Venue hire

FAQs about hiring a venue
at St Hilda’s

Other than for availability enquiries, please read the FAQs below before enquiring. Please note that we do not hire out spaces for Sunday parties.

To make an enquiry:
email church.admin@sainthildas.org
Please include a contact phone number.
or contact us using this link.

Or phone us on (020) 8613 0033; most likely to be answered  on  Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays between 10.30am and 5pm.

FAQs about hiring a venue at St Hilda’s

Q. How many people can you accommodate?

A.     The Undercroft Suite (three rooms: Old St Cyprians Chapel, Choir Practice Room and Church Wardens’ Vestry  with kitchenette)  holds up to 60 people in total. Approximate usable space (metres): OSCC 7.3 x 8; CPR 5 x 5.2; CWV 4 x 5.5.

The CWV has 4 wooden tables 60cm square (approx)  and 12 wooden chairs. The tables are against the wall – 2 to a side. There isn’t floor space to pull them all away from the wall to free up the fourth side.

Access (level) to the Undercroft is from the Brockley Road end of the church (east end)

The Church Hall, in Courtrai Road,  has a maximum capacity of 150 people. The hall’s usable floor space measures 17m by 9m. The garden is not available for hirers’ use.

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.

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 £120 for a block of up to 4 hours
• The Undercroft is £115 for a block of up to 4 hours
• Additional is time £20 per hour
• Whole booking can start no earlier than 12.30 and must end no later than 6pm
• Your preparation, the event itself, and clearing away are part of the booking

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.  Your booking is provisionally made and we will send you an email  asking you to make your payment within 72 hours of receiving the e-mail (or before the event starts, whichever is the sooner). This payment confirms your booking.

• BACS  In the payment reference (or similar) on your internet bank, enter U for Undercroft or H for Hall, as appropriate, followed by the date of your booking (ddmmyyyy) – for example U19042017.
• Credit or debit card. This can currently only be done over the phone or in person (so when the office is open). We do not have a card reader. Our card service supplier charges a fee of on each transaction, which you pay. The fee is currently 1.4% plus 20p per transaction but this could change.
• 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. Post  in the green letter box by the Crucifix Door notice board in Courtrai Road or bring to the church office by appointment. 
• Cheques should be payable to ‘Crofton Park Community Link’ (not ‘CPCL’).

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.  Tippee Toes  (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 size  3m (9’10”) x 3m  x 3m –   Tippee Toes  (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 (size tbc) warming  oven (but no hob), 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. There will be a £15 administration fee for all cancelled bookings. If you cancel within 21 days (including of the date of your event) and we do not get another booking, we will charge a further £50.

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