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Centre 33
Centre 33 is a local St Albans charity, run entirely by volunteers. Several members of the Cathedral Community volunteer, and we support it through our Mission Giving.
Over 40 years ago, Centre 33 started to provide somewhere for socially deprived people with nowhere to go during the day. It began with coffee, tea and biscuits for visitors. This grew over the years, and in 1991 we moved to Spicer Street, where greater space meant that meals and hot drinks could be offered as well as somewhere to get off the streets. By the mid-1990s, Centre 33 opened every weekday morning, Sunday to Thursday evenings and Saturday lunchtime.
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Centre 33 aims to be welcoming to all; visitors do not have to justify using the service. Rough sleepers and those in precarious accommodation were always welcome, and we still see a steady number of exrough sleepers who value the comradeship. We do not keep hard data but the demographic of visitors has changed over the years. In the 1980s to early 2000s a significant number of visitors were former psychiatric hospital patients who had been moved into ‘Care in the Community’. Their ability to care for themselves was often very limited and Centre 33 provided both meals and somewhere where they were known and supported. We also had a significant number of older visitors (mainly male) who had serious alcohol problems and who lived largely on the streets. Now the age profile is younger and includes more non-UK citizens, with their own problems concerning residency status etc. Until the pandemic, each year we provided around 9,000 meals, and between 250 and 300 visitors used the Centre.
Since Covid we have been unable to use Spicer Street. We are immensely grateful to the Salvation Army who enabled us to provide a take-away evening meal service from their Citadel in Victoria Street. Since December 2020 we have provided a hot meal to around 20 visitors for 5 evenings each week. An important feature is the friendly chat between visitors and volunteers as people collect their food and drink: this has become something
