News

December has been a busy month with us gearing up for the festive season. Richmond Good Neighbours held their final afternoon tea of the year, providing an array of festive treats for their guests and volunteers. If you know of anyone who would like to be involved next year, their teas will be held on 9th January, 13th February, 13th March, 10th April and 8th of May.

The Cambrian Community Choir held their Christmas Concert on 10th December. This was very well attended and they got us well and truly into the festive spirit with a great mixture of songs and festive nibbles.

With all of our classes now coming to a close for the year, please get in touch with Mary on 020 8948 3351 or email manager@cambriancentre.org if you would like any more information on events and groups starting up again in the New Year.

We would like to wish all of our supporters and friends a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all of the Team at The Cambrian Community Centre.

Struggling to get into the Christmas Spirit? The Cambrian Choir have their Christmas Concert on Monday 10th December at 1.45pm. Everyone is welcome, admission is FREE and there will be refreshments available. We look forward to seeing you there!

Richmond Parish Lands would like to invite you to a public exhibition to view its plans for the more efficient use and improvement of an underused area of Queen’s Road Estate, located at the junction of Queen’s Road, Cambrian Road and Grove Road.

Their plans include the construction of new affordable housing, the reorganisation of on site car parking and minor refurbishment works to the Cambrian Community Centre and Dickson House. Please click here for more information on this event.

The exhibition will be held at the Cambrian Community Centre on Saturday 10th November 10am-2pm and Monday 12th November 4pm-8pm.

October has been a busy month for us at the Cambrian Centre. Richmond Good Neighbours have been doing their bit to end loneliness in Richmond by hosting an Afternoon Tea at The Cambrian Centre on 10th October. Volunteers helped with transport, baking and chatted to guests and the event was very well attended. They have scheduled another Afternoon Tea for Wednesday 14th November 2.00-3.30pm here at The Cambrian Centre, so please get in touch if you know someone who would like to come.

We had a successful weekend 13th and 14th October supporting London Children’s Book Project, who redistribute thousands of new and gently used books to children and their families across London. Our book drive collected 582 incredible books and we would like to say a really big thank you to everyone who donated for this amazing cause.

If you would like any more information on events at The Cambrian Centre please call Mary on 020 8948 3351 or email on manager@cambriancentre.org

On 9th July, the Cambrian Community Singers, “Singing for Fun” group performed an end of term concert. They had a great turn out singing a range of songs, which were followed by refreshments for all! We would like to thank everyone who attended. The Singing group meets every Monday in term time 12.45pm- 2.45pm and welcomes new members. If you would like more information please contact Mary McDonald on manager@cambriancentre.org or 020 8948 3351

The Supper Quiz on 3rd March 2018 was a great success.  The attendees had a great evening pitting their wits against a formidable set of questions.  We raised about £1300 despite a few last minute cancellations due to the weather.  Many thanks to the Friends of the Cambrian Centre who ran the very popular and enjoyable annual event and to everyone else who helped.

The winning team were the “Flying Zucchinis” who won a closely fought battle for the accolade of “Cambrains 2018” for which they all received a medal.  This was the fourth supper quiz – we hope to run it again next year.

Would you like some help with your Computer (or Smartphone etc)? Our FREE Computer help drop-in sessions run every Wednesday morning, 10:30 to 12:30. To ensure everyone gets support, we are now operating a booking system. Please call the Centre on 020 8948-3351 to book a slot. Please note the later time. There are no prerequisites – if you need help just call us – bring your device if appropriate.  Flyer available here.

The Christmas Concert, given by our Singing for Fun group, was  well received and we would like to thank the many people who attended.  There was even demand for an encore! The Singing group meets every Monday in term-time 12.45pm- 2.45pm and welcomes new members. If you would like more information please contact Mary McDonald on manager@cambriancentre.org

We were very pleased to be able to show the film Richmond Park, National Nature Reserve at the Centre on 26th November to a capacity audience. This beautiful 20 minute film features David Attenborough who was also its narrator. It was made by the Friends of Richmond Park to highlight the environmental importance of our Park and conservation issues in the face of increasing visitor numbers. Afterwards trustees from the Friends responded to questions and comments.
If you would like to know more about the film and The Friends of Richmond Park, please visit www.frp.org.uk

Thanks to all those who attended our gym open day on Saturday 28th October.  In our annual sponsored walk, our users made it all the way to Richmond and back to Greenwich (56 miles), twice as far as planned, walking “along” the river from the Thames Barrier to Richmond Bridge, using the treadmills in the gym.  Thank you so much and well done to everyone who took part, sponsored and supported us over the day.  We are still collecting sponsor money and will update everyone with a grand total over the next couple of weeks.  You can still   sponsor the “walkers” online using the MyDonate Button on the “How You Can Help” page on the website.

