On September 13th and 14th the Polish Social and Cultural Association will be participating in the London Open House Festival and opening its doors to a public anxious to find out more about this Polish community centre in King Street Hammersmith.
More than 100 Londoners have already registered to take part in the visits. Volunteers from the Association will be explaining the history of this remarkable building, built in the brutalist style, which is the home of the Polish community that settled in London at the end of the Second World War after choosing not to return to Poland and face persecution. Many of them had either served alongside the British armed forces in the fight against Nazi Germany or had survived terrible suffering and privation under the Nazi German and Soviet Russian occupation of their country.
Volunteer guides, organized by POSK Council member Janusz Marszewski, will explain how this vibrant community centre was constructed in the early 1970s in order to allow Polish culture to flourish free of Soviet control and specifically to protect the Polish library which was due to be disbanded by the British government. Among other attractions in the building, visitors will be shown around the Polish library with its 200,000 books, the historic Joseph Conrad memorabilia in the world headquarters of the Joseph Conrad Society, the 300-seater Theatre, the Atrium concert chamber, the popular basement Jazz Café, Polish haut cuisine in the Lowiczanka restaurant, the Lurczynski art collection in the Sapphire Room and the modern art Gallery with its current artists in residence. Recent visitors to the POSK building include King Charles III, President Duda of Poland, the London mayors and a number of Polish and British prime ministers.
The Open House Festival is an annual celebration of London’s architecture and neighbourhoods, and the people and communities that make them. Every year, buildings and other sites across all 33 London boroughs open to the public, so that Londoners can explore and learn about them for free. This year these include The Guildhall, the National Ballet, Somerset House, the Polish Embassy, and numerous schools, churches, temples, town halls and hotels.
Open City is a charity empowering communities to have a role in shaping places where they live by making the built environment more open, accessible, and equitable. Its flagship event is the Open House Festival, opening up and celebrating London and its communities each September. It has links with similar campaigns in other world cities on different continents.
Log in email for visitors is poskopenhouse@gmail.com
