About the Maggie O'Neill Centre
Meet your hosts.
Tania, our Community Manager, runs the day to day, with Patrick, our Director, and our volunteers Liam and Bill. The Maggie O'Neill Centre, known to most as Maggie's, is a charity-run training, meeting and event venue and virtual office provider in Huyton, near Liverpool.
Who will you meet at the Maggie O’Neill Centre?
Our team is on site at the Maggie O'Neill Centre all day, looking after every group.
Patrick
Director
Patrick has run the Maggie O’Neill Centre for over 9 years. When he started, the centre couldn’t afford to pay even minimum wage, so he lived in the building.
What began as a projector on a table is now 10 private offices, 7 meeting and training rooms, an Auditorium and over 40 virtual office clients.
Tania
Community Manager
As Community Manager, Tania runs most of the day to day at the Maggie O’Neill Centre. She coordinates bookings and events, and makes sure everyone is looked after while they’re here.
She lives in the middle of nowhere in Wales, and loves early mornings looking out over the Welsh hills to the sound of bleating sheep.
Liam
Volunteer
Professionally, Liam is a web developer. He works flexibly, which means he can volunteer around the Centre and the church.
Liam helps to run Maggie’s Meals and provides AV and tech support for our bigger events. He’s also an all-round biscuit fiend.
Bill
Volunteer
Bill helps to run Maggie’s Meals and lends a hand in the car park on busier days. He always has a dad joke ready.
What do people say about the team?
Most of our 230 Google reviews mention the welcome.
“Great venue for a meeting. Patrick and the team are great really helpful making sure everything is perfect.”
“What an amazing venue. It is perfect for courses or meetings the staff are so friendly and helpful, especially Tanya! Thank you so much.”
“Booked to deliver training, fantastic venue, very accessible. Room set up was great, everything ready, lovely lunch and special thanks to Liam who looked after us from the moment we arrived.”
“Patrick was very welcoming and the space we used was comfortable.”
“Great service from Patrick and Tania.”
“We recently booked this venue for a training event. The service was excellent and Patrick was very accommodating with us.”
Who was Maggie O’Neill?
In the 1980s, Maggie O'Neill and a few of her relatives bought an empty building on Liverpool Road in Huyton. It had been built in the 1930s as a congregational hall. By the time they took it on, it was derelict.
Maggie, her daughters and her daughters-in-law started meeting there and in each other’s homes. Through the 1980s and 1990s, a handful of pastors came and went.
Over in the United States, a young Brummie named John Hemus, who had ventured to America in his early twenties and was now in his thirties, had begun to feel called home to the UK to start a church. On a visit, he met Maggie. She walked straight up to him and said, “I’ve been praying, and God said you’re going to be my pastor.”
John laughed it off. He was running a thriving business in America, and his future looked settled.
Within a couple of years, he knew he had to come home. Everything fell into place. John and his wife Sherri closed the business, sold their home, packed up their young family and moved to Huyton, off their own backs, to start the adventure of a lifetime.
Ironically, it was a family of Scousers who had taken John in and given him a job when he arrived in America at 23. It was no coincidence that he’d be called back to the city that took him in all those years ago.
John and Sherri had the vision to turn the old church hall into space for the community and for business. John wanted to build offices that would bring services into the heart of the community, and today counselling services, therapists and other charities are based at the centre. When John arrived, it was a mouldy old building. Now it’s a business and community hub for Knowsley and Liverpool.
We named the building after Maggie to honour her, and so we always remember how it began: a woman with a vision in her mind, love in her heart and family by her side.
Who runs the Maggie O'Neill Centre?
A registered charity in England and Wales, no. 1215599. It has served Huyton and Knowsley for over 25 years.
- Over 25 yearsserving Huyton and Knowsley as a charity.
- 2015Andy Burnham officially opened the Maggie O'Neill Centre building.
- Over 2,000food parcels delivered by our staff and volunteers during the Covid lockdowns.
- 900+rooms hired in the last year.
- 150+businesses served in the last year.
- 750+people used Maggie's Meals, our social supermarket, in the last year.
- 550+ hoursof free space given to hyper-local community groups in the last year.
Room hire and virtual office income keeps the charity's work going: Maggie's Meals (every Friday, 9am to 10am), coffee mornings, clean-ups around Huyton, and meals, hospital visits and moral support for people going through a hard time.
The building began as a church, and the new church is still on the property. Our church gatherings and groups are open to everyone, and so is the rest of what we do.
We also run a nursery and pre-school on site, for children aged 0 to 5.
Social value and our community work · Maggie's Meals and community
What can you expect from Maggie's?
Looked after
A host is on site all day. Your room is set before you arrive, and someone checks in on you through the day.
Everything included
Tea and coffee, the screen, WiFi and parking are in the price. No extras added on the day.
Open to everyone
Businesses, public bodies, charities and local groups all use the building, and our community work is open to all.
Every booking does good
What you pay keeps Maggie's Meals and our community work in Knowsley going.
Questions about Maggie's
Who was Maggie O'Neill?
Maggie O'Neill bought this building in Huyton with her family in the 1980s. It was a 1930s congregational hall that had fallen derelict, and she brought it back to life. The Maggie O'Neill Centre is named after her.
Who are the hosts at the Maggie O'Neill Centre?
Tania, our Community Manager, runs the day to day at the Maggie O'Neill Centre, with Patrick, our Director, and our volunteers Liam and Bill. A host is on site all day, looking after every group.
Is the Maggie O'Neill Centre a charity?
Yes. The Maggie O'Neill Centre is a registered charity in England and Wales, number 1215599. Income from room hire and virtual offices funds Maggie's Meals and our community work in Knowsley.
Is the Maggie O'Neill Centre a church?
It was. The Maggie O'Neill Centre began as a church, and the new church is still on the property, along with a private nursery. Room hire, virtual offices and our community work are open to everyone.
Can I look round the Maggie O'Neill Centre before I book?
We insist! We love to show people round and let you see the space for yourself. Call 0151 482 0408 or email info@mobtc.co.uk and we'll find a time that suits you.
Come and meet us
See the rooms for yourself and meet your hosts. Book a visit, or call and we'll find a time that suits you.
Every booking funds Maggie's Meals. Looked after at Maggie's.