Venue hire

Hiring a venue at St Hilda’s
Please read the FAQs below. 

We hire for Children’s Parties on Saturdays  Undercroft Suite:  £145  12.00 – 4.30 pm, 
Church Hall:   £165  12.30 – 5.00 pm,             

We do not have party space for Sundays.
For room floor plans please scroll to the bottom
of the page.                                                                                                 The Church Hall         

To make an enquiry:
Emails are checked regularly and often easier:  email  church.admin@sainthildas.org
Please include your phone number.

Phone on (020) 8613 0033; most likely to be answered on Tues, Thurs or Fridays between 10.30am and 5 pm. We only book by return of mail  so an email enquiry can often be easier

FAQs about  venues at St Hilda’s

Q. How many people can you accommodate?

A 1.  The Undercroft Suite 3 rooms:
1. Old St Cyprians Chapel, OSSC 7.3m  x 8m
2. Choir Practice Room  CPR  5m x 5.2m
3. Church Wardens’ Vestry  CWV 4m x 5.5m
with kitchenette) 
The Suite holds up to 60 people in total.                                     ‘Old St Cyprian’s Chapel’   
(See  floor plan at end of FAQS).                                            1 of 3 rooms  in the Undercroft Suite                                                 
Tables: The CWV has 4 cafe tables 60cm square (approx)  and 12 cafe chairs. The tables are against the wall – 2 to a side. 
OSSC has 6  Gopak folding tables  1.82x.7m  (5′ x 2’7″)  (up to 30 chairs as requested)
CPR has  6  Gopak folding tables  1.22 x 0.61m   (4’X2′)  (16  folding  chairs )
Access (level) to the Undercroft is from the Brockley Road end of the church (east end)

A 2. The Church Hall, in Courtrai Road,  has a maximum capacity of 150 people. The hall’s usable floor space measures 17m x  9m (see floor plan below). The garden is not available.

Tables  12  Gopak tables  1.82x.7m  (5′ x 2’7″).  6 round tables 4ft diameter  (1.22m)
Chairs   80 folding Chairs

A 3. The Parish Room  is a quiet room good for small groups for meetings between 12 and 20 people.  The Parish room is within the Church and is accessible across the garden between the church and the church hall. It costs £15 for the first hour’s hire.
Approximate dimensions of usable space (excluding kitchen) H: 247cm (8’1″); W: 422cm (13′ 10″); L: 928cm (30’5″). Double doors open into the room.
30 folding chairs;  tables as agreed

Please see bottom of page for basic floor plans of The Hall and The Undercroft

Q. How much does each room cost to hire?

A. These are the Saturday afternoon rates. Please e-mail the office for rates for non Saturday afternoon bookings.

• The Church Hall is £165 for 4 1/2  hours  (12.30pm-5.00pm)
• The Undercroft is £145  for  4 1/2  hours  (between 12.00pm-4.30pm)
• Your preparation, the event itself, and clearing away are part of the booking
• We do not do additional hours – the staff go home and the site is shut

We do not take bookings for Sunday parties. We will take bookings on Bank Holidays, but not Good Friday or Christmas Day. There will be an additional charge for Bank Holiday Bookings.

Q. How and when do I make payments  for the room?

A.  When your booking is  provisionally made we will send  an email  giving you payment  due date three or four days after.  If you need,  we accept a deposit of  £85. and the remainder is due  2 weeks before the event  NB.  Payment confirms your booking.

• BACS  In our email  to you  there will be a Payment ref  code  Uxxxx or Hxxxx please use it  as the  payment ref  box  when you   fill in  online  banking  order
• Cash/cheque. Place in an envelope and mark the front of the envelope with your name, the venue and date in order for us to identify the payment.  Bring to the church office by appointment. 
• Cheques should be payable to ‘Crofton Park Community Link’.

