Serena Hall

Serena Hall was situated next to the homeless hostel known as Look Ahead. It used to serve as the HQ of  SHOC, or Slough Homeless Our Concern which is now under control from another charity called Trinity. Anyway, Serena Hall was a place where the homeless could get free food as well as advice of one kind, or another .

I used to visit it essentially to gain access to the computer room, and infact, spent many hours working there on my projects. Infact, this happened over a period of many years. Indeed, I also became known as "the Prof" which I found amusing as I was not a bona fide professor. But this is really neither here, or there.


I recall once talking to the BBC local radio about the important charity work of Serena Hall. Essentially, I said that quite a lot of the people who went there had been in, and out of prison. How they are treated is one of the key hallmarks of a genuine civilized society. No matter what crimes they may have committed they are still human beings at the end of the day. They just  required the necessary  help to become reformed, and be good citizens. These are not my exact words at the time, but the reporter with his microphone was very impressed. Apparently, something of my broadcast was heard on the local radio.

Indeed, the local press itself quite often appeared at Serena Hall in connection with homelessness  in Slough. Also, one reporter claimed that I was one of the most interesting people  he had ever come across. The same accolade also came from someone else who was doing a student documentary of the charity. Infact, another individual called  Phil Wood was doing something very similar. He already done a progamme for  BBC 3 on his father who was homeless. He seemed very keen to doing  a documentary on me, but I said I was not ready for that.


Russell Brand, the comedian, and Jeremy Corbyn visited the Charity. The latter possibly once, and the former possibly on one than more occasion if I recall correctly.


What Serena Hall showed me on a greater scale than Look Ahead was the vast variety of people with a whole host of problems both physical, and psychological. All sorts of things happened there. But I have only decided that this short "article" should suffice.


The following link from Google earth shows Serena Hall, and the "flats" on the left is Look Ahead, the Slough homeless hostel  https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Burlington+Ave,+Slough+SL1+2LD/@51.5096936,-0.5988018,3a,90y,209.09h,101.91t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s7BwBhWa8EKcsv6XeSazH4g!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!4m5!3m4!1s0x48767acdc3eb4379:0x209a7f8736e55405!8m2!3d51.5092072!4d-0.6002435



Also, a reference to Phil Woods documentary on his father  Chasing Dad
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03ply8y