Now, the proposed closure of the Caterpillar Childrens Centre, the sudden closure of Age UK and therthe effects of the pandemic have increased this problem. We could not have received a better gift at a more appropriate time!
The Spaces themselves were originally part of Trinity Buoy Wharf Jubilee Pier and are constructed from four 20 ft shipping containers. “They will be ideal for small groups of people to meet in, they’re quirky, fun and centrally located and will be an asset to our project and the wider community,” says ViceChair Caroline Rutherford. “Jetty Lane’s priority has always been to provide space for people to meet and use in Woodbridge at a cost that they can afford. These cabins will enable us to start doing that – and people will be able to see we are doing it.”
“When we were fortunate enough to get a phone call offering us these cabins, we jumped at it” says Cllr Page. “Eric Reynolds is definitely Renaissance man: both Man of Thought and Man of Action. He thought we would find them useful, and when we said yes please, they were on our site -practically before we could blink – with Eric, in his overalls, very much at the forefront of getting them installed. We cannot thank him enough.”
Eric has set up and ran/runs some of the most important people places in London since the early 1970’s including Camden Lock Market, Spitalfields Old Fruit and Vegetable Market, Gabriels’ Wharf, and Trinity Buoy Wharf and winner of the Regeneration & Renewal “Lifetime Achievement Award” for Regeneration in 2012.
Project Manager Cordelia Richman confirms: “Jetty Lane has achieved so much since 2017 but it hasn’t been visible. Now that we have the Activity Spaces everyone can see where Jetty Lane will be and our vision for the site is clear. As soon as we’ve completed a basic refurbishment of the Activity Spaces we will start putting them to use providing facilities for our community.”
MAKE A DONATION
Will you help build Jetty Lane to make a positive and lasting difference for local people?
Go to www.jettylane.org and click on DONATE or Telephone 01394 383128 or Email info@jettylane.org
At the deeply moving, thought-provoking and utterly peaceful Black Lives Matter demonstration, held in Elmhurst Park and organised by Naomi Keeble, Harry Raithatha and others last Saturday, a significant – and socially-distanced crowd of hundreds gathered to hear simply-voiced stories of utter outrage: the 11 year old boy whose daily walk home from school took him past two middle-aged men who shouted racist abuse at him. The teen who went to buy a birthday present, and was accused of shoplifting because she was the only black shopper. The 15 year old who was followed and punched – in broad daylight – by an adult. The child who was always left at the bottom of the drive, because she didn’t get to go into her friends’ houses. The baby who ‘was really very light.’ The other pale-skinned baby, who “must have been adopted” because its mother was black. The remembered outrage of the white boy walking home with his black friend and who suddenly witnessed an episode of racist abuse without understanding why or how it could happen. All in our nice polite white little town. Powerful, powerful – shaming – stuff.
We then ‘took the knee’ for the 8minutes and 46seconds it took for George Floyd to die. Some people were young, some over 80. For all of us, it seemed an immeasurable and horrifying length of time to be kneeling. Again, very powerful.
