History of the Hub

The building on the site of 381 Halswell Road on the corner of Halswell and Sparks Roads, began life as the offices of the Halswell County Council. When the Halswell and Paparua County Councils combined in 1968, the building which was originally a pagoda style building designed by Peter Beaven, nicknamed "the tea-house of the August moon" by locals, became the Halswell Library.

Halswell Library continued to be run by volunteers until 1975 when the first paid librarian, Mrs Joyce Turner, was employed. Volunteers continued to help out until 1990 when following local body amalgamations of 1989, Halswell joined the Canterbury Public Library network

In 1995 the building was enlarged and refurbished with the extension designed by architect Chris Hadlee and built by W and J Jamieson.

The Old Halswell Library at 381 Halswell Road closed its doors on Saturday 3 October 2015 while Christchurch City Council prepared for the opening of the new library at Te Hāpua: Halswell Centre, just up the road at 341 Halswell Road.

Following this, the old library building sat empty while Halswell Community Project worked with Council, Community Board and local Community Groups to put together a proposal to establish the old Library building as a valuable space for local groups and their activities.

The initial proposal was a joint venture with Kiwi Church and CDN trust with a vision to create a Youth Hub in the space. The Community Board donated money towards the cost of upgrading the building and this included servicing the building, automatic doors, HVAC system, removal of signs, cleaning of the roof and gutters.

In 2017 Halswell Community project signed a lease to operate the building as the Halswell Community Hub, creating a space for the use of the local community.

We sourced furniture and equipment from various organisations. As well as donations of desks, couches, TVs etc from local residents we were given office chairs and desks from the University of Canterbury and office furniture from YHA.

This allowed us to set up an open plan office area as well as a large bookable space for community groups and organisations. Kiwi Church provided some furniture and couches and CDN trust provided games tables and couches all of which make the space more welcoming and usable.

The initial vision of a Youth Space did not quite work out as planned, with the Hub naturally evolving into a space for older people to meet and connect over coffee, games and crafts while also providing space for a variety for other groups and activities.

For a while, we hosted the management team of Knights Stream School as the new school was being developed, and have had groups like Spreydon Oscar, HIPPY, Life Immigration, Recreate and Star Jam move through our space, growing and evolving as they did, some ultimately growing out of the space and moving on to the next stage for their organisation. It has been great to be part of the journey for these amazing organisations and to see the way they serve the community.

The Community Hub initially opened with office hours of 9am - 12noon Monday - Thursday with several usable spaces - 1 Large Community Space, smaller coffee areas with chairs/couches and coffee tables, Open plan office space with up to 10 desks, a walled office and a smaller interview room.

In 2019, we began a new discussion with the council - this time to secure the future of the building for the community. This discussion Culminated in Christchurch City Council gifting the building to Halswell Community Project in 2022.

The Hub office is now staffed by Halswell Community Project Monday - Friday 9am - 4pm, however with the many groups using the facility the Hub is in use 5 days a week between 9am and 9pm with a variety of activities at weekends too.

Over the years, the space has evolved to allow greater flexibility for groups to meet and grow and the Hub now operates as both a community facility and an information hub for the wider community with over 600 people per week attending one of the 16 groups or activities on offer or visiting for information.