Please use Link

To see the full bid please click the link “BID“

We are very sad to hear that Mary Graham has just died. Mary was a key supporter of CREst and cooked and raised money for the Tuesday group.

Her enthusiasm and work for the community of Norbiton will be irreplaceable We offer our condolences to her family who are already grieving the recent death of her husband.

Joint CREst + One Norbiton AGMs

 12.00 p.m. 20^th October 2025

 This year again we are holding a joint AGM with CREst.

Sadly, this past year has seen the death of Ed Naylor who was a former Major of Kingston who played a vital role in setting up One Norbiton and cooked regularly for the Tuesday club. We wish his widow our condolences.

Also, recently Clive Clarke, a longstanding Director One Norbiton has died. Clive started up the Vintage banquet for the elderly of Norbiton which was a great success. Jill and I attended both their funerals on your behalf.

We are grateful to the Rev Hugo Foxwood and St Peter’s Church Norbiton for accommodating our Tuesday Club while repairs were made to QMH after the unexplained fire. We also are grateful to RBK for continuing to officially allow us free occupancy of the Queen Mary’s Hall during every Friday. Our two charities cover both the food costs and the administrative costs of running the service.

Piper Hall has now been demolished as part of the Regeneration, but Jill and I continue to sit on the Community Board.  Our business office space is in 61 Madingley which we are again being allowed to use for a peppercorn rental to RBK until the new Community Hall is built. Until the latter is ready CREst’s Tuesday club and other CREst social events will continue to be run in to Queen Mary’s Hall.

Jill has proved heroic in her ability to organise this extremely valuable service for the neediest in the borough for over nine years now. We have 135 regular attendances every Tuesday coming from 103 different countries. Recently instead of queuing they are forming little groups and talking to each other. We have the help of around 60 local volunteers. Nearly ten of these started off being clients.

We are now at a stage of trying to contribute to ideas for the use of internal space in the new Community Hall which will be two stories high and have a bigger floor area than Piper Hall. Access to the Hall remains the main concern.

One Norbiton continues to pay a monthly sum towards the administrative costs of running the Tuesday club service and we have begun making savings.

Mary Graham must be congratulated for obtaining a £5000 community Chest grant for CREst to support the Food for Tuesday club. Her contribution to Norbiton’s Community has been exceptional. However, recently she has become quite seriously ill, and we wish her all the best.

Jill and I continue to sit on the Community Board our office space in the Hub in Madingley is still being used by us for a peppercorn rental. The club will continue to be run at Queen Mary’s Hall until the new Hall is ready.

 Jill has proved heroic in her ability to organise this extremely valuable service for the neediest in the borough. Her contribution to Norbiton’s Community has been exceptional. We are now at a stage where we are trying to contribute ideas to the layout of the new Community Hall which will be two stories high and have a bigger floor area than Piper Hall.

          We wish Geraldine our Treasurer all the best as she has now retired from her job for A f C., I do hope that all other officers will agree to continue in office in these highly uncertain times

Not surprisingly, Mary Graham receives my chairman’s award 24/25 year alongside Geraldine, and Caitland. Their food is much appreciated by our attendees

I do hope that all our current officers will agree to continue in office in these highly uncertain times and that we can recruit new blood to keep the Tuesday Club going.

Joint AGM of CREst and One Norbiton

Monday 20^th October @ 12.00

Venue: Café

Chair: Mike

1.  Apologies

2.  Minutes of last meeting

3.  CRE & One Norbiton Chairs’ Reports Jill then Mike

4.  Accounts CREst  01 June 2024 to 31 May 2025 –   Geraldine

5. Accounts One Norb 01 June 2024 to 31 May 2025 – these include

ICO £35; Companies House £34; Bank Service £12.75   £8,981 to £2379.07

Pub liability Insurance £145.60 yearly Policy CE42890 in CREst’s name 0800 640 6600

6. Discussion: Employment Costs to run Tuesday Club last year = £6,516.00

Rewarded Volunteering paid by One Norbiton out of Halls budget = £543.00 monthly.

This has recently been reduced to £300.0 monthly.

Hub is rarely visited but it is our official company offices. We must consider changing this.

7. Appointment and Reappointment of Officers

CREst has appointed Zi Siddique as a New Trustee.  

