25 Years of Bedford Park's Parish Halls Celebrated

Display in St. Michael and All Angels charts building's transformation

The old Parish Hall, facing west, with kitchen and balcony. Picture: SMAAA

February 4, 2026

St Michael & All Angels Church in Bedford Park has celebrated the 25th anniversary of its “new” Parish Halls, marking a milestone for a building that has become one of Chiswick’s most active community spaces. The church held a celebration on Sunday (1 February), accompanied by a display of photographs and memories charting the halls’ transformation and impact since their reopening in 2001. The exhibition is now available to view in the church and online.

The original Parish Hall, designed in 1884 and completed in 1887, was a central feature of Bedford Park, widely recognised as the first garden suburb. By the late 20th century, the hall had fallen into disrepair, prompting a major community-led effort to rebuild it. The £500,000 project, completed in February 2001, doubled the building’s capacity by adding an extra floor and created a brighter, more versatile space intended to serve the whole neighbourhood.

Speaking at Sunday’s Candlemas service, the vicar, Fr Kevin Morris, reflected on the project he helped oversee. He paid tribute to architects Oliver West and John Scott, recalling the moment he first saw the newly created upper hall in 2000. “I remember how struck I was with how beautiful it looked,” he told the congregation. “It felt a very spiritual thing that had come into being.”

Looking back at the opening of the new halls, Susan Stanley-Carroll, former head of drama, Chiswick & Bedford Park Preparatory School said, “My first memories of St. Michael & All Angels’ Parish Hall date back to the late 1980’s when I was allowed to set up Chiswick & Bedford Park Preparatory School’s first after-school drama club in the large ground floor hall. The original hall, as can be seen from the photographs, oozed atmosphere and I was ‘over the moon’. Very exciting except for the splinters! Huge wood splinters that pierced the ‘derrières’ and fingers of little children. The school supplied a 5-inch pair of Victorian tweezers (to extract the monster splinters!) and a tube of antiseptic; the children were asked to wear gloves. In 2001 the purpose-built Michael Room, in the restored Parish Hall, changed the teaching vista of our school. We had space - wonderful space - plus use of loos, a kitchen, storage and under-floor heating.”

Opening party in 2001: Eileen McGregor (churchwarden), Oliver West (architect), Mary Pears (chair, Appeal Committee), John Scott (architect), Fr Kevin Morris, David Beresford (churchwarden). Picture: SMAAA

Since reopening, the halls have hosted a wide range of activities, from school events and exercise classes to concerts, talks, festivals and private celebrations. Fr Morris said the building had become “a wonderful meeting place for the locality”, with income from lettings helping to maintain the church, repaint the building, support youth work and fund a new organ. “Our mission as a church is to serve the wider community and foster a sense of togetherness,” he said. “The Hall has had a very positive impact on community life.”

The rebuilding was funded entirely by local residents after a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund was unsuccessful. Donations, fundraising events and loans secured on projected lettings made up the total, with major contributions coming from the Bedford Park Festival and fundraising balls at Chiswick Town Hall.

Line drawing of the original Parish Hall

Torin Douglas, director of the Chiswick Book Festival, said the decision to rebuild the hall had shaped the area’s cultural life. “It was a brave and visionary project,” he said. “Without the ‘new’ Hall we would never have launched the Book Festival or expanded the Bedford Park Festival. It’s hard to remember how dilapidated the old Hall was – indeed, some users of the ‘new’ Hall didn’t even know the old one had only one floor.”

The anniversary display includes photographs, architectural drawings and recollections from those involved in the project and those who have used the halls over the past quarter-century.