Lucky enough to be the Area Activator for Tower Hamlets. Personal trainer. Seriously sweet tooth.
71 Month Streak
Block or report Laura Williams
📍St John's Gardens E14 3LN
We return to the Island House Community Centre to make a start on the garden...
Mon 25th Mar at 6:40pm
Tower Hamlets Report written by Laura Williams
A rather chilly Monday evening was no match for 9 GoodGymers this evening, all committed to a very physical task in Bow's GET OUT garden.
Meeting at just before 7 at the bottom of Harley Grove, we enjoyed a good 15 minutes of our regular body weight move-routine, ensuring we tackled everything from tricep dip to trap stretch.
Our little group slowly grew, and at just gone 7, we headed around the corner to the large iron gate of the GET OUT garden.
This previously disused, overgrown area of around has been transformed into 'a productive food forest that reflects the principles of permaculture and acts as a hub for education and connecting to nature'.
Tonight GET OUT team member Frankie had several tasks lined up for the team:
The Timber Team were heading to the skate ramp, to shift large planks of wood to the polytunnel and the exit area to help free-up space.
The Weeding Squad headed to the garlic beds to tackle the many weeds that have put down their roots since we planted the bulbs, working carefully around the many weeds in a variety of sizes in this dimly-lit area.
Meanwhile, the dedicated timber team were busy working effectively in pairs shifting very large wooden planks and boards all over the garden.
The brilliant Frankie directed the teams well, assigning them to new areas no soon as one was completed.
8pm came around fast as usual, and at 8:05 we were gathering tools, and admiring Emma and Ilana's final bit of weeding in the patch by the Camellia.
Off to the shed we went, to return kit and pose for our final pics of the night.
Big shout-outs tonight:
... To Martin, our resident head-torch technican.
... To Oliver, on head torch-collection.
...And, a special mention this week, to the GoodGymers who travel across town to join tasks, who tonight included:
John, who travelled from Camden.
Emma who travelled from Croyden.
Oliver who travelled from Southwark.
...and Fiona from Waltham Forest!
Great night, everyone.
Mon 18th Mar at 7:10pm
Tower Hamlets Report written by Laura Williams
Tonight we headed to a brand new task on the Isle of Dogs! No fewer than 9 GoodGymers were greeted by Anne-Marie from the Island House Community Centre in Roserton Street to learn more about what we were doing this evening.
But first the fitness
A good-sized group joined at St John’s Park for tonight’s fitness session.
This well-lit local park housing tennis courts and well-tended gardens offers great views of the Wharf. A brilliant location for a quick workout!
We enjoyed our usual upper body stretches this evening, accompanied by a few laps of the little park, some squats and tricep dips on the benches.
We also welcomed Tom and Lovisha to their first GoodGym session!
Strolling up Manchester Road we were joined by Lobo and Fiona, before heading in to the warm community centre.
A well-prepared task
Anne-Marie was ready and waiting with bundles of equipment for tonight’s painting task.
We headed up to the large hall, opened doors and windows and set about mixing paint, laying dust sheets and turning radiators off.
With six teams initially spread out over the hall, glossing cupboards and coating radiators (and let’s not forget tackling some very high beams for cobwebs) we thought this would be a speedy job, but with careful painting and a clean-as-you-go attitude, the time slipped by faster than we imagined.
In spite of starting the clean-up effort at around 8:40, it was still nearly 9pm before this dedicated team were heading out (GoodGym Golden Rule #135: Never leave a task messier than when you arrived).
This was a brilliant effort from everyone, and we look forward to Part II of this task , when we return on Wednesday 3rd April!
Until then.
Fri 15th Mar at 2:00pm
We're heading to Limehouse, to help clear the area around the the Yurt Café.
Read moreMon 8th Apr at 6:45pm
Margaret's been in touch to ask for a hand lifting a LOT of soil...
Read moreMon 8th Apr at 6:45pm
Margaret's been in touch to ask for a hand lifting a LOT of soil...
Read moreWed 3rd Apr at 6:40pm
We return to the Island House Community Centre to make a start on the garden...
Read moreFri 15th Mar at 2:00pm
Tower Hamlets Report written by Laura Williams
42 brilliant members of the Two Circles team arrived brilliantly punctually in St James Gardens this afternoon.
