St Michael's Parish Hall was reopened in 2001, after a £500,000 regeneration project, which rebuilt the Victorian hall as a new community centre for the whole of Bedford Park. The capacity of the building was doubled by adding an extra floor, providing three halls. All are available for hire, at competitive rates. A list of forthcoming concerts and events and regular activities can be found on the noticeboard outside the Hall. Booking details The Michael Room (pictured above, at a wine-tasting and, left, at the opening party) is the large first-floor hall, with the original green-painted beams and high windows, making a light, airy and elegant space. It can be reached by a wide staircase or lift, giving access to the disabled, and accommodates 96 seated or 170 standing. There is a large modern kitchen and chairs, tables, crockery and glasses are available. It costs £36 per hour for community use and £70 per hour for private use, and there's a 25 per cent discount for multiple bookings (10 or more). Downstairs are two adjoining spaces, the Gabriel Room and the Raphael Room, which each accommodate 40 seated or 70 standing. They are served by a smaller kitchen. They each cost £20 per hour for community use and £36 per hour for private use, with the same discount for multiple bookings. All the rooms have adjacent toilet facilities and may be hired from 9 am to 11 pm (midnight on Fridays and Saturdays). There are also inclusive rates for special events. Children's parties (3 hours' use, including half an hour each end for setting up and clearing away) cost £110 in the Michael Room and £55 in either the Raphael or Gabriel Rooms. Hire of children's tables & chairs is £25. Use of cutlery, crockery and glasses is £50 in the Michael Room and £25 in the Raphael or Gabriel Rooms, and the hire of tablecloths is £40. A wedding, for which you get the complete building including the Church for the entire day, costs £950. For further details, or bookings, please call the Parish Office on 020 8994 1380.

THE RE-OPENING
The Hall was re-opened in 2001 with a party for those who had helped realise the project. It was blessed by the Bishop of Kensington, the Rt Reverend Michael Colclough, on Sunday February 4th 2001. The vicar, Father Kevin Morris said: "This is a marvellous building that is now available to the whole community for a wide range of uses, from celebration to education. We've already had concerts, wedding receptions, children's parties and charity fund-raising events, as well as regular school bookings - and we look forward to many more."
THE DESIGNERS
The imaginative design - by local architects Oliver West and John Scott - has produced a highly versatile, state-of-the-art interior while retaining and restoring all the important original internal features. The exterior has been preserved in all its unique splendour. The building project manager was Andrew Pears and the work, being carried out by Contrad Construction Ltd of Sunbury.

THE BACKGROUND 
The Parish Hall (or Parish Room, as it was originally called) was designed in 1884 by Bedford Park architect Maurice B. Adams, St. Michael & All Angels’ first churchwarden. It was completed in 1887. For many decades the hall was a thriving centre hosting concerts, tea dances, lectures, and sales of work. It was also home to Girls and Boys Brigades, and later, to Scouts, Guides and amateur dramatics groups. But it fell into disrepair and by the 1990s was looking very shabby and in urgent need of improvement.

THE APPEAL
The Appeal was begun in the summer of 1998 and completed on Sunday September 29th 2002, the Feast of St Michael & All Angels, after four years and four months of fundraising. The last major fundraising event was a Michaelmas Ball in Chiswick Town Hall, which raised almost £15,000. The two-week Bedford Park Festival in June 2002 raised almost £30,000. These two events, plus money pledged through covenants over the coming years and unexpectedly high income from the Hall itself, brought the Appeal to its final total. The event was celebrated at St Michael's patronal service. Oliver West, the church organist and one of the architects who designed the new Hall, shinned up a ladder to paint the final spindle on the 'Stairway to Heaven' board marking the appeal's progress. His ladder was supported by Father Kevin Morris, the assistant priest Father Graeme Morgan and Canon Alun Evans, rector of Swansea, the visiting preacher, who unveiled a "thank you" banner made by the Children's Church.