Transition Kentish Town
Spring Newsletter

Campaigning, Retrofitting and Growing…

1. The Big One.

On Friday 21st April, Climate Emergency Camden will join Extinction Rebellion to walk from Parliament Hill to Parliament Square, to bring our voices, our presence and our calls to government - both local and national - for real action on the Climate and Ecological Emergency.

At Parliament Square we will join other groups to Unite to Survive at 'The Big One' – a four day peaceful protest from the 21st to the 24th April 2023. For more details, see: https://extinctionrebellion.uk.

We will be delivering a message to Government and demanding more action to save the planet:

• Decarbonise
• No new fossil fuel extraction
• Fund nationwide retrofit

Here are the details of the walk, which has been carefully planned by XR Walkers and will be managed by stewards. We will gather at 9.10am, have a briefing at 9.20am so we are ready to leave at 9.30am.
Location: the starting point is the top of Parliament Hill. For the exact location see: https://w3w.co/single.glow.most
Distance: 10km (6 miles)
Here is a map with the route: https://www.plotaroute.com/route/2169520?units=km
WhatsApp Group: https://chat.whatsapp.com/FoeqiAETJEp4TS5GlfVmNW
You may prefer to join us at Hampstead Heath Station (9.50am) or Belsize Park Underground station (10.00am). We expect to get to Parliament Square by 12.30pm.
Your safety is paramount and we have a few gentle reminders to ensure that you all have a good walk with us. We hope to see you there.

During the weekend there will be lots of other really inspiring events and talks you can join in. For more details, see: https://extinctionrebellion.uk/the-big-one/

2. 'Greening your footprint’ garden



On our way to Parliament Square, we will be passing nearby to our fab ‘Greening Your Footprint’ garden. This community garden is springing into action with fruit trees full of blossom, and herbs, veg and wildflowers growing wonderfully. We will be numbering the beds and adding a blackboard which will display what is growing in each bed, each week. We have so much great feedback from Kentish Towners telling us how much joy and solace this little garden has bought to our community.

Do you have a free hour a week? We need volunteers to help us water it. Join our Whatsapp group to find out what’s going on: [email protected].

Someone has unfortunately pinched our water butt. Can you help us by donating a new one, or spare one which you might have? Thanks.

3. Talking about all things greening

Camden Forest - we have incredible news to share. We are very proud to announce that the Camden Forest Project, which many of us are part of, has spread its roots widely across the borough, with four fantastic projects this season: Communi-Trees Project; Jammy Hedges; School Fruit Trees; Young Tree Giveaways.



Communi-Trees Project: After an initial pilot which saw 18 Communi-trees planted at the Peckwater and Goldington Estates, the Communi-tree project has been rolled out to a further six estates across Camden. 70 mature trees have this season been planted across Camden, at: Templar House Estate, Kilburn, NW2; Bourne Estate, EC1N; Regents Park Estate, NW1; Maitland Park Estate, NW3; Bayham Place Estate, NW1 and Clarence Way.

As well as the many ecological benefits of planting trees, at the heart of this project is an opportunity for young people to gain valuable experience caring for the trees as well as being paid to water the trees over the Spring and Summer.

We welcome our new young Camden Foresters: Maryam, Mohammed, Alex, Kyrre, Kaidenleigh, Chrissie, Isabella, Tegan, Cody, Mariem, Maisha, Simba and Tito.



Below are some pictures of volunteers helping to plant the Communi-trees.

The planting of the 70 Communi-trees plus 25 fruit trees planted at schools, means that the Camden Forest project this year, supported by the KOKO Foundation, will have added just under 20% to the total public tree planting in the borough of Camden, which increases to an estimated 40% if replacement trees are not included. Isn’t that an amazing statistic?

The Camden Forest project has also planted five jammy hedges and thickets containing native hedgerow whips this season. These have been planted at Acland Burghley School, UCL Academy, Regent High School and Templar House, Kilburn.

Saturday 15th April saw the planting of the 2,025th young tree whip in Camden.The Camden Forest vision was to plant a patchwork forest of 2,025 young trees across Camden by the year 2,025. Well, the target has now been reached two years ahead of schedule thanks to the many Camden resident tree guardians. You can visit the Camden Forest on this map.

These amazing Camden Forest achievements would not have been possible without the incredibly generous support of the KOKO Foundation as well as our collaboration with Camden Council and hundreds of volunteer hours kindly donated by Camden residents and employees.

Here’s a picture of a pollution busting, biodiversity encouraging jammy hedge/thicket we recently planted at Acland Burghley School. We’ve also planted Jammy Hedges at UCL Academy, Hampstead School, Regent High School and Templar Estate in Kilburn. Our borough now has over 1,000 new hedgerow shrubs.

4. Nature Connections



As we begin the journey from Spring into Summer, join TKT Nature Connections for a (r)amble around Waterlow Park 11am -12noon on Sunday 30th April.

• Explore new ways to connect with the energies of Nature; and discover the vital role city parks now play in providing refuges for Nature.
  
  
• Discover how we can help Nature survive and thrive in our city parks, as we tour established and new wild garden areas and habitats with Rita Drobner, Biodiversity Co-Lead for the Friends of Waterlow Park.
  
  
• And how connecting with Nature can improve our own health and emotional and spiritual well-heing, as we share practical tree and flower identification; seasonal Nature folklore and Nature poetry; and finding our own Nature Connection sitting spot (or power place) for connecting with the energies of Nature throughout the seasons.

The event is free. There is a maximum 20 people and booking is essential. Please book your place here by emailing [email protected].
Note: Waterlow Park is hilly and there will be some off path walking. Sturdy footware is advised.

5. Retrofit Kentish Town

Have you been thinking about retrofitting your home - to reduce carbon emissions from heating and making a more comfortable and healthy living environment? If you live anywhere in the NW5 postcode, we may soon be able to help you.

Transition Kentish Town have set up a community retrofit initiative - RETROFIT KENTISH TOWN - to help address the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions resulting from heating our homes. We need to consider how to insulate our homes and install PV panels and heat pumps. As the group develops we hope to be able to arrange visits to homes in the area where retrofit works have been carried out, and provide advice about how to go about planning works, obtaining grant funding and arranging for the work to be done.

Despite the lack of funding from government there are some solutions, and we think that these can be better accessed by working together to mobilise funds, inform building owners and addressing the urgent need for retrofit training skills. We need to redouble our efforts to address some of the obstacles that are inhibiting effective action.

We will be meeting monthly. If you have a special interest in this area and would like to get involved in the group, please email [email protected]. If you are considering doing these works yourself, and think you would like some advice, please also email and we will get back to you in the near future.

6. Transform Our Future



On the 11th-14th May, there is a London Regional Gathering organised by Transition Together in partnership with local Transitioners. The aim is to give Transitioners the chance to visit each other's projects and to see Transition in action in communities across London. The Transition Kentish Town showcase will take place on Saturday 13th and we'd love for you to be there to meet people from other Transition groups and talk about the great things which have come out of Transition Kentish Town! The event is free, but please book via Eventbrite.

Calling all wannabe mixologists! Save the date: as part of a Transition Together (transitiontogetherYorg.uk) London event, we will be serving late afternoon botanical cocktails and mocktails are our Greening Your Footprint Garden at the Kentish Town Firestation on either Friday 12th or Saturday 13th May - to be confirmed. Please check Twitter @tkentishtown for timings.

Cheers to you all for reading this newsletter and being part of a wonderful community here in Kentish Town.