On what turned out to be a pretty nice afternoon, we gathered in this pretty park to say our hellos, get an idea of what we’d be doing this afternoon and of course, squeeze a bit of fitness in.
After the obligatory intros, off we got to a splendid start with some squats, stretches, a lunge or two and a little bit of balance work.
As the last of today’s team joined, we made our way a few yards around the corner to the Royal Foundation of Saint Katherine to meet Larry, who was leading today’s activity.
Why were we here?
‘In 2011, St Katharine’s opened its doors to the public. It has become a place where groups and individuals can stay, meet, reflect and retreat. In 2020, St Katharine’s offered itself to become part of the NHS provision for The Royal London and Barts. A dynamic volunteer network, Limehouse Aid, also joined St Katharine’s, which now hosts a food bank distributing food.
St Katharine’s is also a thriving arts and community organisation, hosting London’s only Yurt café.’
Today we were working on a new project that involved transforming a disused space into a new garden area around the Yurt Café.
Our four brilliant team captains
Larry wasted no time in dividing us into four teams, complete with four brilliant team captains.
Two teams headed to the area below the café, one weeding around the community centre, and one working on the heavy lifting job of emptying soil from planters and beds.
Another two teams worked on The Big Weeding Job: one headed to the entrance, tackling borders in the most visible areas; another to ‘the DLR entrance’ working around paths and the planters to give this area a good tidy-up.
And it all got done. Remarkable.
With just 20 minutes to go, we glanced at the remaining planter areas wondering if the soil would be levelled off and wheeled away by 4pm.
It was.
Incredible work in such a short space of time.
Larry and his team are now ready to move on to the next phase of this important project, thanks to you all.
Mon 11th Mar at 6:40pm
Tower Hamlets Report written by Laura Williams
Week 2 of our task at the Yurt Café in Limehouse saw us gathering by the picnic tables for Larry's briefing shortly after 7 this evening.
Our first task was to head around to Butcher Row and trim the Buddleja, which was poking through the fence. We worked along the length of this fence, lopping branches and plucking weeds at a thoroughly good speed. Shout-out to Lucinda who was positioned between the fence and the Portakabin, chopping branches and feeding them through the fence.
After we'd completed this first task, we headed around to the garden to make a start of the other big tasks.
Task 2 (and 3)
First up was the timber relocation. Armed with large planks of wood, the first team shuttled back and forth from the area at the bottom of the garden to the Portakabins until the pile was no more.
Our second team got to work on the planter near the cafe, juggling screwdrivers and stubborn planter sides in poorly-lit conditions, stopping frequently and patiently for my slow photographs.
It was another fun and active night in Limehouse, spent with Larry our task owner who's enormously appreciative of the time GoodGymers are spending helping prepare this area for a time-sensitive, exciting new project.
The evening was rounded off with a big shout-out to our Fiona, a huge part of GG Tower Hamlets, who tonight reached her 100th good deed!
Next week, we're heading inside, for our first task at the Island House Community Centre.
Until then.
Mon 4th Mar at 6:40pm
Tower Hamlets Report written by Laura Williams
We had a good-sized turnout for our fitness session this evening. Balancing on benches and planters, the GoodGymers worked hard at multi-directional lunges, upper body exercises and some decent side planks. It was a fun start to our evening, and great to welcome Lucinda to her first GoodGym!
As our team slowly grew, by 7pm we were ready for a briefing from Larry. Tonight we were dismantling a shed (every bit as fun as it sounds), repotting a tree, dismantling planters, relocating soil and filling the skip.
A fun workout if there ever was one.
Grabbing safety goggles and club hammers, we headed over to the shed to say adios to this redundant structure. Off came the roof, onto its side it went – then the sides were no more. This was a cathartic task-and-a-half.
Meanwhile several other teams were emptying planters full of soil and wheeling the barrows over to a far corner, and carrying the dismantled planters to the skip. Lobo and Alisa meanwhile were doing a sterling job of tree re-potting, including emptying a huge ton bag of soil.
It was a fun, active evening lending a hand to help prepare this space for a huge redevelopment, a big project that needs turning around in a short space of time.
At just before 8, we sped through the tool-gathering in our usual productive fashion, and posed for that final pic, less speedy thanks to an uncooperative camera.
Before we headed out, Larry explained what we’d be doing next week in our second visit of March:
Dismantling more planters
Repairing the fence
Moving timber
Until then.
Loading...