Barnet’s silver jubilee Civic Awards shone a spotlight on two pillars of Watling Community Centre: Harry Gilling and Khamir Jang Gurung.
Harry Gilling, recipient of Barnet’s 2025 Civic Award for Outstanding Service to the Community, has spent more than three decades mentoring young people through karate classes at Watling Community Centre while simultaneously modernising the venue’s management. Under his leadership the centre’s bookings and finances improved, a memorial garden honouring Second-World-War heroes took shape, and a small charity arm now funnels the centre’s growing surplus into free youth sessions and accessibility upgrades—changes that have tripled membership and anchored the hall as a self-sustaining neighbourhood asset.
Khamir Jang Gurung, awarded a 2025 Certificate Scroll of Recognition, complements Gilling’s work by serving as a director of the Watling Community Association and chairing the Burnt Oak Nepalese Community. He programmes cultural festivals, health clinics and English classes that welcome new migrants, co-organised the 2024 Remembrance Day ceremony uniting veterans and faith leaders, and leads regular litter-picks and park clean-ups. These efforts now draw hundreds of residents to the centre, increasing hall-hire income and establishing Watling as a thriving multicultural hub.
Watling began in 1936 as an estate hall; today, thanks to leaders like Harry and Khamir, it delivers 50+ weekly activities—sport, arts, advice clinics—without council funding. Their vision proves that consistent volunteer energy can transform a neighbourhood asset into a self-sustaining engine of social cohesion.
Find out more about the Barnet Civic Awards here: https://www.barnet.gov.uk/sites/default/files/civic_awards_2025_web_upload.pdf
Small actions, repeated over decades, build community.
Harry Gilling and Khamir Jang Gurung show the way.