Opening of Jamila House
The Victoria Street Community Centre, located at 14 Victoria Street, first opened under the name Jamila House Community Centre in October 2014. It was run by Yasmeen Nazir until 2021, and named in memory of her late daughter-in-law, Jamila, who passed away in 2012. It has the telephone number of 0161-715-4912.
The building was the original location of Elliott & Son butchers, which closed in December 2010 following the death of proprietor Ashley Peacock. In October 2014, Yasmeen decided to rent the empty premises and convert it into a community centre after losing her job with the closure of Weatherfield Community Library. She attempted to undertake the project alone, but managed to convince Sharif to help her set up when she was denied council funding. It was opened on 24th October.
Having been found guilty of causing Gary Windass actual bodily harm, Roy Cropper was ordered to complete 100 hours of community service in lieu of a custodial sentence, and began serving out his hours cleaning at Jamila House in January 2015.
When the roof of nearby factory Underworld collapsed in March 2019, Jamila House temporarily housed its operations until it reopened later in the year.
When Yasmeen's psychologically abusive husband Geoff Metcalfe died in December 2020, he left Yasmeen with thousands of pounds of debt from loans he'd taken out in her name. She fought against closing Jamila House to pay these debts off, as it provided help to women in her former situation. However, in June of the next year she was forced to cave and agree to let the bank repossess the community centre.
The premises had reopened under the name Victoria Street Community Centre by September 2021.