Above Herne Hill Station is a great long empty space with beautiful views across the park. It’s currently mothballed and inaccessible, but Herne Hill Forum is working hard with South Eastern to bring it back into use as a new town hall and community centre for Herne Hill.  They have secured funding from the Mayor’s Good Growth Fund to explore the feasibility of this concept within the community and are planning a programme of events, activities and consultations up above the station to sow the seeds for a new civic space right at the heart of the community. They are also working with architects to develop a detailed vision for the space with a view to securing further funding in mid-2019 to cover the necessary capital works (e.g. accessibility) to make Station Hall a permanent venue in our community.

The story so far

Station Hall is situated above Herne Hill’s main station concourse and runs the entire length and breadth of the ticket hall. It is a large, historic, well-maintained space but has been empty for a long period, with various attempts to fill it commercially proving unsuccessful due to access complications (which will be addressed). Herne Hill Station is owned by Network Rail and operated under lease by London and South Eastern Railway Ltd (‘South Eastern’). Both organisations are fully supportive of the development of Station Hall, and will be handing over the lease to Herne Hill Forum shortly. Herne Hill Forum are in the process of preparing the venue for use from December onwards by getting in place insurance, purchasing simple equipment and engaging with local community groups to develop a programme of activities.

Local Greens

Local Greens is a local, not-for-profit enterprise that provides customers with weekly, seasonal organic or unsprayed veg bags. Their closest grower is in Sutton, Surrey and for most of the year, they source their produce from 6 farms within a 100-mile radius of London. They currently partner with 23 local venues and community spaces across South London (Brixton to Crystal Palace) to be collection points for their weekly veg bag scheme and on 20th January opened its doors for an initial 3-months above Herne Hill train station. Their overall aim is to support local, seasonal, organic U.K. farming as they believe this is the key to a secure and ethical food future for the UK.

Local Greens partner with over 20 local venues, from pubs to cafes, allotments and local businesses to act as collection points. Each Thursday they drop veg off at each venue where customers can then collect, reducing their carbon footprint whilst also encouraging connection of customers to like-minded businesses and building community.

“We are so happy to be part of this local Civic project at Station Hall, a unique and diverse community space, which opened its doors on January 20th 2019 for an initial period of 3 months above Herne Hill Train Station.”

You can collect a weekly fruit or veg bag from the Mezzanine level of the Station Hall building or any other one of their collection points across SE London. Local collection spots include, but are not limited to:

Check out a full list of locations here.

On signing up to the scheme you’ll be given a code to unlock the box, et voila tasty veg ready for you to enjoy!  As part of the Station Hall project and a wider community approach they are now able to receive healthy start vouchers – more on this to follow over the coming weeks – and are looking to raise awareness of the offer amongst the local SE community – from GP’s surgeries, schools, nurseries and midwifes practices.

Collection times form Station Hall Herne Hill are currently:

Thurs 1 – 4pm

Fri 9 – 4pm (with a view to the Station Hall staying open longer on Friday)

Sign up by the end of the month and receive 15% off. www.localgreens.org.uk