8. Raising more money for Tuesday club.

Geraldine has submitted a bid for £5000 on behalf of One Norbiton which we hope will be granted.

09 Any other business

10 Date & Time of next Meeting before end of Feb 2026 when One Norbitons 2024/25 Accounts are due.

Sadly our longstanding Director Clive has died. His funeral was held in St Peter’s Church last week. Clive was a warm and supportive part of our team and we wish his family our condolences. He is best known for organising the weekly vintage banquets for the local elderly in St Peters.

One Norbiton continues to support CREst ‘s Tuesday Club as its main activity. The venue for the club moved out of CRE’s Piper Hall with the onset of regeneration. We started using Queen Mary’s refurbished Hall until it developed a mysterious fire. We then took up temporary residence in St Peter’s Norbiton, thanks to Rev Hugo Foxwood and his staff. We recently returned to QMH after it was repaired. With the help of 20 to thirty volunteers we continue to feed and supply 100 to 150 every Tuesday.

We have been concentrating on helping CREst with the Tuesday Club organised by Jill Preston.. This continues to attract up to 150 every Tuesday between 12.00 and 14.00 from 72 different countries.

On the first Tuesday of each month attendance is 200 to 250 when many other services are provided for a Wellbeing day organised by Dr Kate Kenyon and RBKares. These services include Health Checks, Foot Care, Free Clothing, Toiletries, a Barber, Benefits Advice, SIM cards Fuel Vouchers. In August only there will be Face Painting, Bicycle Repairs Ice Cream and a Childrens Dentist.

(There are 37 organisations providing this extra help including Mind of Kingston,The Samaritans, Hey Girls, KVA, Your Healthcare, Spear, KCAH, Kick it, Full Cycle, NHS SW London, Kingston Cycling Campaign, Cambridge Road Estates Community Group, Kingston Adult Education, Kingston Council , Dentoid the Dental Charity and The Brothers Trust.)

On February 19th at 14.15 in Queen Mary’s Hall there will be a joint AGM for One Norbiton and CREst,

AGENDA

         1. Apologies and introductions

2. Chairman’s Report for CREst.  Jill

3 Chairman’s Report for One Norbiton. Mike

4 Treasurers Report for CREst. Geraldine

5 Treasurers Report for One Norbiton Geraldine

6 Election of Officers 

7.  Any other business

8.   Date and Time of next meeting? Joint AGM 

Chairman’s Report for One Norbiton 2024

The major upheavals of the Covid epidemic are still being felt and now the regeneration of the Cambridge Estate is now well underway. Our last meeting was held jointly with CREst on 20/7/2023 all officers in both organisations were elected unopposed. Due personal stresses caused by family ill health Mike has been considerably less active in past year. Jill has also had problems losing her mother and having to cope with her father’s deteriorating mental and physical health. Both CREst and One Norbiton have therefore devoted most of their energy on ensuring the CREst’s Tuesday Club continues to function. (Its routine attendance figures are 100 to 150 while attendance on the first Tuesday of each month is 200 to 250.)  60 different nationalities have attended, and 35 different charities and other local organisations have participated.( Also see our article “What have we learnt from our Tuesday Club?”) Dr Kate Kenyan and her group of Kingston Cares have added many new valuable services on the first Tuesday of every month and we have had excellent support from our team of volunteers.

Our Treasurer Geraldine has continued to give invaluable support to both groups and She has submitted our financial returns to HMRC and will be reporting on our financial status.

The problems with the Tuesday group getting adequate interim Hall space had resulted in both One Norbiton and CREst resigning from the Community Board last year. However RBK has now agreed that in bad weather the Tuesday Club queue can wait in shelter of the upstairs room in Queen Mary’s Hall.   Therefore, Jill and I have told RBK we will be re-joining the Community Board.

My own proposed retirement and the merger of some of the functions of our two organisations has been deferred as has the proposal to create a role of a non-executive President.

ONE NORBITON ACCOUNTS 2023 As submitted to Companies House

Mike D’Souza & Jill Preston

History

The Tuesday Club has now become established as a weekly Food Bank and social support event for needy Kingstonians. It started over six years ago as a collaboration between CREst and One Norbiton. These are two centrally funded community groups who share a joint aim of improving the quality of life in Norbiton Ward, where social disadvantage has been, for many years, significantly greater than in the rest of Kingston.

