Neighbours across London are clubbing together on solar panels and pocket gardens, with community activists preparing to offer advice at the Camden Inspire festival on September 26 and 27 at the Camden Collective.
Solar panel scheme in Walthamstow
Artist Daniel Edelstyn, with his partner Hilary Powell and a band of neighbours, has been working to get subsidised solar panels installed on their street in Walthamstow. The couple made a film, Power Station, to document the process and inspire others to try something similar.
Their local MP has backed the project and is working with them to expand it across 130 streets in Waltham Forest. Edelstyn described the work as hard but rewarding, saying it gives people something to get their teeth into against the feeling of helplessness in front of the enormity of the challenge of climate change.
Community gardens and guerrilla shading
Nicole Van den Eijnde will join Edelstyn on a panel to discuss her work with Global Generation, which co-creates gardens with communities in inner London. Its projects include the New Story Garden in King's Cross and the Paper Garden in Canada Water.
Van den Eijnde noted that the gardens are not easy growing spaces, with many having to be container gardens, which is relevant for people living in London without the luxury of a garden. She said anyone can start with even a window box, bringing joy to lives in the middle of cities and playing a big role in improving biodiversity if everybody is doing their little bit.
Architect Owen Pearce will run a guerrilla shading workshop at the festival, involving building a shade structure from a collectively made sail. He said it can be as simple as tying it between a house and a lamp post or between two trees in a playground, clipping it up at the start of the day and taking it down in the evening.
Pearce said many councils are dragging their feet over adding shading structures because of fears over anti-social behaviour, adding that people can start themselves and hopefully lead to change at the top rather than waiting for another 10 horrible summers in London.
