7 GoodGymers climb Camden rooftops to taste some spring nature!

The Greenwood Centre in Kentish Town is a mix of levels — some close to the ground and others closer to the sky — with special community gardens on each!

And this wonderful group — Gary, Jackie, Karen, Loz, Mariam (on their first good deed — welcome!), and Thierry — made a meaningful difference in multiple spaces yesterday!

Having been met by our brilliant host, Catherine, this super productive crew:

💚 Removed (and saved!) a large and green (and exceptionally leafy) plant in need of a new home!

💚 Moved a heavy grit bin (along with upmteen sacks of gravel) to much more suitable spot!

💚 Cut and bagged a lot (an awful lot!) of green waste ready for composting!

💚 Transported a heavy (30, 30, 50KGs...!?) planter to a sunny new home!

💚 Watered garlic and spring flowers and all sorts of thirsty shoots!

Thank you, everyone!

P.S. Thank you, Thierry, for the wonderful rooftop photos!

10 GoodGymers move an ENTIRE GREENHOUSE (!) in Camden!

I often think that many hands really can make light work...

...but sometimes...

I think the work really is too heavy!

Which is what my brain was thinking as I arrived at Cecil Sharp House yesterday evening, where I was met by the lovely and fabulous troupe of Al, Jackie, John, Karen, Lydia, Rose, Siobhan, Theo, and Thierry!

Our task was quite simple.

Pick up that big ol' greenhouse, walk it 60m, and put it down again (in addition to emptying and organising and refilling too!)

And before I could even murmur a hesitation this group were off and working, and just wonderful they were. Together they:

❤️ Made exceptionally light work of this mammoth task!

❤️ Left the greenhouse organised and tidy, and in a prime new position!

❤️ Did even more by repacking two storage crates with heavy bags of gravel and soil!

And while some of the team did this Jackie and Siobhan were busy making a wonderful difference in Cecil Sharp's garden 👉 they collected leaves, strewn twigs, and litter 👉 transforming the lawn and pathways into (surely!) the tidiest green space in Camden :)

Thank you, everyone!

12 GoodGymers made a difference at the penultimate winter shelter of the season!

We were super fortunate to welcome three lovely new faces this week — a big welcome to Emma, Joe, and Jonny!

And they joined our friendly and fabulous group of Al, Charlie, Emily, Jackie, Jacqui, John, Paul, and Philippa!

Across 35 well-spent minutes, this troupe:

❤️ Assembled, positioned, and dressed 14 beds ready and waiting for the evening's guests

❤️ Set 22 spaces for a (delicious-smelling) volunteer-cooked dinner

❤️ Did everything while connecting and chatting aplenty :)

Thank you, everyone!

12 GoodGymers take multiple lifts and elevators on a Wednesday night!

The Greenwood Centre in Kentish Town looks like it should make sense.

It's not especially large and it doesn't appear to be meandering.

Someone might look up and remark: That's a nice glass cube! Bet you can't get lost in there!

How wrong they would be!

There are gardens on the roof and out the back and off a random room on level one — you can't turn a corner without finding a garden!

And while I was busy getting bemused and confused, this special group were busy making a wonderful difference ❤️

Last night we welcomed Abigail on their first good deed (welcome!) and Caterina on their first trip to Camden GG (welcome!), as well as fabulous regular faces 👉 Ariane, Danny, Gary, Jackie, John, Kareem, Karen, Steve, and Thierry (great to see you all!)

Together they:

💚 Pulled weeds from seemingly every gutter bordering every garden on every floor!

💚 Shifted heavy bags of soil and sand and gravel and mulch 👉 upstairs to downstairs and downstairs to upstairs!

💚 And multiple other small tasks that make a big difference!

Thank you, everyone!

Six GoodGymers braved the damp and cold to make a difference this Wednesday!

This wonderful group — of Charlie, Jackie, John, Kathleen, Steve, and Alex — turned up at Cecil Sharp House for our first visit of 2026!

There has been a bunch of building work at the house and our task was to clean things up — cue...

❤️ Jackie's wonderful leaf collecting and litter picking, turning the lawn and surrounding areas immaculate :)

❤️ One marvellous human chain making light (and swift) work shifting a true mountain of bags!

❤️ Gritty effort sweeping and raking and collecting all manner of building rubbish, leaves, and weeds!

Thank you so much, everyone!

After a lovely(i) evening, Sunday dawned grey and mizzly. Having whipped the hostel back into shape in the nick of time, we were treated to the shortest(ii) ever task commute known to a GG weekend(iii). The lovely folks at the RSPB are now responsible for looking after the historic Sherwood Forest, and were prepared with a whole host of jobs for us to undertake. They seemed unduly concerned about the poor weather, where it was now definitely raining, but we(iv) insisted we were sufficiently hardly and would carry on regardless.

Volunteers were requested for various weeding, de-leafing and edge clearing tasks around the visitors centre itself, the polishing of remembrance plaques on the Tree of Life installation, and litter picking in the great forest itself. In a break from tradition we assembled for a group photo at the start of the task(v), before going our merry (wo/men) ways, and setting about our work. It is fair to say that some folks were more tired(vi) than others after a busy weekend, but Bec as ever was keen and raring to go. "I've got a fork and I want to weed, but I don't know where!" The answer being between the Robin Hood statue and the bin store, naturally.

A good-sized group made a cracking job of neatening up all the edging of the lovely smooth path surfaces(vii) and clearing leaves from the surrounding grassy areas, armed with very shiny yellow rakes and turf edgers. Many(viii) wheelbarrows of leaves were relocated and encouraged that they would much prefer their new homes, and the overall effect was a definite improvement(ix) . Lured by the combination of "brasso" and "overhang" Debs and Jen found their way to the Tree of Life, and Debs explained her affiliation for polishing shiny things. Alas two plaques were out of reach, but all the rest are now gleaming(x) in their remembrance of lovely humans for whom this was a special place. From up above the voices of Mitch and Paul drifted down, as they found more edges to attend to. Our final team of hardy hoods-up do-gooders set off into the forest, litter pickers in hand. It has to be one of our more scenic places for a little pick, but fortunately it seemed that they had to try quite hard to find litter, digging deep into the soggy undergrowth. Steve did a doubly good job of not only finding two footballs, but somehow managing to give them away to good homes too!

As the jobs came to an end(xi), various folks took the opportunity to explore the forest, making the lengthy(xii) pilgrimage to the legendary Major Oak, whilst bagging yet more kilometers for the January Challenge. Meanwhile some of our younger(xiii) members enjoyed the many delights of the fabulous visitors centre and cafe. Birthday girl Katie showed off her skills with a bow and arrow to great effect.

As lunchtime approached, and the parents(xiv) summoned their young outlaws reluctantly back out the forest, it was time to head home after a cracking weekend. Hot baths and 2 hour naps were on the cards, but the warmth of doing good with excellent humans will last much longer.

(i) Unless you were Amy (ii) 50m (iii) or any task full stop? (iv) Ed (v) presumably in case anyone didn't come back (vi) "tired" (vii) resin-bound gravel apparently, (as your author descends down a rabbit hole of surfacing specialities...) (viii) I'm guessing here (ix) fingers crossed! (x) relatively speaking (xi) ish (xii) 10 minute (xiii) at heart (xiv) The Griffs