Polish Social and Cultural Association

The POSK building in Hammersmith.

The Polski Ośrodek Społeczno-Kulturalny (POSK) is the Polish Social and Cultural Association in London. It was founded and funded in 1967, at the initiative of Polish engineer Roman Wajda, at 238-246 King Street, Hammersmith where Poles who had escaped the occupation of their country congregated in west London.[1]

POSK promotes Polish culture and art. It houses the Library of Poland in London, which was founded in 1942, exhibitions, film screenings, theatre performances and a regular jazz club. There is also a Polish cafe and a restaurant.

Numerous Polish organizations are hosted within the building, including:

The original membership fee was £10 but this was updated in 2008 by the new President, Ewa Brzeska.[2]

On 26 June 2016 the office was vandalized with graffiti. It was treated as hate crime by the Metropolitan Police as it was considered by some to be anti Polish in the wake of the Brexit referendum and used as one of the main examples to suggest that Poles and nationals from other EU countries were being targeted due to anti-immigration sentiment in the UK post referendum. No one has been charged with the offence and there is much debate regarding the graffiti due to the content being ambiguous and a number of other factors that could indicate that the graffiti was not Xenophobic [3][4][5]

References

  1. ↑ Benedict Le Vay, Eccentric London
  2. ↑ Wiktor Moszczynski, Hello, I'm Your Polish Neighbour
  3. ↑ Micklewaithte, Jamie (June 26, 2016). "Police probe racist graffiti smeared on Polish centre after Brexit vote". London Evening Standard. Retrieved June 26, 2016.
  4. ↑ BBC News. "'Racist' graffiti on Polish cultural centre in Hammersmith". BBC. Retrieved 27 June 2016.
  5. ↑ Cooper, Goolistan (2016-07-07). "Polish centre graffiti 'not a xenophobic attack' after all?". getwestlondon. Retrieved 2018-07-18.

Coordinates: 51°29′36″N 0°14′15″W / 51.49333°N 0.23750°W / 51.49333; -0.23750


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