The Cookham Plan
People and Places Group
Meeting Places and Venues
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The Cookham Plan People and Places Group Meeting Places and Venues |
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The Cookhams have a wide variety of meeting places. Some organisations such as the Scouts and the Sports Clubs have their own facilities, which they also hire out. Significant use of the churches is also made and concerts and other suitable events are frequently held in them. Although the churches have by far the greatest capacity, they are by their very nature limited both physically and culturally in the use to which they can be put.
There are several other venues which are available for general use.
The principal venue is Pinder Hall, located on Lower Road, Cookham Rise, which is run by a Trust, on a commercial basis. Although it is now some 70 years old, the facilities have been kept up to date and it meets all the requirements in respect of present day legislation. It is in constant use hosting both regular (e.g. weekly) meetings and one-off events such as concerts, plays, and dances. However, it is located in a very restricted environment with no car parking of its own (it uses the adjacent Medical Centre car park in the evenings). Although this does not seem to seriously hamper its operations or its popularity, it does nothing for its ease of use, safety and general ambience.
Cookham Dean has two venues, the Village Hall, and the Women’s Institute. Ironically they are located adjacent to each other in the centre of the village, but neither has a car park, and congestion on the narrow roads in the centre of the village is acute whenever events are held.
The schools do have facilities, and these are sometimes used for smaller events. The Public Library in Cookham Rise also has a meeting room for public hire.
There are other facilities that are privately owned, but which are used from time to time for events and meetings. These are the Chartered Institute of Marketing at Moor Hall in Cookham, the Odney Club (John Lewis Partnership) also in Cookham, and Winter Hill Golf Clubhouse.
Wide use is made of nearly all the facilities, and the diversity reflects the diversity of the organisations and events that are held. Responses from the special questionnaire sent to organisations and venues indicate that whilst there is no one large venue, there is no strong requirement for there to be one, and the smaller ones enable a wide variety of groups to exist and to be financially viable.
Action Plan