A wise man once said: "if you don't know how you got where you are, how can you know where you are going?"

 

It is difficult to think about All Saints Community Centre without reference to its history and that of the Parish of All Saints Hatcham Park, to which the Community Centre belongs.

   

All Saints is proud of its connection with the anti-slavery

movement. One of the leading activists in the English

anti-slavery movement was Joseph Hardcastle, the local

"squire" of Hatcham Park who was a member of the

Clapham Sect which was instrumental in securing

abolition 200 years ago. When All Saints Church was

being built, the Diocese of Southwark invited the

Hardcastle family to suggest a name. They proposed

 "All Saints" for all the 'saints' who worked to end

the British slave trade.

 

Today, reference can be found to that heritage not only

in the stained glass window celebrating the life of Joseph

Hardcastle and the foundation stone laid by the Earl of

Shaftsbury (a leading aristocrat in the fight for equality),

but is reflected daily by the wide cross section of people

who use the Church and the Centre.

 

The older part of the Community Centre was built as the

original Monson School and predates the Church.  After

the Church was built, the Old School building was given

to the Parish for use as a Community Hall.