Tag: yourcommunitycentres

Building Refurbishment Update

Press Release 30 September 2026

Cambrian Community Centre Decamps for Winter Refit

Building work for the refurbishment of the Cambrian Community Centre will start on Monday 26 October and is set to continue until the end of February 2027. This will transform the Centre into a modern, accessible, better designed community space.

Scheduled activities will mostly continue at the Centre until building work begins.

The Centre’s Gym and community activities will continue throughout the four-month refurbishment period in accessible venues nearby.

“We know that the Centre’s wellbeing and leisure classes and the Gym are important for many in our community. That’s why we’ve made every effort to continue our activities in nearby venues while our building is being refurbished,” says Sue Pendle, Chair of Trustees.

“We hope Centre users will be able to maintain their active engagement with the Cambrian Community Centre. We will continue to welcome new people during this period,” Ms Pendle says.

Temporary relocation of the Centre’s flagship community gym lies at the heart of its “dispersed” activities. The gym will be installed in a great space at St Matthias Church at the top of Church Road during the building works. This is well served by the 371 bus.

The gym equipment will move there and, most importantly, the Centre’s specialist gym instructors Vicki, Sarah and Becky will be on hand every weekday from 9am to 3pm (5.00 pm on Thursdays) and Saturdays from 9am to 1pm to provide guidance and encouragement so that Centre users need not interrupt their exercise programmes.

Additional venues include the Grove Gardens Chapel (home of The Fixery) in Lower Grove Road, a short walk from the Centre, which will host Drawing, Choir and Pilates classes on Mondays. The nearest 371 bus stop is Park Road. 

Gentle Yoga will continue at its usual time of 10am on Monday at Richmond Library Annexe in Quadrant Road in Richmond town centre. The Gentle Weights class keeps its Thursday 12.30 to 1.30pm slot in Ham Library Annexe in Ham Street, served by the 371 bus. The Dickson House Atrium, facing Cambrian Square, will host Cardiac classes on Friday 1.30 to 2.30.

The Wednesday café will be paused while the Centre’s kitchen is out of use. But the Food Hub will offer supermarket surplus and donated food including fruit, vegetables and pastries in Cambrian Square just behind the Centre. A visit to the hub can be combined with a cup of tea at our social space at Grove Gardens Chapel on Wednesday lunchtime.

“We look forward to welcoming you to the renewed, improved Centre in the spring, and to joining us in developing exciting new projects for the year ahead,” says Sue Pendle.

We will post regular updates on how the work progresses. Full details of alternative locations are on the Centre’s website, cambriancentre.org

The Centre is grateful to Richmond Foundation and Richmond Council for funding the refurbishment and seeing it through.

Refurbishment works to start on 26th October 2026

I am writing to let you know that we have a start date for the building improvement works on the Centre of Monday 26th October 2026. We plan to stay mostly open until that date but will be unable to use the building whilst the builders are on site from 26th October until the end of February 2027.

During that 4 month period we have plans to move the Gym and our activities to alternative local venues. We hope that these will be sufficiently convenient to enable you to maintain your involvement with the Centre’s activities during the period of refurbishment. We will post details of the relocation of activities on our website. Thank you, in advance, for your patience and support during this period.

The refurbishment will be transformational, modernising the Centre and creating full accessibility including:

· ramped access to the Community Centre, and to the Gym, on the Cambrian Road side of the Centre

· a small extension to the Gym

· a managers’ office adjacent to the new Community Centre entrance

· double door access from the kitchen area to the patio area at the back of the Centre

· an accessible toilet for wheelchair users and an accessible toilet for ambulant disabled people

· a new door from the corridor into the main community room area to enable independent use of the two sections of the main community room.

We have been working with Richmond Foundation (RF) to develop this project and are extremely grateful to them as they have committed the majority of the funding for the work and to their staff and Trustees who have given their time and skills to enable the project to take shape and develop.

We are excited at the prospect of welcoming you to the refurbished, improved Centre next year and at how we will make even better use of the Centre in the future.

Centre Users Meeting – 7th October 2026, 2.30 pm at the Centre

We are inviting you to a Centre Users meeting on Wednesday 7th October, at the Centre, at 2.30 pm. We will update you on the refurbishment and arrangements during the period of the building work. We will also provide an outline of the Centre’s work and outcomes during the last financial year, 1st July 2025 to 30th June 2026. Please come along – we will be pleased to see you.

Your sincerely

Sue Pendle

Chair of Trustees

NEW TO THE CAMBRIAN COMMUNITY CENTRE-WALK & TALK RICHMOND!

A SIMPLE, NO COST, OPPORTUNITY TO CONNECT

A 30-40 minute easy walk as a small group, followed by a light refreshment. A chance to talk, or a chance to listen. Space for both. Just show up. You will be so welcome.

This is a great opportunity to get out and about, meet new people and get active. For more information check out Walk & Talk
or
NEW Richmond Walk

The Cambrian Community Centre helps you live longer, says national newspaper

In a round-up of places in Britain where people live longest, the Cambrian Community Centre is highlighted as providing ideal conditions for boosting your longevity.

