Auction night raises £7,500 for historic community building in Finchley

A FAMOUS face hosted an auction night to raise cash for an historic community building in Finchley.

Actor Jack Ellis, who is best known for his TV roles as a prison warder in Bad Girls and a bookmaker in Coronation Street, started the bidding at Avenue House, in East End Road, on Sunday.

Eighty guests helped raise £7,500 which will go towards running the Avenue House estate, which boasts a grade II listed mid-Victorian mansion.

Continue to article in the Times.

Auction night raises £7,500 for historic community building in Finchley

A FAMOUS face hosted an auction night to raise cash for an historic community building in Finchley.

Actor Jack Ellis, who is best known for his TV roles as a prison warder in Bad Girls and a bookmaker in Coronation Street, started the bidding at Avenue House, in East End Road, on Sunday.

Eighty guests helped raise £7,500 which will go towards running the Avenue House estate, which boasts a grade II listed mid-Victorian mansion.

Continue to article in the Times.

Auction night raises £7,500 for historic community building in Finchley

A FAMOUS face hosted an auction night to raise cash for an historic community building in Finchley.

Actor Jack Ellis, who is best known for his TV roles as a prison warder in Bad Girls and a bookmaker in Coronation Street, started the bidding at Avenue House, in East End Road, on Sunday.

Eighty guests helped raise £7,500 which will go towards running the Avenue House estate, which boasts a grade II listed mid-Victorian mansion.

Continue to article in the Times.

Volunteering at AH gets off to a flying start

Volunteering on the Avenue House Estate has developed at a cracking pace since we started in April – you may have seen some of us working in our blue tabards.  Around 30 people have volunteered so far, some for an hour here or there, and some more regularly.  We welcome any and all help we can get.  Between us we’ve already done the equivalent of 4 weeks’ work by a paid member of staff, so volunteering helps reduce costs as well as keeping the gardens neat and tidy.

The lion’s share of our work so far has been picking up litter twice a week using rather swish litter-grabbers (so not much bending over).  We’ve cleared a great deal of old rubbish that was lurking in the shrubberies and under the bushes and we’re keeping abreast of the new.  Of course we wish no-one would drop litter, but spotting unnaturally shiny or odd-shaped items hiding among the greenery is surprisingly good fun, and seeing the gardens spick and span after our efforts is thoroughly satisfying.

Since May, volunteers have also been gardening on the Estate every Sunday afternoon from 2.00-4.00pm.  So far, we’ve cut down all the suckers from the wing-nut tree on the Middle Green, disposed of numerous brambles, replanted the flowerbed in the car park, weeded a number of tree-pits (the patches of clear soil around tree trunks) and tidied the Terrace and steps.  There’s enough work to keep any number of volunteers busy through the summer and autumn, and you don’t have to be an experienced gardener to be useful.

Email volunteering@friendsofavenuehouse.org if you’re interested in joining us or just come to the kiosk at the appropriate time:

Litter-picking

11.00am on Wednesdays or 11.30am on Sundays.

Gardening

2.00-4.00pm on Sundays for gardening (wear long trousers and sturdy shoes).

Appointment of new General Manager

The Trustees of the Avenue House Estate Trust are pleased to announce the appointment of Lance Bourne to the role of General Manager of the Avenue House Estate Trust. Lance will take up the post on August 15th, following Janett Durrant’s retirement from the post of Chief Executive.

Lance has considerable experience in the management of corporate entertainment sites: he spent 15 years at the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, rising to the post of head of Marketing and Events, followed by three years as Business Manager of the Tower Bridge exhibition. Lance also has experience at working with volunteers and at fund-raising.

Andy Savage, Chairman of the Avenue House Estate Trust, says: ‘I am delighted that Lance has agreed to join us. His skill set is exactly what Avenue House needs at this time, and I am sure that he will be a worthy successor to Janett Durrant, who has managed the Estate since the Trust’s formation nine years ago. I am looking forward to working with Lance as we establish Avenue House in the centre of the Finchley community’

Lance Bourne said ’I am looking forward to joining Avenue House, and working on the Estate. Apart from the wonderful surrounds, I am looking forwards to helping increase the use of the Estate, and to continuing the re-establishment of its financial success after the problems earlier this year’

Avenue House opens doors to boost funds

The newly formed Friends Of Avenue House held an open day to promote the cash-strapped Victorian mansion on Sunday.

The free afternoon of entertainment entitled Tours, Trees And Teas helped raise almost £5,000 for the grade-II listed building in East End Road, East Finchley, which was entrusted to the authorities from Henry Charles “Inky” Stephens in 1918 as a facility for residents of the area.

Continue to article in Barnet Today.

Celebrities support historic community building facing closure in Finchley

CELEBRITIES joined hundreds of residents at an open day in aid of saving a historic community building in Finchley from closure.

Harry Potter star, Imelda Staunton and her husband, Jim Carter who recently played the butler in ITV’s drama Downton Abbey, were amongst a 400-strong crowd who attended Avenue House in East End Road on Sunday.

Continue to article in The Times.

The Avenue house friends rise, like the phoenix, out of the ashes

Tuesday 1^st March: A meeting was called by concerned residents of Finchley to resurrect the “Friends of Avenue House”.

Around 7:30pm, Sandra Rebak chaired a meeting of over forty residents to set up a reformed Friends of Avenue House and raise funds for AHET. (the Avenue House Estate Trust.)

Continue to article in The Finchley Arrow.