There have been a flurry of GoodGym community missions at St Matthew's over the last few months. Maintenance of the ample garden space surrounding the classically designed 18th Century church has driven a swell of community-minded spirit.

A genteel counterpoint to the more sinister sense of dread that may have swirled around these parts in the days of its two most famous former parishioners, Ronnie and Reggie Cray. The twin kings of London's criminal underworld were both commemorated with funerals held here 30 years ago.

With all that well in the past now, Monday gone saw the GoodGym firm return to keep up the momentum of kindness and goodwill, on what was a lovely, warm mid-summer evening. Slightly hazy skies, there was also a swift breeze swaying and creaking through the trees, a little askew from the GoodGym bonhomie in the air.

Whatever spirit was blowing about, walking, running and rolling into task came each member of the crew, most of the team members arriving well ahead of time. Some of the clan sneaking in a little after, excuses and alibis provided, naturally enough, under intense interrogation, with nervous smiles and the odd chuckle.

The initial friendly greetings quickly bubbled over into a lively hubbub of upbeat camaraderie. On the brink of a full-scale turf war, @John, as session lead, stepped up to shush the growing cacophony. Thus formal proceedings began with a calming round of introductions, before running through the carefully laid blueprints for this community heist. There was a reason we were all there. There was a job to be done.

As a marker of their usual thorough preparation, Linda and the St Matthew's family, our mission bosses, had identified four operations where muscle was needed. Furthermore, for our reassurance and comfort, they provided the means to honour three sensible security basics to avoid leaving prints: wear gloves, use tools and stay hydrated. The fulfilment of the latter with ice-cold squash and chocolate rice cakes at the back of the church exceeded hydration to bring us back around replete with sugar-fuelled stamina, after all our exertions.

Whilst busy digesting all the instructions and precautions, local heavy, @Lobo, wheeled his way to join us, dressed in unorthodox but eye-catching pink, lending his support to consolidate our protection racket; i.e. helping everybody find the task, despite our straying from the official meeting point. Rendezvous check noted for our future jobs. Perhaps a tall pink flag is needed?

Altogether, the team converged on the business of the evening, choosing tasks in a seemingly chaotic fashion while somehow remaining focused throughout. We dispersed thus, rather randomly, across the varied church surroundings, a site made up of paving and then lawns, interspersed with paths and a scattering of benches. A territory increasingly familiar to our regular enforcers. One or two seem to know it like the back of their hand.

Now to task: by far the most popular activity was the ongoing battle with the bindweed, a plant pest well-known in this corner of Tower Hamlets, one that had engulfed the poor, innocent circular flowerbed in the area behind the church.

@Jo and @Ilana, seasoned in bindweed disposal from previous experience here and elsewhere across East London, untangled bindweed from the shrubs along the perimeter. @Chloe and @Frankie played a more central role in operations, fighting through to the centre of the flowerbed, cutting back bindweed from the plants in the middle. Frankie, terrific performance for a newcomer. We all hope to see more of you. @Sam and @Kareem stooped and scrambled in the between areas, intercepting knotted threads of the same pervasive vine.

@Ciarán provided bags of welcome enthusiasm for this challenge, along with the actual body bags needed to amass all the severed greenery discarded in crude piles about the immediate area. The bindweed, and any unforeseen collateral damage, needed bagging up and disposing of in an orderly fashion. And there's only really one GoodGymer for a clean-up job like that.

The second major activity was litter-picking, where the assorted items the team gathered up offered the usual insights into the life and crimes played out here. Remnants lazily left behind were the typical mix of mundane and extraordinary, both of which raised eyebrows amongst those who know.

@Chantal and @Nuunuu accumulated sackfuls of contraband cups and cans so efficiently they were asked by a dog walker: had they accidentally collected an expensive dog collar gone astray? Clearly not.

Equally tenacious, @Louise picked up detritus hither and thither, a half-eaten tray of takeaway food here and a small sports jacket there, one inscribed with the name of a highly feared local crew.

