BEDFORDS PARK WALLED GARDEN

HARVESTING VEGETABLES, FRUITS AND AWARDS

In September, we were thrilled to receive a ‘thriving’ award in the It’s Your Neighbourhood programme run by the Royal Horticultural Society. We received 80 out of a possible 100 marks, leaving many more established gardens behind us. Having digested this good news, we were delighted to receive a ‘certificate of excellence’ last week from the London in Bloom Trustees. The award recognises our contribution to the London in Bloom campaign and is linked to the gold award that was given to Bedfords Park as a whole. The awards confirm that we are on the right path and are an energy boost as the final Big Lottery funded landscaping work continues through the long winter.

At the end of September, the garden hosted the Harvest Festival. During a busy week of activities, everyone was invited to guess the weight of Cinderella, our biggest pumpkin. Have a look at the photo and guess for yourself. The winner of the competition was William Winsper, who correctly guessed Cinderella’s weight at 16kg (35lbs).

Last week we also had a visit from Leyton Orient Football Club. Manager Russell Slade, Assistant Manager Kevin Nugent and several 1st team players came to the garden after their training session and helped to harvest Cinderella. They also supported a range of activities to teach people to grow their own food and eat more healthily.

Finally, we are pleased to say that we have beaten our target in Capital Growth’s Million Meals campaign. We pledged 2000 meals, but have now provided the equivalent of 2421 meals. This equates to 172 kilos and a rough value of £817- and we haven’t even entered all our spuds yet.

SMALL WORKS HACKNEY

ENGAGING THE RESIDENTS OF REGENT ESTATE

It’s been another busy and eventful month at Small Works Hackney. We’ve been working hard to involve more local residents in a range of activities and are extremely excited by recent developments.

A resident of Regent Estate has started to work with our volunteer Molly and Stuart from String & Cup to create an online community magazine, which will include a range of articles and features written for and by residents of the estate and E8. The first edition will be published in the next few months.

Last week we also hosted a fruit-juicing day organised by the London Orchard Project. It was a free event, open to everyone, and all the participants received a free bottle of juice at the end of it.

Finally, we would like to mention that there has been steady progress on the Marlborough Square Project. Several design meetings have taken place and work will start in the very near future.

SMALL WORKS VICTORIA

VOLUNTEERS AT WORK

This month we have seen our English classes going from strength to strength. Our volunteer TEFL teachers, Anne and Joe, have been dedicating their time to the local community and helping non-native speakers improve their spoken and written English. We’ve been deeply impressed by their creative approach to helping their students at Small Works Victoria.

We are also proud to say that Muzey, our loyal and incredible volunteer for the Net Worx project, has been featured in the Net Worx blog. Muzey has played a big role in making Small Works Victoria a success thanks to her hard work, time and commitment.

REGENT’S CANAL

BLOWING THE WHISTLE

Our colleague Keith from Community Organisershas been championing the action of citizens concerned about tow-path safety on Regent’s Canal. This month he has been facilitating quick action while also working on long-term solutions.

Operation Whistleblower is a community-led initiative to respond to criminal activity on the tow-path at Victoria Park and Hackney Wick. As the name suggests, Whistleblower is a communication and response system via whistles. In October over 100 whistles were handed out to boaters. The initiative was so well received that donations were provided to buy more whistles and expand Whistleblower up the Lee River Navigation from the Olympic Park to Tottenham.

‘Light The Way! Victoria Park is a long-term community-led solution to criminal activity on the tow-path at Victoria Park. The goal is to establish sustainable lighting on the tow-path and finance this through crowd funding. The boater community is closely involved in the initiative. Keith is acting as coordinator for community news and action; a computer-savvy local boater has built a blog for citizen journalism on the campaign; and two more boaters are working on a sustainable design for lighting. All the while, Keith also keeps the local police and the Canal & River Trust in the loop.

WE WOULD LIKE TO WELCOME MARIE


MARIE JAMES. Project Assistant
Marie is an MA student in Innovation Management at Central St. Martins, where she focuses on the relationship between art, co-creative design and community engagement as a driver for change. She will be with us for 15 weeks and will be working mainly at Small Works Hackney.