Church hall destroyed by fire
St Mark’s Parish Church Hall was destroyed by a blaze today after fire fighters battled for over an hour to try to save the 100-year-old building. Fire crews were called to the scene at 5:30am this morning.
The hall was built in 1908 as a church then replaced 60 years ago with the nearby larger stone church which was undamaged by the fire, as was Sacred Heart Primary School but this is currently closed for safety reasons. Church services are not affected but St Mark’s Road is closed.
The hall was used for scout meetings, wedding receptions and other community group activities – many of which will have to be moved or cancelled until a new hall is built – this was planned within the next two years but will now be brought forward.
Church hall before the blaze
I help run a playgroup called Come & Play at St Marks Church Hall.
Obviously we are devastated at the sad news of the fire. Come & Play has been running for over 20 years!! During that time it has brought so much support and joy to a growing number of Mum’s and toddlers. There is currently a Come & Play playgroup running on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays. We had a massive storage room full of bought and donated toys and games that are now in ashes.
All the Mum’s agree that this can NOT be the end of Come & Play’s history! Obviously it is going to take some time before we can resume back at St Marks, so in the meantime, we are going to get together in the New Year to see how we will carry on. We hope to be able to temporarily meet in the church itself – there is carpeted area – where we could do stories and singing. Thereafter we will have to find another hall until our lovely St Marks is back up and running. We are also going to organise fundraising and the donation of toys, games, trikes etc. Especially as this is a time of year when so many families are throwing out old toys to make way for the new! I have put my contact details below; plus my office address in Teddington which would be a good drop-off point for donations as I have a storage room there until we find an alternative venue. We would be just so grateful for any help at all, however small.
And if anyone wants to support the church itself, there is a lovely crib service at 5pm on Christmas Eve, which we will all be going to. It’s a wonderful service as David the vicar makes it all about the children (a couple of years ago there was a treasure hunt around the church with kids crawling under the alter!). I suspect it will be an even bigger event this year!
Address for toy/games donation: Absolute Concepts Ltd, 8 The Causeway, Teddington. TW11 0HE We will accept ALL kind donations.
A few examples of what we lost in the fire:
Ride-ons – trikes, scooters, cars, bikes
Outside toys – slides, trampoline, sand-pit, tents, tunnels, seesaw
Puzzles
Dressing up clothes
Dolls house and accessories
Lego
Wooden bricks
Cars/Garages
Dolls
Playdough and accessories
Trainsets
Kitchen and accessories
Tools/DIY bench
Musical instruments
Books
CD’s and CD player
Painting easels/mats and accessories
Step-up stools
Baby bouncer chairs