“What is the secret to a long, happy, healthy life?” asks The Telegraph on 13 April, and includes Richmond among top 10 spots nationwide where locals routinely live well into their 80s, according to the Office of National Statistics.

Sociability initiatives, opportunities to get active, and places to take healthy detoxifying meals, are key, the national daily says, and singles out the Cambrian Community Centre as offering just these qualities.

“For some co-mingling, seek out the ‘Chatter and Natter’ table aimed at reducing loneliness – the Cambrian Community Centre hosts one every Wednesday (11.30am-1.30pm),” the paper recommends, and provides a link to the Centre’s website and details of our upcoming refurbishment project.

Social isolation is statistically linked to shorter life spans, the paper adds. Tight knit communities, low stress and a daily sense of purpose also help you live longer. Richmond’s average female life expectancy is 86.3 years, and 82.5 years for men.

To read the whole article click here: Telegraph Article

Gym With Paula

Thanks to some funding from the League of Friends of Teddington Memorial Hospital the Cambrian Community Centre Gym has been able to work in partnership with Richmond Mencap to provide a new service to service users of Mencap.

Gym with Paula provides a one hour gym session for Mencap service users supported by Sarah, one of our gym instructors and a support worker from Mencap. This pilot scheme has allowed 5 service users to begin their exercise and fitness journey in a supportive, safe and friendly environment.

The group are currently half way through their initial 13 weeks and their feedback has been positive, with each service user seeing improvements to their health, wellbeing and fitness.

This project has shown how partnership work between local charities can provide an inclusive opportunity to the local community. We look forward to more feedback from participants, watching people with learning disabilities grow on their fitness journey.

Please contact Mencap directly for more information on 020 8744 1923 or office@richmondmencap.org.uk

Gym Fundraiser

  • Vicki, Gym Manager getting the kilometres in on the bike
  • Walking the Thames map
  • The km are adding up
  • Ashley running on the tradmil
  • Gym users busy accumulating kilometres
  • On your bike…..
  • Centre Manager David popped in to add some kilometres
  • A big push at the end from Becky, the last 12 kilometres takes our total to……346km
  • Scan to donate!

We did it! We successfully ran, walked, cycled and rowed the distance of the River Thames on Saturday 11th October. Alongside gym users the Community Centre and Gym staff team worked tirelessly to cover the full 346 kilometres from source to sea to raise funds for much needed gym equipment.

Thank you to all who participated as well as those who sponsored participants and made donations to this very worthy cause. At 3pm we were 40km short of our target, so a few volunteers and the staff team hopped back on the gym equipment and we were able to make those finish line at 3:20pm.

There is still time to support the fundraiser by donating using the QR code in the above photo gallery!

New Timetable Available

Our new flyer featuring our Community Activities Program Timetable is now available.

As the summer holidays draw to a close and the temperatures dip it is time for all of our health and wellbeing activities to resume.

If you would like to try out any of the activities shown in the pictures we offer a FREE taster session.

For more information on any of the activities, a FREE taster session, or how to register and book for an activity please contact David Lemon, Centre Manager on 020 8948 3351 or manager@cambriancentre.org #yourcommunitycentre #communitycentre #cambriancentre #cambriancommunitycentre #exercise #activities #community #charity #fitness #health #wellbeing #tastersessions

Hartbeeps returns to the Cambrian Community Centre in September

Join the fun with your little ones

Hartbeeps is coming to Richmond at the Cambrian Community Centre this Autumn!

Join us on Friday mornings for magical, musical, and multi-sensory classes designed especially for babies and toddlers and their grown ups! From newborns to pre-schoolers, our classes are filled with music, movement, imaginative play, and lots of giggles!

7 week term (12th September – 24th October)

9.30am (Happy House) Toddlers and their siblings

10.30am (Baby Beeps) Sitting babies to standing

11.30am (Baby Bells) Newborn to sitting babies

Fun-filled sessions that support early development whislt having the cutest dress up in town and a new adventure every week! Come and see why Hartbeeps is the most original baby class in the UK!

Book here

Volunteers Needed

Call out for volunteers to join The Real Junk Food Project

Would you like to be part of a team that helps to reduce food waste and provides healthy low cost food to your local community?

The Real Junk Food Project is looking for confident cooks as well as servers to join their team at the Cambrian Community Centre on Wednesday mornings. You will be joining a dynamic team that creates healthy lunches for 50-70 guests per session, creating dishes from the food donations that arrive that morning. This is food that is rescued from the supermarkets and other local businesses that would otherwise have gone to waste. Our community cafes operate on a Pay As You Feel basis and are open to all members of our community.

Our team of chefs aim to create a soup, two main courses (at least one vegetarian) and a dessert each session. You will get the chance to be creative, and will learn techniques of how to cook dishes in large quantities if you don’t already have experience in catering. Our servers may be serving meals, pouring teas and coffees, or helping with the washing up.

The core hours are 9-11:30 for cooking and 11:30-13:30 for serving and the team are usually all packed up by 2pm.

If you are interested please contact Sarah at trjfp.twickenham@gmail.com or pop into the café one Wednesday for a chat.