A time capsule holding stories from the Jewish community has been buried for 100 years on the site of a new £50million community centre in West Hampstead.

The capsule was placed in the ground by schoolchildren beneath the piazza floor at the new JW3 centre in Lymington Road, which is set to open in September.

The container holds hundreds of responses to an identity project, the winning work from a school art competition, a speech delivered by Prince Charles, a Holocaust memoir from survivor Ben Helfgott and a parchment with the inscription “Shalom” signed by religious leaders.

Speaking at the event on Wednesday last week, Sir Trevor Chinn, a JW3 board member, said: “We’re here to provide our descendants, 100 years hence, with an insight into what makes this community tick, how and why we identify as Jews and what motivated us to build this magnificent complex.”