We were visited by the Mayor of Richmond, as the Mulberry Centre, our local cancer support service, held a Fun Information Session to explain how they can help all affected by cancer, including family and friends.  More information is on the flyer.  Those attending enjoyed teas, coffee and cake  and lucky visitors won super prizes at the raffle – thanks to all who helped.

The Cambrian Centre has a new website and you are looking at it!  We’ve updated our site to make it easier to read on mobile devices and easier for staff and volunteers to update.  If you have any problems or suggestions please let us know.  Write to Vicki@CambrianCentre.org      Continue reading “New Web Site”

On Saturdays the gym will continue to open at 10 am and close at 1 pm –we operated these hours during the summer, and having consulted users, it seems that these hours work for almost all users, so they will continue.

(June 2017)  If you are a Twitter user you can follow us using the hashtag #cambriancentre and our handle is @Cambrian-Centre.   Our tweets are also  shown on our website.

The Cambrian Community Centre went to the Fair! Our pitch (see picture) attracted much interest, and we managed to raise close to £700 for the Centre. Our thanks go to all the many people who helped; on the day, in preparation and also by donating Bric-a-brac or Tombola prizes. More pictures can be seen by clicking here.

The auction of local artist Desmond Jones’ work took place and the picture we were allocated was sold. We are extremely grateful to his family for the generous donation of some of the proceeds – many thanks!

“Our” picture is shown on the right, Blue/Red Dancer (catalogue number 9.) The sale was at Richmond upon Thames College/ Full details can be found at http://desmondjonesart.co.uk

The Supper Quiz was a great success – we raised more than £1300! Many thanks to the Friends of the Cambrian Centre who ran the very popular and enjoyable annual event. We hope to repeat this event next year.

We are very grateful to Kew Village Market for an award of £1000 towards our Gym Equipment fund. We have not replaced much equipment for many years and this year have been attempting to remedy this as reported already. This generous grant will help us make a major improvement to the standard of equipment in our gym. The picture shows our manager, Mary McDonald, on the left, and Chair, Teresa Grafton on the right, receiving the cheque from the Mayor and Lady Mayoress on 2nd October. The market runs on the first Sunday each month and is well worth a visit!

Continue reading “Sunday 2nd October 2016: Our thanks to Kew Village Market”

Our summer sale, on Sunday 12th June 2016, raised almost £1000. We were also delighted that so many people came in and visited the centre. Many thanks to all those who came and all those who donated the items for sale.

Our “Walk the Thames” Gym Fundraising Event was held on Saturday June 11th. We are delighted to say that we have raised a total of over £2000! (including donations, sponsorship and gift aid). Our mission this year was to get as many people involved as possible. 28 people took part over the day – a big increase on previous fundraising years. We hit our target of 28 miles (Thames Barrier to Richmond Bridge) during the afternoon and were able to continue on to 32 miles (back to Chiswick Bridge). A BIG thank you to everyone who helped, either by contributing to the mileage walked or by donating money!

We will shortly be replacing one of our old treadmills and this will help us to do so.

Continue reading “Walk The Thames”

(June 2016)  We are delighted to acknowledge that the Cambrian Community Centre has been awarded a £2,500 grant towards our recently acquired “Arm Ergometer”, a vital new piece of gym equipment.

This offers valuable exercise opportunities to gym users especially those needing to improve their cardiovascular fitness, and is particularly useful as the Centre fulfils its role supporting the new Exercise Referral programme in the borough.

We have just issued a press release which you can read by clicking here.

This equipment has been on the “wish list” of the gym team for a long time and it is great that, with the support of this funding, we are able to increase the choice to those keen to exercise as part of their recovery programme or to keep mobile as they age.