On 9th May 2026, the East & Southeast Asian Community Centre (ESEACC) marked a milestone seven years in the making with the Grand Opening of its new home at 12-14 Englefield Road, Hackney.

The building itself carries decades of history. Once known as the Old Bath House, it was first a community bath house in the 1930s. From the 1980s, it has served as a community home for London's Vietnamese community as An Viet Foundation. In 2017, An Viet Foundation closed, and Hackney Chinese Community Services merged with them, setting in motion an ambitious vision: to transform this already beloved space into the UK's first dedicated community centre for the East & Southeast Asian diaspora in Hackney and beyond. That vision has now become reality, backed by £2.6 million in capital works and substantial support from our crowdfunding efforts, as well as fundings from Hackney Council and the Greater London Authority.

The transformation isn't just architectural. Alongside the redevelopment, the Charity Commission recently approved ESEACC's change of name and its expanded mission to serve people of East & Southeast Asian heritage across Hackney and London in March 2026 - an act reflecting years of legal and constitutional groundwork behind the scenes.

Guests gathered from midday, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 12:45pm marking the official opening. Mr and Mrs Sean and Mary Hotung, whose lives and careers have spanned Vietnam, Hong Kong, the rest of East Asia as well as the West, joined as Guests of Honour, lending the occasion a fitting sense of connection across communities and continents.

The ribbon-cutting ceromony that marked the offical opening of the East and Southeast Asian Community Centre.
From left to right: Green Cllr Gemma Per-Bo of the De Beauvoir Ward, manager and community activist Jabez Lam, Chairperson of ESEACC Lin Fat Man, Mr Sean Hotung, Centre Manager David Tam, Mrs Mary Hotung, Treasurer of ESEACC Shuang Wu, Vice Chair of ESEACC Josephine Farrell, Secretary of ESEACC Richard Siu Ming Cheung, Operations Manager Jennie Loh.

Tucked away in the Centre's workshop room, a small exhibition traced the history of Hackney Chinese Community Services at 28-32 Ellingfort Road, and the An Viet Foundation, which once occupied the site now home to ESEACC. Researched and put together by ESEACC's staff and volunteers, the exhibition brought back cherished memories for those who had enjoyed the two organisations' services over the 40 years leading up to ESEACC's opening.

A selection of photos from the lunch clubs of AVF and HCCS, mixed with photos from the current lunch club held at ESEACC, displayed alongside a recreation of our lunch table.

The celebrations continued into the afternoon with a buffet and live performances running from 1pm to 4pm, from traditional performances of Yang Qin and Erhum, to the rising ESEA stars from Asian Pirate Musicals, giving supporters, partners, and community members the chance to celebrate together in the newly modernised space.

For everyone who contributed, through fundraising, advocacy, or simply years of patience, the Grand Opening was more than a ceromony. It was the beginning of a new chapter for East & Southeast Asian communities in London, with a purpose-built home to call their own.