Warm spaces are a new phenomenon appearing across the UK, offering free heat, food and community in the face of inflation and rising energy costs.

Haddon Hall, one of the warm spaces, is a Baptist Church in Southwark that has been an important feature of the community for years.

With a congregation of around fifty, it’s not the largest church but its children’s group has been a popular and regular event for over twenty years.

For the first time, however, it has opened its doors to the community as a “warm space” in November. Karen Metcalf, the head of the church at Haddon Hall, told South London Lines that the purpose of these warm spaces are to offer a “warm space, hot drink, free Wi-Fi and we’ve said people can come along to chat”.

Margaret, a regular church goer at Haddon Hall, is one of the many people across the country now attending a warm space. She lives in an assisted living facility after recently moving out of a care home; her story is an all too common one.

She talked about why she came to Haddon Hall: “I want to get warm, and I have no food in my house… the meter has no money.” The cost-of-living crisis has driven Margaret into dire circumstances. “For the first time ever, I had to go begging… it was so embarrassing for me,” she said. 

“If they don’t have money to heat their house, they probably don’t have money for Wi-Fi,” Karina, the building manager, explained the difficulties of getting the word out to people struggling in the community.

“It’s a new thing this year because of the cost of living,” Karen added; she believes the demand for warm spaces is out there but getting the word out to the people that need them is proving a challenge. Karen is planning to create an open space for her community providing “not just warmth in terms of heat but warmth in terms of acceptance and welcome”.

She added: “The cost of heating and electricity, I think people are really scared of that… every week you go shopping and the rise of food prices has been huge”.