Free tours of Stoke Newington’s Victorian fire station on 19 September

Free tours of Stoke Newington’s Old Fire Station will run on Saturday 19 September, when the Leswin Road community centre takes part in Open House Festival. Visitors can drop in on informal tours of the building.

The station dates from 1886. Firefighters lived there with their families while covering the Stoke Newington area. It shut in the 1970s, local people campaigned for years afterwards, and in 1982 the building reopened as a community centre.

Tours of the Old Fire Station during Open House Festival

The tours include upper floors the public does not usually get to see. Trustee Natalie Silk said many original features are still there, from the Victorian glazed tiles in the main hall to “the horse-proof yard”. She said it was amazing to imagine the station’s horses pulling fire carts out of the red doors in the 1890s.

Silk credited generations of local campaigners with keeping the building going as an affordable community space since the 1980s. Growing Communities, Hackney Migrant Centre and SkatePal are among the organisations based there today.

Soundsystem, workshops and food on the day

Jah Prophecies Soundsystem and friends are coming back to play through the day. They first played at the centre in the 1980s, and Silk said they remember Friday evenings there in their youth fondly.

Jamboulay Carnival Arts will run a workshop on upcycling and costume, while Creativity in Our Hands is leading a jewellery making session. Visitors can learn about the Therapy Collective, whose talking therapists are trans and non-binary. The Firestation Darkroom will also be open to look around, and there will be food and drink, with games in the yard.

Entry costs nothing, but the centre welcomes donations. Open House Festival is part of a year of activity backed by the National Lottery Community Fund.