Wow it gets dark early these days...very much a head torch lead litter picking session this evening with the Friends of Chandos Road, where our hosts Mark and Leela were pleased to see Rebecca, Ciarán, Tendai and Nick arrive ready to get picking.

The area we focused on was near the recently planted Flower Meadow, and for which (great news) the Friends of Chandos Road have secured additional funding to expand the meadow (for which they may well need some volunteer assistance to lay turf, plant seeds etc...watch this space).

With darkness now upon us, we split into smaller groups each with a bag and litter pickers and got going as best we could in all directions. A large pile of cigarette butts occupied Rebecca and her group for a long time, whilst the other group encountered the remnants of an extensive buffet and a lot of bottle lids which needed some effort to prise them out of the ground...

Before long we had three pretty full bags of rubbish, and so called it an evening - with litter pickers returned, and Rebecca kindly agreeing to take the rubbish bags to her nearest large bin on the way home, we were thanked by the team for our efforts and headed off into the darkness.

Next week we're at the Hackney Marshes Adventure Playground to help Ange with whatever she's got planned...it might involve sand, logs, bark or wheelbarrows...

Seven GoodGymmers set out today to wage war on one of the less glamorous foes of East London: rubbish. And wow… there was a lot of it.

The Journey

A few of us kicked things off with a run from the London Aquatics Centre, warming up nicely before the main event. The air at the Aquatics Centre: fresh. The air under the bridge between Drapers Fields and Chobham Manor School: not so much.

The Task

The area around the bridge turned out to be extremely heavily littered — the kind of spot where you look around and instantly know:

“Yes, this is why GoodGym exists.”

Broken glass? tick

Mystery smells? tick

Random items that really shouldn’t be outdoors? tick

Enough rubbish to fill the Olympic pool? Maybe not, but we did manage to fill around 20 bags, which isn’t bad for a Saturday mission.

The Team

All seven of us got stuck in, spreading out across the site like a well‑coordinated litter‑picking strike force. The teamwork was top tier — grabbers grabbing, bags filling, jokes flying.

The Impact

By the end, the path looked cleaner, safer, and significantly less like a post‑festival campsite. It was one of those tasks where the difference was instantly noticeable — exactly the kind of satisfying GoodGym magic that reminds you why we do this.

A beautiful Sunday morning, Graham and Rosa went for a nice run in Victoria park on the way to Chandos Road gardens, where the locals have applied for some funds to plant some wild flowers. The rough idea is to make it look like Tuscany, and they’re planning sit out there on summer evenings sipping on aperol spritzs… or so I understand

The wild flowers need some sandy ground to grow in so they had had three big bags of sand delivered, but it needed moving across the park. Many lovely folks from the neighbourhood pitched in with shovels and wheelbarrows. With a big joint effort we were able to get the sand moved over and spread out where the wildflowers are to be planted in just under an hour!

Well done everyone! We look forward to seeing how those seeds grow!

Last night, GoodGym Newham headed out to support the Friends of Chandos Road Gardens, clearing autumn leaves from the streets and litter from the children’s playground.

Nick arrived first and got straight to work on litter picking, setting the pace for the session. Graham walked over despite recovering from a football-related injury — we wish him a swift recovery! Kev arrived after a run, and then Rosa, Eugene, and I did a little group run, taking the scenic route from the Aquatics Centre to join in.

Armed with rakes, bags and shovels, we tackled the leaves lining the street and rubbish scattered around the playground. Among the items collected were stray wrappers, cups, and even a lonely teddy bear!

We were also joined by volunteers and local residents from Chandos Road, who continued the cleanup after we left, finishing the job and collecting all the bagged leaves and rubbish for the council. Great to see the community come together to make the streets and playground cleaner and safer.

📅 Upcoming Tasks

We don't currently have anything lined up next Tuesday, but we do have the following brilliant tasks coming up not long after:

Saturday 8th Nov: Parkrun and then gardening at Emmanuel Church

Tuesday 11th: Hackney Marsh Adventure Playground

Thanks to everyone who came along today — with our combined efforts, Chandos Road is looking brighter, tidier, and ready for everyone to enjoy! 🌿

My health and safety advice was met with a wailing and a gnashing of teeth. I thought the suggestion that we should "lift with our knees" was pretty sensible, Hilary and Nick had different ideas. From their reaction I thought the piece of advice I'd been given in every health and safety talk in any manual labour type setting had been an elaborate hoax... opinions varied across the group... anyway, lots of lifting was indeed required as we headed to the Education Links school, where we were greeted by Mark who is a trustee of the school.

The mission, clear some space on the outer walls to make room for a new mural to cover the entire front of the building. Some other items for disposal had also been organised outside the school for chucking in a big skip. Classic goodgym fare. The team (8 strong, good turn out!) divided and conquered, plenty of smashing stuff into smaller bits along the way, elbow grease required, and got the job done.

Many thanks to our host Mark who gave us really clear direction and explained some of the context of what the work will facilitate in terms of the new mural and how the kids at the school will benefit.

Hope to see you all next week superstars!

A return trip to Chandos Road which had a lot less leaves than our last visit.

This time was a litter picking session.

Hilary led the team in their run from the Print House while Kevin and I took a walking option as we had the litter pickers and bags supplied by Newham council. We split up and headed to three areas of the play park to ensure the children have a clean litter free area to play.