A large group of Goodgymers gathered for our first November task in Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park. We started with introductions, biscuit preferences and a brief history of the park. Then it was time to get our gloves, tools and head torches and we headed off into the darkness.

Our task was to plant over 400 snowdrop and daffodil bulbs along the side of a rediscovered footpath among the graves. We planted randomly to add to the wild, natural feel of the park which is a managed nature reserve. Come back early next year to see these beautiful flowers in bloom!

Many hands made light work of the planting and a fun time was had by all. Conversations flourished and new friendships were formed. Ken also imparted his knowledge of cemetery celebrities (including William Perkin who invented an affordable mauve dye and has family buried there) and natural wonders such as the picturesque purple fungus on the stump of a horse chestnut tree.

A big shout out to Iona and Peter for completing their first ever Goodgym tasks. It was great to have you and we hope you’ll join us again soon. Also, a big hello to our visitors to the borough including Hannah!

Monday night was another big one at Cranbrook Community Centre!

We got stuck into improving the outside areas, with plenty of leaf picking, clearing up and getting the garden looking a little more loved. Lucinda also came prepared with the lights and made sure everyone had gloves, which definitely came in handy as it started getting darker!

We also had a couple of new faces join us, including someone doing their very first GoodGym session! It was lovely to have them join us at Cranbrook, and hopefully we’ll see them back here again soon

But the biggest celebration of the evening was for Kareem, who completed his 100th GoodGym session! 🎉 It was also his last session with us for a while as he’s moving on to his next plans, so it was a lovely way to mark the occasion. We’ll definitely miss having him around, and wishing him all the best with whatever comes next!

A big thank you to everyone who came along, got stuck in and helped make a difference to the outside space. Another Monday night well spent!

REPORT BY NAZIFA

St Matthew’s Gardens had certainly accumulated its fair share of leaves, so it was time for the GoodGym crew to get involved! 🍂

The task was mainly focused on clearing leaves from around the garden and churchyard, with a little bit of litter picking thrown in too. There were* A LOT* of leaves to tackle, but everyone got stuck in. We picked, swept, gathered and bagged them up, with plenty of bags being filled along the way

I made sure everyone had bags to collect the leaves in, and it was great seeing everyone working together to clear the paths and tidy up the area. There was definitely no shortage of leaves, but we managed to make a good dent in them!

It was also my first time leading a GoodGym session, so I was really happy with how everything went. As Emma would say, I can’t “be-leaf”it was my first one!

A big thank you to everyone who came along and helped out. It was a really good experience for my first time leading, and I think we all did a great job

There was to be no mulching at Columbia Road this time, the mulch heap having been removed by the council after a fire, an indication of the drought conditions endured by Londoners at present. So there's a hosepipe ban, but plants still need irrigation, which is where GoodGym come in...

A very healthy turnout of 19 GoodGymers soon grabbed a surprisingly adequate number of watering cans. They boosted their daily step-count while strengthening their muscles, returning again and again from the water tap in the storage area, to the bushes and plants on the other side of the estate. Doing good while keeping fit!

Ed and several of our crew seemed to have abandoned the task, but never fear, we found them using an alternative tap, unhelpfully situated behind a fence, but more handily situated for the bushes and trees on that side of the estate

Special mention to Lucinda and Chris who were prepared to stay in the confines of the storage area in order to serve a constant stream of GoodGym “customers”. Actually, they probably had the right idea, it was a bit cooler in there…

Returning to the canal club, this time we concentrated on weeding the winding paths between the plant beds, alongside the canal. Others chopped and sawed wood. It was a crowded space for the lucky 13 of us, but we spread ourselves into twos and threes and set to work, while catching up with each others’ activities since last we met

Our reward, supplied by lovely task owner Sally, were weather-appropriate home-made lollipops, with even a choice of flavours! So we continued the socialising while exciting our taste buds, then after most people had dispersed, four of us decided that the night was still young, and headed for The Hare in Cambridge Heath Road

The Canal Club, however, is currently proposed as a site for development. It was built for residents of the Wellington Estate and its activities include toddler storytelling, baby dance classes, Tai Chi, knitting and sewing, outdoor pizza making, breakdancing, line dancing, karaoke social evenings, a science homework club, singing, refugee activities, a food bank, arts and crafts, and Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings. There is a ball court and a children’s playground

This is not an empty site! If you want the council to remove the site from its accelerated housing scheme, sign the petition at https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/save-our-space-e2-save-the-canal-club