@Dan and @Darren collected debris left from the full range of suspicious human activity: eating (forks aplenty), smoking (groups of cigarette butts) and inhaling nitrous oxide gas (a large and heavy canister akin to something incendiary).

The third activity caught @Jack's attention. He dedicated the evening to scraping moss and weeds from between the paving stones, creating a much neater getaway route for visitors to stride or saunter around, however they prefer. Attention to this detail brings out the pride in those who cherish a place of such significance. Credit due for the hard graft that now looks, at a glance, like all is neat and tidy, and really rather well.

Bringing our mission's efforts to a close, current Capos @Lucinda and @Emma introduced us to @Nazifa, who is one of GoodGym's first cohort of Future Leaders. Nazifa will be joining the leadership team to help coordinate sessions over the coming months, thus igniting the next generation of GoodGymmers giving time and care to their local community. One to watch.

And another one amongst our number deserving of a special moment. For Lucinda, we joined our voices together, a bit like an evensong choir, but less tunefully, singing a sketchy but heartfelt rendition of happy birthday to celebrate thus dedicated and dynamic volunteer. Three cheers ring out still for our Lucinda!

FYI, the GoodGym Taskforce is for any volunteer who has attended ten missions and completed a short online training session: set up to do that bit of extra behind-the-scenes work to prepare, deliver and evaluate the GoodGym calendar of task activities we all sign up to each week. If that sounds like something for you, chat to any of the Tower Hamlets Taskforce (listed on each task listing on the website). We will happily give you the lowdown!

But, what of that fourth and final activity? Nettle removal. Overlooked or forgotten? Or maybe a little intimidating and foreboding. My thought, maybe just too tricky and prickly for a warm summer's evening. And yet, perhaps a fresher weekend mob might be better set to take the sting out of St Matthew's gardens...

Be it nettles or other gardening activities that spark your interest in this patch of Tower Hamlets, you can join GoodGym and friends on Saturday morning, where you can help stirring the spirit that started this Goodgym team's week: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sign-up/let-s-grow-together

We will be with you. And, wherever you are, we will be watching.

On a balmy East London evening, task owner Alex welcomed us by Barge East for what must surely be one of the most seasonally appropriate GoodGym tasks ever. With temperatures hovering around 30 degrees, it almost felt like we were at the seaside rather than in the middle of Stratford/Hackney Wick!

Our mission at Bola Beach Tennis was to help maintain the three beach tennis courts. Over time, the sand gradually migrates to one side thanks to a combination of enthusiastic players and the wind doing its thing, so we spent the evening shovelling, moving and raking sand back into a level playing surface. We also swept around the edges of the courts and returned escaped sand to its rightful home.

Some of the group embraced the beach atmosphere fully and went barefoot, enjoying the rare experience of getting sand between their toes during a Monday evening GoodGym task in central London!

The evening's most memorable challenge, however, came in the form of a gigantic roll of astro turf that needed moving. Despite the combined efforts of almost the entire group (the only exceptions were Jo and Dan, who wisely remained focused on expertly levelling Court 1 ), it refused to budge. We wrestled with the stubborn, immovable object and eventually admitted temporary defeat.

We then spent a lovely half hour after the task relaxing with cold cans of pop from Alex (including sampling the Brazilian favourite Guaraná) and brainstorming increasingly creative solutions to the astro turf problem. Suggestions included: - A "toss-the-caber" style approach (from Lucinda) - Sawing it into smaller chunks (Reymon's practical engineering solution) - Dragging it flat like a giant parachute game (thanks Chloe!) - And finally the consensus view: it probably needs a crane or to be airlifted ?

Watch this space... the saga of the astro turf is (possibly) to be continued...