On Tuesday 11^th of April 2017 CREst Chair, Jill Preston, decided to replace an under-attended CREst mental Health group with a volunteer-run Club for people with a wide range of needs particularly street drinkers, who RBK had recently banned from the centre of Kingston. Jill’s new club provided a range of informal personal services including advice and social support, music, and games such as Scrabble and Pool. Then building on an initiative by NHS Wellbeing and a local resident, Angel Levick, the club also started cooking hot meals for attendees together with distributing clothing and grocery items. The latter were initially donations from the customers of Sainsbury’s Sury Basin. One Norbiton added their free allotment of RBK Hall time to CREst’s which enable the project to go forward without any rental costs. 

By the end of 2017, the Club had attracted 475 attendances and in 2018 attendances rose to 2093. In these early days, we were helping 125 separate individuals of whom 44 (35%) had serious problems such as addictive illness and homelessness. We wrote our first report  on our activities in March 2018.  From the onset we were dependant on voluntary helpers. (See below for the some of the first wave of helpers) 

            The total attendance in 2019 rose to 2,112 averaging over 40 per week. On the 17^{th of} March 2020attendance was 44, then in the following week came the Covid lock down. 

The Covid pandemic was never officially declared over but Homelessness disappeared over night as the Council and Government found bed and breakfast for all who needed it. See our second report. We also worked with Matt Hatton at KCAH at the start of the pandemic to assist with offering refreshments and information to those who were being moved elsewhere.  Some refused to leave so we supplied tents, sleeping bags etc when possible.  We also became a recognised agency to distribute Foodbank Vouchers.

 The total attending in 2020 before lockdown was 488. Data gathering then became difficult. However, with characteristic courage, Jill chose not to close the Club entirely but to switch its activities to providing Food bank handouts within the government’s safety requirements. Also, she opened two extra days on Thursdays and Saturdays and organised regular home delivery of food parcels to those trapped indoors with new volunteers coming to help from Sunflower Street RA led by Suzanne Seyghal Buckingham and her late brother, Jonathan.  January 2021 328 parcels were being delivered weekly and included 87 parcels for children. 

In April 2021 regular fortnightly attendance of 35 restarted, but without the face-to-face social games and other activities. By June 2021 attendance restarted to be weekly and reached 52 on 15^th June. Average weekly attendances for the rest of 2021, ranged from 22 to 80. 

In 2022 the weekly attendance began to rise from 70 in February to 130 in December. And in this year, 2023, the average in August reached 146. This year, RBKares, a new Charity started by Dr Kate Kenyon has on the first Tuesday of each month added lots of additional services to benefit our attendees. See below for a list of the services that are now being provided:

Haircutting Hot food Fresh Fruit Groceries Clothing Energy Vouchers First Aid Medical Advice Vaccination Podiatry Benefits advice SIM cards Internet access Mobile phone charging Samaritans Mental Healthcare and limited personal support Addiction services Homelessness services RBK Council Officer services RBK Councillor advice.

All of which is given on a first name basis within a supportive community atmosphere.

Throughout our journey so far well over 1800 people have attended. We have fed locals with no external funding other than a helpful initial donation from Countryside at the start of lockdown.  

We have also arranged for several of our volunteers to be given Food Hygiene training and several of our volunteers have used us as a stepping-stone towards paid employment or training thanks to our references.

The Customers

However, it is now resulting in a considerable increase in attendance. On these First Tuesdays it is already reaching as high as 236. In the last quarter the average attendance on a first Tuesday has been 198 compared with 125 on a routine Tuesday (a 61% increase). This seems partly due to our attracting more and more new customers; however, it is clear we will need to do more analysis of our customers; in case the Club becomes unsustainable. There is limited time and energy to do this and obviously our data must be kept confidential. 

So far, we know that we see all ages from octogenarians to babies. Their vulerability is revealed by the fact that eight have died prematurely since we started (six men and two women) They are now amazingly cosmopolitan with attendees coming from 50 different countries;  Afghanistan Albania Algeria Benin Botswana Bulgaria China Ecuador Eritrea Finland Germany Ghana Holland India IranIraq Italy Japan Kenya Kurd Latvia Liberia Lithuania Malawi Morocco Nepal Nigeria Pakistan Poland Romania Russia S. Africa S. Korea Somalia Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Syria Tanzania Thailand Togo Trinidad/Tobago Turkey Uganda UK Ukraine West Indies Zimbabwe

Past studies showed that the vast majority had KT post codes, but a few do sometimes travel from as far as Croydon to attend. 

