Once a derelict library on the brink of being sold off, bustling community hub The Mill, in Coppermill Lane, marks its first anniversary this month with a special retrospective exhibition.

It’s been quite a year for the volunteer run centre. A place for people in the St James Street and Blackhorse Road area of Walthamstow to hang out, share skills and meet friends, The Mill is fast establishing itself as a gallery space as well – and a unique one at that.

“There is work from people who are very skilled and work as professional artists side by side with art by five-year- olds and people who have never done it before,“ explains Mo Gallaccio, one of The Mill’s trustees and its arts organiser. “There’s no feeling of this one’s better than that one – they all work together.

“Some of the pieces are by really quite well-known people in Walthamstow who make a living as photographers, artists or printmakers, and some of them are by, I hesitate to use the word ordinary, but people who do things just as a hobby, quietly at home who have gained confidence to think ‘I could put my work up too’.“

Mo is one of a group of campaigners who fought to prevent Walthamstow’s St James Street Library being sold off when it was closed in 2007. They won a grant, and after thousands of hours of renovation work, opened to the public in September last year.

“Communities need somewhere to gather,“ adds Mo, who moved to Walthamstow five years ago. “It would have been such a waste if the space had suddenly been lost to the community – now people are using it for the most amazing, different reasons.

“We had furniture made from scaffolding boards. We were at last able to say to people – come in, you can use what we call the living room, you can make yourself a cup of tea and read the paper, but then what are you going to do?! I’m a great believer in having things on the wall. It was always my vision from the very beginning that it should be an exhibition space.“

Since opening, The Mill’s walls have seen work from Walthamstow’s leading artists, rising talents, first-timers and little ones, a selection of which is on show until November. The positive effect on the community is palpable. Along with the art or activities, visitors most of all enjoy each others’ company.

“There are so many people who live on their own, both old and young. They’ve got a place now they can drop in. You can join in with a group or just sit nearby, feeling that life is going on around you. People say I now know people in the area, I know my neighbours. Rather than vaguely nodding at them in the supermarket now they say hello and how are you. There’s a neighbourly network building up.“

And it’s not only the visitors who leave smiling, volunteers feel the benefits too.

“Since I moved to Walthamstow,“ says Mo, “I feel like I’ve gone back to my teenage years. I was either outside the town hall with a placard bemoaning the closure of the William Morris Gallery or library or I was learning printmaking. Some arty things and protesting – exactly how I was I when I was 18!“

The Mill’s range of workshops and activities are too extensive to list here – but there is something for all to enjoy.

“The Mill is here to give everyone a chance to learn something new,“ adds Mo, “to share their knowledge and skills, to feel welcome and at home. The Mill is for everyone.“

A Year at The Mill is at The Mill, Coppermill Lane, Walthamstow from October 4. Details: 020 85213211, themill-coppermill.org