A Rocha UK’s new home

Spring 2021 will see A Rocha UK move to a new base being planned as a collaborative hub, for staff, volunteers and partners alike.

In late November, despite the challenges of Covid, A Rocha UK was able to sell ‘Avenue Road’, our home for the last 17 years. Two houses knocked together in a side street of Southall, west London, 18-19 Avenue Road has been an invaluable residence, local community focus and small office since shortly after A Rocha UK was founded. Many staff and supporters will have very fond memories of times there. However, with A Rocha UK’s growing national reach and expanding partnership approach, it no longer needs a residential space but does need a more modern and accessible work space.   

After a careful search, A Rocha UK has found the ideal place to move to: leasing floorspace from another Christian organisation, the Leprosy Mission, at their international headquarters in Brentford, West London. A project team of staff and trustees is designing the new office to greatly enhance our mission of equipping Christians nationally to protect and restore the environment.

To equip Christians to protect and restore the environment – for God, nature and all people.

Among likely features will be sustainably sourced and recyclable office furniture; a library/quiet study area for use not just by staff but by visiting volunteers and supporters; flexible workstations to host partners or remote-working staff when they need to visit London; project spaces which allow face to face and remote collaboration with partners all around the country; and a community area for staff and volunteers. 

As well as having good access to central London and other parts of the country – without paying central London prices – the new hub will still be only half an hour from our urban reserve at Wolf Fields. This will allow ‘local’ staff to continue to be based at the national office when they are not on site, and A Rocha UK to run more training and study days for supporters and partners, combining the facilities of both reserve and hub.  

The move is an important milestone for A Rocha UK. With the sale of Avenue Road, A Rocha UK will be able to repay all its remaining debts to supporters who provided loans to purchase the property many years ago, allowing the fledgling charity to secure a home without paying a commercial mortgage. Andy Atkins, A Rocha UK’s CEO says ‘we are immensely grateful for the generosity and commitment of these supporters and friends. Together they have enabled A Rocha UK to have a stable base from which to serve the local community and develop as an organisation over these years. Now, with the sale of Avenue Road, we can be debt-free for the first time, and establish a new hub to support the national mission we feel God is calling us to, for the critical decade ahead.’

In February’s eNews we will announce details of our new vision for how Christians and Churches can make a critical difference to conservation and communities in the UK in the next 10 years.

Please note that correspondence can now be sent to us at our new address: A Rocha UK, 80 Windmill Road, Brentford, TW8 0QH. (However, any post sent to our old address at Avenue Road will be forwarded).