‘Newington is the complete opposite of what it used to be’

The Newington estate in Ramsgate, Kent used to have a reputation for crime and antisocial behaviour. Today, the brightly painted community centre – soon to be renovated with £500,000 from the Levelling Up Fund – stands as a symbol for how far the community has come.

Nestled in the heart of the Newington estate in Ramsgate, in front of the primary school and next to the playground, sits a community centre that looks like no other.

Painted in vibrant yellows and greens, its walls are home to a lion, a toucan, several foxes, a magnificent peacock and a red and pink flamingo standing on one leg, as well as sunflowers and trees filled with all sorts of bright and colourful birds.

The centre hasn’t always looked so warm and inviting. In the words of Newington Big Local’s community gardener Keven Gabriel, it used to be “cold, dirty and beige”.

Or, as community development manager Cara Thorpe describes it: “Horrific! Now it makes you smile instead of going: ‘Urgh!’”

Transforming Newington’s community centre

The transformation of Newington’s community centre stands as a visual representation of a whole raft of positive and creative changes that have taken place across Newington in recent years.

Cara is employed full time by Newington Big Local and, as part of this role, took over the management of the rundown, barely used community centre in 2018.

By the end of 2019, work had already commenced to give the building a makeover. The vision was to transform it from an empty hall into a hub the whole community would feel drawn to.

Newington Big Local community centre. Photo: Local Trust/Ben Langdon, Mile 91

The money for the project came from Creative Civic Change, an innovative approach to funding that used arts and creativity to make positive local change, delivered by Local Trust and its programme partners.

Residents worked with a local artist to create murals for the centre’s walls, as well as mosaics to decorate the sign and benches dotted in front of the building.

Much of the artwork depicts nature – birds, animals, trees and plants. But one of the benches is dedicated to the emergency services, with pictures of a helicopter, police car, ambulance and a fire engine.

You’d guess this was in reference to COVID-19, especially because ‘Stay at home’ is written along one side. However, the designs were conceived of before the pandemic, and originally referred to years of unrest on the estate.

Growing up without community spaces

Newington is situated on the very eastern tip of Kent, with high levels of child poverty and higher unemployment rates than across the rest of the south-east. Antisocial behaviour and criminal damage rates have been high on the estate for many years, with violent crime rates strikingly high.

“It used to be really rough,” says Cara. “We used to have a lot of police cars and the fire brigade on the estate sorting out all the trouble. You didn’t go around to the Centre because it was just violence.”

The area Cara refers to as ‘the Centre’ was a roundabout surrounded by flats, shops and a pub. It had a particularly bad reputation for antisocial behaviour and is evidence of what can happen in a place where there is poverty and deprivation, without positive community spaces for people to come together in.

At the time, the community centre was hardly used and there were no accessible leisure activities, including no affordable sports centre or club.

“We would just be wandering around,” says community development officer Angela Vicker-Craddock, thinking back to her teenage years in Newington. “There was nothing here for us.”

A new ‘centre’ in Newington

As part of plans to improve life on the estate, ‘the Centre’ was demolished and replaced by new houses and flats. Around the same time, in 2012, it was announced that Newington would receive £1million of Big Local funding.

These days, it could be argued that the new ‘centre’ of Newington is the bright, colourful community centre Newington Big Local has established.

From the beginning, Newington Big Local’s plans have focused on creativity, food, green spaces, opportunities to bring people together, and helping children and young people to thrive. The community centre has played a key role in all these things.

It is now home to Chill Club, a popular weekly youth club; a women’s drag and burlesque night called the Screaming Mary Club; regular sessions with inclusive youth theatre group Inspiration Creative; and a number of innovative food activities.

Community chef Mike Spackman heads up the food projects, with the aims of tackling food poverty and forming and strengthening relationships within the community.

Chill Club at the community centre. Photo: Local Trust/Ben Langdon, Mile 91

Activities include a project that currently supplies 80 low-income households in Newington with low-cost food through the charity FareShare, which was a lifeline for more than 1,600 households across Thanet during the pandemic.

There is also Curry Club, providing a positive place for men and boys to meet; Lunch Club, serving hot food to residents who are isolated or may be struggling with their mental health; and intergenerational cooking sessions to support families to learn about healthy eating and food preparation together.

Creative activities that benefit the whole community

It is also at the community centre that Cara, Angela, Keven and the rest of the Newington Big Local team have devised numerous other creative and inventive community events, including lantern walks, Easter egg hunts, pop-up theatre shows and the ingenious Best Fest, a yearly free arts festival that weaves information about housing, mental health and other services into the fun.

Alongside live music and entertainment, and arts and crafts activities, external services like the NHS and fire brigade are invited to run stalls at the festival with a creative, playful twist.

“It all has to be interactive,” explains Cara. “They’re not allowed to stand there going: ‘Here’s a leaflet.’ There has to be something that someone can play. We’ve had Citizen’s Advice doing Hook A Duck and while the children are hooking, the parents are actually going: ‘I need help.’

“Or Orbit Housing Association doing Play Your Cards Right and while the kids are doing that, the parents are going: ‘This has not worked for so long’ and are booking in a repairman to go and fix something at their property. It’s a bit of fun, but with a serious note.”

Creating a new training kitchen

Newington Big Local has run so many projects and events it is hard for Cara to pick which one she feels most proud of. But finding out in summer 2022 that the community centre would receive £500,000 from the Levelling Up Fund to create a new training kitchen is certainly up there.

“We never thought we’d actually be involved in Ramsgate’s Levelling Up Fund bid,” she explains. “Newington has always been left out. It’s just the poor part of Ramsgate, people don’t come here. So for us, it’s absolutely amazing.”

The bigger kitchen will mean Mike’s cooking projects can expand. On top of his current work, he plans to train 30 young people a year to move into the hospitality industry, to help tackle youth unemployment in the area.

Architects have already released early designs for the centre’s renovation and show a new kitchen, eating area, glazed walkway, orchard, polytunnel and pizza oven, meaning very soon the community centre will receive yet another epic transformation.

The lasting impact of Big Local

“Without Big Local this building would be derelict,” says Keven. Instead, he is busy planting apple, pear and cherry saplings for the orchard, and rosemary and sage bushes for the future herb garden.

It is not an over-exaggeration to say that the Big Local programme has had a huge and lasting impact on Newington, with the community centre sitting right at the heart of it.

“People actually feel really lucky to move onto the estate now,” says Cara. “Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always loved living here. I’m proud to be Newington. But it’s the complete opposite of what it used to be.”

By Sarah Raymond

Hear more from Newington residents and volunteers on Chill Club and the young people involved.