The Tottenham War Services Institute was founded by a deed of trust in 1920, granting the TWSI charitable ownership of 399–401 Tottenham High Road. Built in the late 18th century as a pair of houses constructed with brick and a stone-coped parapet, each comprising three storeys and a basement, it is now one building that was listed as a Grade II listed building on 10 May 1974.
Description
The TWSI is a registered charity, entrusted to use its property "as an Institute providing for the use of its members the means of social intercourse, mutual helpfulness, mental and moral improvement, rational recreation, and the other advantages of a Club" for ex-servicemen, their families, and vulnerable members of the wider community. The TWSI is currently the subject of insolvency proceedings, brought against it by the London Borough of Haringey, for unpaid business rates going back to 2013.
Location
For many decades until 2008, the building was a British Legion club. Fire destroyed much of the property on 13 October 1987, and the rebuilt structure was reopened on 14 April 1989. From 1995 to 2012, the building's top floors housed an annex of the nearby Tottenham police station. The top floors are now home to the Footsteps Vocational Academy, and until April 2017, the Note By Note Music Academy. But it is most well known for housing the T. Chances community centre. Supported by the Reknaw sound system, T. Chances has gained a profile as one of London' major punk rock venues. Notable figures associated with T. Chances include musician Captain Rizz and poet/musician Xochitl Tuck, who ran regular Survivors Poetry nights at the venue until her death in 2012. Previous TWSI trustees include property developer Angelique Eva Glata, former TWSI treasurer Tara Bedbrook, and far-right conspiracy theorist Mark Edward Creathorne.
In the media
Penny Potter has given several interviews discussing the charity. Angelique Glata is featured in a BBC Radio 4 broadcast called "The Hidden Homeless". The TWSI's property was a topic of discussion in a 16July 2009 meeting of the Haringey Council. The local community's struggle in 2017–2018 to keep property developers from buying up the community centre run by the TWSI is documented in Libcom and in the newspaper of the Revolutionary Communist Group.