A huge thank you to everyone who came along and brought beach energy to East London for an evening. Hope you enjoyed your slice of Hackney Wick seaside life — see you all next week! 🌞🏖️💪

With our main contact Janet sadly unwell, we wondered whether we’d ever be returning to one of our longest-established tasks, at Cranbrook Community Centre. With a strong focus on inclusion and affordability, the centre provides everything from music and parties to fitness classes and prayer groups, but they do need our help to keep the entrance garden tidy

We were summoned back to the centre by Abdul and Linda, who are looking after things while Janet recuperates at home - it was good to hear she’s out of hospital. And our old friend Eileen was still there to hand out rakes and cutting tools, and to give instructions. There was plenty to do, with a mess of leaves and twigs to be raked up, overhanging bushes to be cut back and rubbish to be collected, and the heat had dissipated – for now. We even used our botany skills (and Google Lens) to identify a rather nice white-flowering plant, who’s name I’ve already forgotten. But it was an attractive plant anyway…

A special welcome to Adam, doing his first ever good deed! I trust we made you feel welcome, and hope to see you again soon. Welcome back Grove Road Emma, who’s been busy wrecking her flat, and it was also good to see Bonner Street Emma, who wasn’t feeling good, but visited briefly just to say hello. Get well soon, BS Emma

Eventually we very gradually dissipated, progressively splitting into ever smaller groups, but we’ll be back together at the Cemetery Park next Monday

Sunday started early - VERY early. 7am at Aid Station 4 on the Hackney Half Marathon Route (just by Broadway Market!). There were plenty of bleary eyes, but thankfully the sun was already shining as we arrived ready for the day ahead.

Our first mission: water station setup. And if there’s one thing permanently burnt into our minds now, it’s the maths of the tables - 20 by 8 cups on each layer, 5 layers high, over and over and over again. Tables after tables after tables. Somewhere between the endless cup stacking and chatting away, the morning flew by! The best part was meeting so many brilliant Goodgymers from all over London - and, naturally, we even ended up recruiting new members whilst we were at it!

Then the motorcade arrived and the first runners appeared… From that point on it just never stopped for the next 2–3 hours. Thousands of runners streamed past as we handed out water as fast as humanly possible, cheered people on, tried to decipher names scribbled across bibs, shouted encouragement at every fancy dress costume we spotted, and kept our eyes peeled for our fellow GoodGym runners amongst the crowds. There were even a few famous faces mixed in too. Some runners just wanted a sip, others their bottles filling, others wanted us to throw a cup of water over them!

It was loud, sunny, exhausting, and genuinely brilliant - such a fantastic community vibe. Before we knew it, the runners had passed through, the cups had disappeared, the tables were packed away, and by around 1pm we were wrapped up after an amazing morning.

A huge well done to everyone who ran, volunteered, organised, cheered, stacked cups, handed out water, and kept the energy going all morning long!

Until next year! And who knows — you might even spot some of the people handing out your water this time swapping volunteer bibs for running bibs and taking on the 13.1 miles through the streets of Hackney themselves…

Across the balcony from each flat on the Parkview Estate is a planter, visible to anyone walking through the estate. Many of the planters contain colourful flowers, giving the estate a much brighter look and countering the graffiti and litter to be found in some areas. But some of the planters are full of nothing but dry earth, a few twigs, and maybe a weed or two.Which is where GoodGym come in

We met in the community garden, a familiar place to us by now, except for Sam, who still got there eventually. “Have you seen Sam?” asked Emma”. Yes, he’s walking up behind you” I replied. Soon we were loaded with buckets of soil, a wheelbarrow (which we somehow took up in the lift), filled watering cans, and those all-important geraniums

Local knowledge was provided by Seb, a resident of the estate, as well as task owner Catherine, a long-time friend of GoodGym who also provided a cheat-key to enable us to get into the block

Some residents already had one or two plants opposite their front door, so we asked them if they minded us filling the gaps with a couple of geraniums. However, one resident who said “yes”, was unsure what “the missus” would think when she returned

Eventually, we’d flowered the whole of the Sidney House block. But there are other Parkview blocks which would appreciate the same treatment, so put a date in your diary for 13th June and sign up for our next visit at https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/parkview-free-plant-giveaway-538b5ba6-27b0-4fcd-97c1-317997cbd35a