The CMI Building

The present CMI (Coronation Memorial Institute) building will celebrate its centenary in September 2012, however the actual Institute dates back to 1881.

Even in Victorian times there was a certain amount of what is now called anti-social behaviour and, worried that there was nothing to keep the young men of Sunningdale away from the evils of drink and gambling, villagers petitioned the vicar to do something about it.

The result was that money was raised to erect an iron hut at the corner of Church Road and Bedford Lane to provide a billiards and reading room, called Sunningdale Working Men's Institute.

A year later a second hut was acquired, and a third in 1895. By the turn of the century the Institute had over 3,000 books which were lent out at a penny per week.

The original iron huts in the late 1880s/early 1890s

In April 1911 a public meeting was held in Sunningdale Village Hall to consider a permanent memorial to mark the coronation of George V that year, it was decided to raise £765 for a permanent brick building to replace the huts at the Institute. Lord Derby, who chaired the meeting, started the ball rolling with £100.

The new premises, containing two billiard rooms, a reading room and library, a recreation room and a committee room, was opened on 21st September the following year. Initially the iron huts were retained as well.

The opening of the new building on 21st September 1912

During the First World War the CMI was offered to the War Office as a possible military hospital, but this wasn't taken up. The building was called into use during the Second World War when Holy Trinity primary school was swamped with evacuee children, and local youngsters had their classes in the CMI.

As new entertainment, such as the wireless, dance halls, cinema and then television became available throughout the 1930s and 1940s the CMI was used less as the social hub of the village - and eventually it became a Working Men's Club, complete with alcohol licence, in the 1950s.

In the winter of 1967/68 a Thorn timber building was erected at the cost of £2,837 replacing a previous wooden extension which had become delapidated and too costly to repair. Half the funds came from the Working Men's Club funds and the rest was loaned by the Parish Council from the Public Works Loan Board.

At times the Club flourished, but various stewards and committees struggled to make it a viable financial business and the Club, now known as Sunningdale Social Club, finally closed its doors in 2003, leaving the Parish Council holding the lease on a building that was by then showing its age.

Fortunately, Holy Trinity Church - which had been instrumental in setting up the Institute in the first place - came to the rescue. The building was refurbished, and re-opened a year later as a centre for the whole community and provided much needed office space for the Church.   

With many thanks to Peter O'Kill who provided the historical details and to John End and Peter O'Kill for the photographs, which may not be reproduced without their permission.