Juniper Green Village Hall garden

About

Juniper Green Village Hall is a community centre owned by the City of Edinburgh Council. It is located on Juniper Park Road, Edinburgh and includes an outdoor grassed area on the west side of the building with a sandpit and child’s swing. The former Janitor’s house to the east of the hall was recently demolished and we have converted this land into a community garden.

The building has been at the heart of village life for over one hundred years. Built by the War Department as a Drill Hall (originally known as the Volunteers’ Hall – the equivalent of today’s Territorial Army), it was acquired as the Village Hall in 1910, providing a base for recreational activities involving groups of all ages, from pre-school to senior citizens ever since.

Over the years this has included a wide, and sometimes changing, range of interests, with the hall being well used every day during the week. Bookings for new activities to fill any vacant slots are always welcomed.

Bookings are not limited to week days nor to regular actitivies. The hall may also be booked at the weekend for private parties and functions, such as birthday parties, concerts, ceilidhs, Burns Suppers, fundraising events, exhibitions and public meetings.

The Centre is run by a voluntary management committee made up of local residents and representatives from user groups. Known as Juniper Green Village Hall Organisation, it is a registered charity subject to regulation by the Office of Scottish Charities Regulator (OSCR). The management committee is responsible for the financial administration of the Centre, including setting rental rates and processing applications for use of the premises.

Juniper Green Village Hall Organisation (JGVHO)

The Community Centre exists for the benefit of local people, whose active involvement in JGVHO is welcomed. Anyone can become a member, subject to the terms of the Constitution. Regular user groups in particular are required to send a representative to JGVHO general meetings and are encouraged to nominate a representative for membership of the Management Committee or as an observer at committee meetings.

A regular event of many years’ standing in the Hall calendar is the Senior Citizens’ Christmas Dinner.  It is an important, and much anticipated, occasion – one might even say one of the highlights of the year for some of our older residents. The ticket price covers a traditional 3-course Christmas dinner with coffee and mince pies, significantly less than the cost of the event. For a while the losses were covered by the Village Hall’s share of the Lady Gibson Fund, which was set up originally for the purpose of ‘benefiting the elderly of Juniper Green’. The Fund has long since been used up, but JGVHO aims in its small way to continue in the spirit of the Fund’s aims.

In 2015 we were very grateful to the Currie & Balerno News for their generous donation of £250 towards the cost of the dinner. We also welcomed back Miss Anne Bangham’s dancers from Juniper Green School of Dancing, an annual fixture over many years at the Christmas dinner. Sadly this was to be their last year, as Miss Bangham decided to retire in June 2016 after 50 years in the Hall.