An Interview With Rosemary

What does the Valley Centre do?

It wants to be a ‘Good Neighbour’ to everyone in the area. It sounds simple, one of those good ideas that everyone likes, but how do you do it? Well… for us it has meant running a community centre providing activities for all ages, having a furniture store, and providing endless advice and active help, along with a hot drink to anyone who has got a problem. Locked out? Benefit problems? Looking for advice? Then we’re there to help!

How long have you been working on the Estate?

I’ve been here for 13 very happy years and I’ve got the friendships and memories to prove it! Because so many people have been part of the life at the Centre during all these years I feel that I have a very large family and it’s always nice to see how the children have turned out. Of course many of them have children of their own now, and that means that the children’s clubs still need all that craftwork, which has become the trademark of Valley Centre life.

Tell us about an average day at the Valley Centre?

Well… the first thing to say is there is no such thing as an average day! The second thing to say is that because we like people, and we are here to help if we can, the timetable of the Centre doesn’t really reflect the rhythm of a typical day. It doesn’t really matter if the session being run is a Drop-In or a children’s club, a Barnet College course or a meeting about regeneration, people will pop in with all sorts of other problems. Sometimes it means spending hours on filling out forms or making telephone calls. Sometimes it means giving a hug and a drink and listening to someone’s problems. And other times it means going out in the pouring rain to the furniture garage to collect the piece that someone desperately wants. The fact that we have an open door and a shop front means that if you need us we are available - like a good neighbour should be.

What are your hopes for regeneration?

Like everyone else I want to see this area become just another part of Barnet instead of standing out as something quite different from the surrounding area. But I also want to see community facilities that will be of value to everyone in the Underhill area. I really hope that we will be able to achieve something that will be attractive to everyone in Barnet and that this area will therefore become the place that others want to copy.

What do you like about the estate?

The people! The area it is set in - right against the green belt. Also, it is so close to everything else in the area it is not isolated. I hope that very soon it won’t be isolated by it’s architecture.

Any dislikes?

I have always disliked the fact that ‘Dollis Valley’ has always meant something different from the rest of the surrounding area. The trouble is that the estate is a cul-de-sac and the surrounding people don’t know us. If they did, they would know that it’s got the same problems and pleasures as anywhere else.

(Reproduced from Warden Housing's June 2005 newsletter)