WPCA’s Jo Deller, Martin Barrett, Ann Mason, Courtney Shapiro and John Purcell outside the renovated Hocking Hall in Tufnell Park

IT’S taken 15 years and £1.5million, but neighbours in and around “shabby” Hocking Hall in Tufnell Park are celebrating after the community space finally got a much-needed facelift.

The Victorian building in Rupert Road, which first opened in 1890, is a key part of the community, bringing together old and young, as well as being the place where people can exercise and join social clubs. But it wasn’t just what went on inside the building that was important: it turned out that people loved the bricks and mortar, too.

Ann Mason of the Whittington Park Community Association (WPCA) said: “Well, obviously, everybody loves the building. They wanted to restore it rather than knock it down and you know, build something new, which probably would have been a more straightforward option. But we and the community have kind of preserved a community space now for another 50 years at least.”

As part of saving the building – believed to be named after an unknown Reverend Hocking – they managed to raise £90,000 from locals through exciting community events including a David Bowie birthday. Other groups to donate funding to the project include Islington Council and a host of charities and non-profit organisations, while local famous faces have also done their part for the cause.

Former Children’s Laureate Julia Donaldson, best known for the Gruffalo and Stick Man, lives nearby and gave away some of her books and ­literary paraphernalia, while Turner Prize-wining artist Jeremy Deller, another local, also contributed to fundraising efforts by donating work.

Phase one of the refurbishment – which the group first started planning for in 2008 – saw a leaking roof fixed, broken windows replaced and insulation put into the building to protect its users from freezing in the colder months. A lift has been installed and a new disabled ramp added, as well as improvements to the community garden opposite.

The community association is now gearing up to raise similar funds for phase two of the project, which will see the neighbouring café and community building upgraded.

Jo Deller, who has worked at Hocking Hall for more than 10 years and used to attend as a teenager, said: “It’s been absolutely amazing, really, because we’ve seen it in such a bad state and we ­literally struggled along so much trying to keep the communities together and classes running, and it’s just been so nice to see it transformed into a community space that’ll just be here for many more years to come – for the children, for the adult generations.

“It’s amazing. I love it now. I don’t want anyone to go inside!”

The committee is also calling on anyone who may have information about the community building’s past to get in touch. One area of interest is finding out more about the people that are celebrated on Hocking Hall’s walls: Reverend Hocking, as well as Harold Mannia, who has a plaque dedicated to him for starting the youth club there in 1970.

Contact ann@whittingtonpca.org.uk with any information.