Leader of Hounslow Council opens new Learning Hub at Chiswick House

Leader of Hounslow Council Cllr Shantanu Rajawat and Director of Chiswick House & Gardens Trust Xanthe Arvanitakis  cutting the ribbon on the Clore Learning Space

The beginning of “an exciting new chapter” for Chiswick House

The Leader of Hounslow Council Cllr Shantanu Rajawat was at Chiswick House this morning to cut the ribbon and declare the new Learning Hub open.

The new facility has been built over the spring and summer beside the Kitchen Garden and the artists’ studios which were opened last year, with a new base for the volunteers who work in Chiswick House Gardens, and a newly reclaimed and gravelled yard between the two.

Planters in the ‘Learning Yard’ 

Chair of Chiswick House & Gardens Trust Lycia Lobo thanked Hounslow Council, who are the principal funder.

“We are grateful to them for transforming an aspiration into a reality”, she told the audience which included several Hounslow councillors and officers, Mayor of Hounslow Cllr Ranjit Gill and Representative Deputy Lieutenant for the London Borough of Hounslow Rosie Prescott, as well as representatives from community groups.

She also thanked the Clore Duffield Foundation for contributing funding, as well as other business and community partners, not least the public, who raised £201,025 for the new space by crowd funding.

READ ALSO: Chiswick House & Gardens smash their crowdfunding target for new Learning Hub

Xanthe addressing the audience beneath the all weather awning 

Director of the Trust Xanthe Arvanitakis said the Learning Hub and the yard outside had been five years in the planning.

“The project started in the depths of the pandemic, when it was clear how important these green spaces are to people”, she said.

The Trust had considered how they could make better use of the space which at that time contained a group of under-used garden sheds. They had been “guided by community partners and school leaders about what they needed”.

The Learning Hub

The new space will be used Monday – Thursday by school groups; in the evenings by the public for health and wellbeing classes, which started this week; and at the weekends the Learning Hub is available for hire.

“It is a fantastic indoor and outdoor space”, she said, as she spoke underneath the awning provided for inclement weather, with an eye on the darkening sky.

She also thanked Hounslow Council: “who have been with us on the journey, helping us to find creative solutions to the challenges along the way”.

Cllr Shantanu Rajawat with Cllr Ranjit Gill and Rosie Prescott

Cllr Rajawat said he was delighted to be here to celebrate this important milestone.

“Chiswick House is a treasured asset, a place that brings enormous pleasure to residents”.

Hounslow contributed more than £1m to the Learning Hub and the artists’ studios through the Thriving Communities Fund.

READ ALSO: New artists studios opened at Chiswick House Gardens

READ ALSO: Chiswick residents benefit from hundreds of thousands of pounds of community grants

This part of the borough is in the Mayor of London’s Creative Enterprise Zone, so Shantanu also thanked the GLA and the Mayor of London for contributing funding to the artists’ studios.

Artists studios at Chiswick House

“Last year we launched the borough’s first ever culture strategy”, he told the audience, “to strengthen our cultural connections and civic pride”.

The Council hopes the culture strategy will support regeneration and economic growth. The long-term ambition is for Hounslow to become London’s Borough of Culture.

READ ALSO: Council wants to put LB Hounslow on the map as a destination for culture

The opening of the new Learning Hub marked the beginning of “an exciting new chapter”, said Shantanu, before going over to the door of the ‘Clore Learning space’ to cut the ribbon.

Gillian Brett in her studio

The Learning Hub and the artists’ studios will be open on Sunday (20 September) for the public to see the new spaces and meet the artists. Sculptor Gillian Brett and photographer Anna Booth will be among the artists taking part in an Open Studios day, showing their work.

Gillian was one of the first to use the new Learning Hub this week for an hour long workshop with a group making ceramic masks.. She will be taking a ten-week course in sculpting portrait busts and whole figures starting on 30 September.

Anna is developing her work through an MA in Creative Practice.

Photographer Anna Booth, who shares a studio with Gillian