Q. Will a bouncy castle fit in the spaces?

A. The Hall can fit a large bouncy castle up to 5 metres (16’5″) wide.  Bubble and Bounce  (who are used to attending our site) offer a wide variety of choices for play items for hire, including bouncy castles  and  ballponds.

     The Undercroft will fit a smaller sized (“Princess”) bouncy castle of maximum height  10ft  (3 metres) –   Bubble and Bounce  (see above) have suitable ones for hire.

Q.  When can I set-up for the party?

A.  The block booking is your total time on site  so when preparing your timings  include setting up and clearing up times within the period you booked. There is also a 15 minutes induction for  lights, chairs, tables, fire and health & safety  – we try to do the induction 15 minutes before your booked start time if possible.

• You will meet the caretaker  where possible 15 minutes before your booking to go through basic health and safety issues.
• We advise you to allow at least 45 minutes before your hire period ends  to clean and tidy.

Q. What facilities are included as part of my hire?

A.  Hall – 18 large tables, approximately 6 ft x 2’7″ (1.82m x 0.7m).  6 round tables  approximately 4ft (1.22m) diameter  and 120 folding chairs.

Undercroft – 12 large tables, approximately 6 ft x 2’7″ (1.82m x 0.7m), 8 small tables approximately 4ft x 2ft (1.22m x 0.61m)  and 48 folding chairs.

Q. What equipment does the kitchen have?

A. The kitchens include a fridge,  oven (nb no hob in the Undercroft), microwave, kettle and sink with drinking water. No crockery or utensils are available, please bring your own.
The Undercroft fridge is a Zanussi ZRG11600WA. The hall kitchen measures 8 x 5 metres.

Q. Where do I leave the rubbish post party clean up?

A. Please note that we can only dispose of 3 bags of rubbish. All other bags have to be taken away with you. Bags are placed in the blue  bin to the left of the church hall gate. Please recycle as much of your waste as possible.

Q. No pins, blu-tack (or similar) or  sticky tape allowed – How can we decorate the spaces?

A. There are hooks fixed across the walls for you to hang banners, paper chains and balloons, so please bring a ball of string to hang things up. NB. Blu-tack or similar, sticky tape and pins are forbidden anywhere in the hall.

Q. Is there a music system installed?

A. There are music systems in the Undercroft and Church Hall which you can use for CDs, and a standard 3.5mm jack is included for plugging in your music device.

Q. What happens on the day of the event?

A.  Our caretaker will meet you 15 minutes before the start of your booking and take you through the premises health and safety and cleaning requirements, and organise tables and chairs if requested. It is important to note that it is an unmanned site,  and therefore a member of staff will not be present for the duration thus you must undertake due care on the site. A staff member will arrive at the end of your booking to check the premises and lock up.

Q. What happens if I need to cancel?

A. Please let us know as soon as you realise as others  may  want the space.  There will be a £15 administration fee for all cancelled bookings. If you cancel with less than 22 whole  days notice in advance of your event ( this means if your party is on  a Saturday you must cancel by end of business  Friday three weeks before) we will retain £75 (including the £15 admin) and return anything above this that you have paid- however if we do  manage to get another booking we will return everything  above £15 admin charge.

Q. Do you have any information on car parking and local transport?

A. Car Parking – there is free car parking on Courtrai Road and surrounding residential roads.

Public Transport. Always plan your journey. This is especially important at weekends, when there may be engineering work on the railways. Destination: “Saint Hilda’s Crofton Park, Crofton Park, London”. Post code SE23 1PL

Bus routes – P4, 122, 171 and 172.

Bus stops – Northbound stop CQ (‘Brockley Jack’) is right outside the church. Southbound stops N (‘Brockley Jack’) – north of the church – and HP (‘Maclean Road’) – south of the church.

Train – St Hilda’s is 5-10 minutes’ walk from Honor Oak Park station (London Overground and  Southern Railway for London Bridge) and Crofton Park station (Thameslink).

Office Phone:   (020) 8613 0033. Not Mondays.

Email:  church.admin@sainthildas.org