Most are appreciative and patient however some have addictions and have behavioural problems. These are often the neediest and most vulnerable, who the service was originally designed to care for. 

Now we are using Jill’s excellent local knowledge to diagnose the severity of customer need. There are undoubtedly some attenders who are not in as much difficulty as they claim but the vast majority are.  The nation-wide growth in food banks is distressing and the fact that in a wealthy area like Kingston services like the Tuesday Club are clearly required is a particular worry.

Managing the food handouts

 Jill has introduced a queuing ticket system on a first come first served basis. The occasional disrupters are given warnings and temporary exclusions.   Fair distribution of food is achieved with cloakroom tickets issued based on the number in any household. People can also “buy” a carrier bag with one of these. Collecting for others is not encouraged except for the housebound.

 Our sources of food are mainly donations from City Harvest and the customers of Sainsbury’s Sury Basin. This food is collected three times a week by Geraldine Burgess who also helps with the weekly shopping and cooking.

We also get direct donations from local citizens and buy items we are short of. Among our cooks Ed Naylor (Former Kingston Mayor) deserves special mention as he has been with us from the start. In addition, Mary Graham is providing a cooked dish every week. We have a series of Freezers and steel cabinets to store food to replace the Hub pantry in the basement of the soon to be demolished Madingley tower.

The Volunteers

            Our volunteers are indispensable. Regularly 25 to 30 help out on Tuesdays Interestingly, occasional customers volunteer and after filling in Jill’s entry form can become regular helpers. They are ably organised by Trudy Barker and become members of our Tuesday group WhatsApp. We hope to institute regular face to face Volunteer meetings in the Hub as the sustainability of the Tuesday Club is a major challenge to CREst and One Norbiton.  

Observers /Volunteers from both Statutory and Charitable Groups

We have begun attracting observers and helpers from many other local groups most are listed here; Angels of the Hood CCG KBI Child Services AfC Countryside Domestic Abuse GP Practice Mobilize Hey Girls Health Watch Kingston adult Ed KCAH Mind Moving-On-Together KVA Super-Highways NHS Vacc NHS recoveryRBK CEO RBK Benefits Spear Staywell The Bridge RBK Cllrs RBKares Refugee Action Shared Enterprise SamaritansSave the World Wellbeing Kingston Cycling Campaign (Dr Bike)  Dentaid New Era Axis Hestia Opticians Podiatry Ideal NHS anti-smoking

Some of the Volunteers in Piper Hall on 18/10 2022

Problems

We Have had a lot of support from the Royal Borough, both Officers and Councillors. RBK’s CEO, Sarah Ireland, has attended as have all our Councillors. Considering the problems that our most disadvantaged clients must cope with, we have had less difficulties than we expected thanks to Jill’s tireless organization.  

However, we were upset that our transfer from Piper Hall to QMH took place with very little notice or prior consultation about our needs, and we now function with vastly reduced storage. We do worry also that now that there is one less hall there is nowhere for our lengthening queue to have shelter in the winter.

One Cambridge Gardens owner-occupier did complain about our customers sitting and smoking on her doorstep. This seems to have been successfully handled by a simple request to the clients not to do this. 

Lessons learned. 

1. There is an obvious need for such clubs and this need may be growing.
2.  A confidential, personal (First name) approach works best.  
3. WhatsApp groups are useful for organising volunteers but local organisers such as Jill and Kate Kenyon are vital. 
4. It is crucial that our voluntary groups work together without Kudos-hunting or trying to take over.
5. The workload of coping with increasing numbers has meant that it has been impossible to analyse every individual but it would be valuable for planning to know more about attendees and volunteers. . 
6. To avoid risk of embarrassment, is essential that all personal data is kept strictly confidential.It is important that Helpers are non-judgemental.
7. If Statutory and Voluntary services do work harmoniously, we can effectively ameliorate the needs of the most disadvantaged in our community.This club approach enables those in need to get their statutory dues in a timely way as well as getting friendly and informal community support.