The files in this collection contains correspondence, minutes, reports, memoranda
and notes relating to the day-to-day running of Pagnell Street Youth and Community
Centre. Much of this material relates to Norma Gibbes, Chairperson and Director.
There is some duplication of material between files in this fonds
Pagnell Street Centre began life as the Moonshot Club in St John's Hall, Lewisham
in about 1971. Sybil Phoenix was the founder and first director of the club. Rosalind
Howells and Lloyd Grey were also founders and Jocelyn Barrow would later be a trustee.
This building burnt down in the late 1970s and Pagnell Street Centre Charitable Trust
leased a property on Fordham Park, New Cross, London in 1979. The Centre had originally
been based. The Centre was set up under a Trust Deed administered by a group of Trustees
and was opened by Charles, Prince of Wales in February 1981. A Management Committee
agreed on a new constitution on 9 December 1981. The Inner London Education Authority
(ILEA), the Sports Council and the London Borough of Lewisham funded and were closely
involved with the Centre. The centre's treasurer, Mr Nott, was also the Assistant
Treasurer of Lewisham Borough and the ILEA seconded Beverly Campbell to the centre's
education project. The main objectives of the centre were: The relief of poverty,
the advancement of education and the provision of facilities and activities for the
benefit of all those living or working in Lewisham. Pagnell Street Youth and Community
Centre quickly became a focal point for the local black community. In 1981 Sybil Phoenix
helped organise the Black Peoples' Day of Action after the New Cross Fire. The Centre
provided a counselling and advice service, an education project, the Moonshot Youth
Club, the Moonshot Domino Group, a Young Mother's Project and a Painting Project.
It also operated a canteen and a library, and hosted a number of sports groups; including
badminton, basketball, cricket, football and netball. The Young Mother's Project had
existed in the original centre at St John's Hall and was very ably run by Sandra Fuertardo.
The Moonshot Youth Club was the nucleus and most active part of the Centre. However,
by the mid 1980s "threatening behaviour [had become] a regular occurrence with a certain
group of older male members of the Youth Club" (PAGNELL/1. ILEA letter 15/09/1984)
and this period saw a decrease in the club's popularity, as well as an increase in
illegal activities. The club closed down in 1999 but was later re-opened as the Moonshot
Club.
In its first few years the centre had a series of directors. Sybil Phoenix resigned
that post on 31 December 1980 to go and work with the church. The Centre did not have
a Director from October 1981 and during this period the chair of trustees, Norma Gibbes
(Sybil Phoenix had invited Gibbes to that position in the mid 1970s), acted as executive
chair. Andrew Balladin was appointed as Director in April 1982 and was due to take
up the post by the end of June but the Management Committee were again interviewing
for the post of Director by July. Winston Lawrence was appointed Director on 31 January
1983, by October of that year a report was presented to the Management Committee questioning
"Mr Lawrence's ability to carry out the duties of Director effectively". E Harris
became Director on 1 August 1984 and resigned in October of the same year.
Norma Hart born in 1943 in, Free Town, St Catherine, Jamaica. In 1958 she left for
London, where she went to secondary school and continued on to Teachers' Training
College between 1961 and 1964. Norma married Asquith Gibbes in 1964 and started working
as a teacher in London. She was a founder and member of the Caribbean Teachers' Association
which later set up a training project for young people in Camberwell. With the assistance
of a number of community groups, she also printed pamphlets to inform parents about
the educational system and organised a series of educational programmes on Black Londoners.
Norma Gibbes also worked with Asian community leaders to set up a National Black Educational
Organisation, but this project failed. She was invited to be the Chair of Trustees
at Pagnell Street by Sybil Phoenix in the late 1970s, she acted a executive chair
between December 1980 and April 1982 when the centre did not have a Director and resigned
in 1985. When she left she took what records she could and deposited them with the
Black Cultural Archives in 1998.
Norma Gibbes worked consistently as a teacher at schools in Southwark. She was one
of the first Black Headteachers in London; becoming Deputy Headteacher at Dick Sheppard
School in Tulse Hill in April 1983 and acting head in 1988. In January 1989 she was
appointed Headteacher of Warwick Park School in Southwark, a post which she held until
her retirement in August 1997. She became a local councillor in Southwark in 1998
and served until 2006, a corporation member at Southwark College from 1997 and Chair
of Governors at Kingsdale School in Dulwich.
Information taken from PAGNELL, an interview with Norma Gibbes on 19 November 2008
and Lewisham Borough Council's website.
This collection is available for research but is currently held offsite. Readers are
strongly urged to contact Black Cultural Archives in advance of their visit. For material
that is stored off-site, advance notice of at least a week is needed in order to retrieve
the material.
The reading room is open for access to archive materials Wednesdays-Fridays, 10am-4pm.
The reading room is also open late every second Thursday of the month, 1pm-7pm.
Please email the archivist to book an appointment archives@bcaheritage.org.uk
Subjects:
Education
Community organizations
Youth organizations
Geographic names:
Lewisham
Personal names:Gibbes , Norma Phoenix , Sybil
Corporate names: Pagnell Street Youth and Community Centre
Pagnell Street Youth and Community Centre
