A HISTORIC community building could close as early as next month due to lack of funding.

Avenue House in East End Road, Finchley, is facing a black hole after losing £35,200 in its annual funding.

The extent of its plight became clear last year, after former tenants Barnet Victim Support Group and Barnet Carer Tenant Scheme lost funding and had to vacate the grade II listed mid-Victorian mansion.

The estate’s land was bought in 1874 by Henry Charles Stephens, otherwise known as Inky Stephens, son of the inventor of the famous blue-black ink.

He died in 1918, bequeathing the land to the people of Finchley before charitable company Avenue House Estate Management took over the running of it from the London Borough of Barnet in 2002.

Chairman of the estate’s trust, Bill Tyler is asking for donations to keep it afloat.

He said: “We have received funds from the Lottery and other benefactors to pay for capital projects, such as new fencing and resurfacing paths, but the cost of maintaining the grounds has been and is met entirely from income from room lettings and functions in the mansion."

It spends £80,000 alone on maintaining the grounds, designed by the famous landscape gardener Robert Marnock who died in 1889.

Mr Tyler said despite the trust having run the estate without any subsidy or grant from Barnet Council for six years, it “seems unable to help” through February and March, when “company budgets run out and private functions are at their lowest”.

Partners who run services at Avenue House will be affected by the closure, including Planet Party, which organises birthday parties for children, and North London Eating Disorders Group, which uses the building once a month.

The Finchley Society, which celebrated its 40th anniversary last week, hosts its monthly and committee meetings at the estate.

Its extensive archive of old photographs, plus more than 1,500 postcards, maps, press cuttings, old letters and artefacts, is also kept in the basement.

Chairman of the society said: “If Avenue House is lost we would literally be out on the pavement.

“The estate is not just an important building to the society – it’s of tremendous value to the community.”

Unless it receives immediate substantial funds Avenue House will have to be handed back to the council early in March.

Mr Tyler said: “We have already been told the mansion could then be boarded up and with minimal maintenance for the grounds.”