About the Association
Fall: 1940s/50s
The Waterloo residential community is reduced by population shifts in the Second World War during the 1940s and the replacement of houses by arts venues and office development in the 1950s.
Rise: 1971
Modern community action dates from about 1971 largely on an initiative of local charities at the Blackfirars Settlement and Lady Margaret Hall Settlement to redress a lack of services for residents. Local churches, schools and social services form a Multi-Service Group, to address the issues. A community worker, based with Blackfriars Settlement and with financial support from the Lambeth local authority, is employed to assist the involvement of residents in their own community interests and sets up an office in a Morley Street building alongside the Blackfriars Settlement Work Centre. Student volunteers run a weekday welfare rights stall in Lower Marsh that provides answers to problems and gathers information on community needs. The community worker and her flatmate a young lawyer Helena Kennedy (now the Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws QC) in 1972 launch a legal advice service on Thursday evenings from 6.30 to 8 with volunteer lawyers (one client on the first evening) and the service grows exponentially.
Planning: 1972
In the light of the community fight to prevent building on part of Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park local residents form the Waterloo Community Development Group (WCDG) as the Waterloo community's land planning group - with particular emphasis on homes, schools, essential shops, open space and play space.
Temporary locations: 1972/1973
Volunteer local residents take on the street stall in Lower Marsh at the corner of Waterloo Road on Saturdays to give information on welfare and tenants' rights - in front of a public library building of the Victorian era that has been closed and remained empty and largely derelict for a decade. Meetings are held in the Morley Street building that is due to make way for new building. The rising community awareness and the formation of tenants' and residents' associations brings community voices into action and the Multi-Service Group is in a process of transformation into an emerging Association of Waterloo Groups (AWG).
Permanent location: 1973
The emerging AWG, with the help of ward councillors Pam Verden and Peter Lane, gains access to the empty library building on a peppercorn rent from Lambeth Council and with initial funding for urgent repair. Local people are consulted on changes to the building, with local effort and fundraising and public grants contributing to phased renovation and creation of more meeting spaces. The formalised AWG (1974) is recognised by the local authority as a neighbourhood council. A community charity, the Waterloo Action Centre (WAC), is established to administer the premises, under management that includes users within the building and the Association of Waterloo Groups to preserve the interests of the wider community. The Waterloo Legal Advice Service operates from the new location - incrementing to a pool of some thirty volunteer lawyers and maintains a vital community support to this day.
Coin Street: 1977
Coin Street Action Group (CSAG) formed to promote housing and open space on key sites close to the river rather than hotel and office proposals that appeal to a Conservative-controlled Greater London Council. In 1979 CSAG under the umbrella of the Association of Waterloo Groups presents to a Public Inquiry a community scheme for a mixed development including housing, shopping and public open space on the Coin Street sites - leading to the formation in 1984 of Coin Street Community Builders (CSCB).
Business interests: 1991
Several South Bank businesses discuss environmental problems - leading to the formation in 1995 of the South Bank Employer' Group (SBEG) and to the securing of money from the London Development Agency's Single Regeneration Budget for regeneration delivered through the Waterloo Project Board (WPB) and Waterloo Community Regeneration Trust (WCRT) until 2007, when the volunteer-based Waterloo Community Coalition (WaCoCo) is established, with AWG as a foundation board member.
AWG activities: 2000s
The Association of Waterloo Groups maintains its role as an umbrella organization with a platform and network for community interests, represents the community in management of the Waterloo Action Centre and has a community office providing volunteering opportunities and office resources for member community groups.
You may Mail to Association of Waterloo Groups - a.w.g@btconnect.com