TKT News and Events January 2025

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Transition Kentish Town News
and Events January 2025

Welcome to the first TKT Newsletter of 2025, with best wishes for a good year ahead for all of us in Kentish Town.

This time between the Winter and Spring festivities often feels like a long haul, and the cold and grey skies make it a tough time of year for many people. And a time when we can all do with news and events that help us hold onto to Hope, and connect with the subtle positive changes that are surely happening all around us.

In our Kentish Town communities there’s plenty happening over the next few months to help us to share solidarity and to cheer the winter blues. And in our back gardens and parks, and out on Parliament Hill Fields, and in flowerpots on windowsills, Nature is reminding us to connect with the energy and change of this winter-into-spring season, and to hold on to the Hope they bring and trust ourselves to change.

Kentish Town Connects

Join Transition Kentish Town at a Kentish Town Connects networking meet up.
When: Tuesday 21st January, 5.30 – 7.30pm.
Where: Castlehaven Community Centre, 23 Castlehaven Road, London NW1 8RU.

Come along and join the buzz of ideas and energy. And help TKT bring the power of our shared imagination to envision and build a fairer, friendlier, more caring and enjoyable, low carbon future for our local communities. What changes do you want to see? What projects and events will you get involved in?

Big Back Garden Birdwatch Weekend

Get involved in citizen science with your friends and neighbours - join the Big Back Garden Birdwatch weekend on the 25/26th January 2025.

You don’t even need your own back garden to take part. Spotting birds in your local park or green space also counts! The Big Birdwatch is important because it tells us how bird populations are doing throughout the UK, in the face of climate change, pollution and habitat loss worldwide, which is important for us as well as for them. Birds not only lift our spirits with their swooping flight and songs, but are a vital part of the Web of Life and help maintain a healthy balance of life on Earth. And if you want any more encouragement it’s also a great way to wrap up warm and get out and about with friends and family or local neighbours at a gloomy time of year – while also helping Nature together.

To join, register to take part on the RSPB website Big Garden Birdwatch. Choose one hour over next weekend and get out there, counting the birds that you see flying in to perch on trees and bushes or foraging at ground level. Then send in your results.

Big Birdwatch Prep Session

Want to Know More? And get help preparing to take part? Join our local Big Garden Birdwatch Prep Session:
When: Thurs 23rd January 2025, 1-2pm.
Where: Camden Think & Do’s Goldington Sharing Space at the Doreen Bazell Hall,
1 Goldington Street, London NW1 1UG.

With Martin Payne from Camden Park’s Green Space Partnership Team and Pomme Edwards from TKT Nature Connections. We’ll have photos to help you identify common birds around our local green spaces, parks and back gardens. And some fun bird-related activities plus information and tips on ways we can all help the small local songbirds that are having such a tough time right now.

Do You Live Near Talacre?

The Friends of Talacre Town Green are a group of volunteers dedicated to conserving and improving this precious green space in Kentish Town, for the benefit of the community and for wildlife.

If you have ideas, enthusiasm and would like to get involved in looking after the green, please visit the website and email: [email protected].
They will get in touch with details.

New Environmental Film Series

Kentish Town may still be trying to get a new local cinema, but at 6pm on Monday evenings from between 27th January and 24th February, you can watch films for FREE at Castlehaven Community Centre’s spruced up Clarence Hall, that’s been kitted out with great film projection facilities. Every week they’ll be showing a new thought-provoking film on subjects like ‘fast fashion, climate change, Nature and more’. Admission free plus free hot drinks and snacks. For details check: Environmental Film Season - Castlehaven.

Join TKT’s film night that’s part of this season at 6pm on Monday 3rd February. More details available soon.

Love Your Climate

Friday 14th February 9:30am-1pm.
Camden's young people are meeting up for an exclusive event at Samsung KX on Valentine's Day to share ideas on what we can do for our climate now and in the future. There are places for six students per school. Speak to your teacher to say you'd like to be there.

TKT Nature Connections Seasonal Events

Saturday 15th February 2.0 - 3.30pm - Hidden Spring:
Join our first Nature Connections event of 2025 to celebrate Imbolc, the ancient festival between Midwinter and the Spring Equinox, when our ancestors gathered to light bonfires to celebrate the returning Light in this time of 'hidden spring', when trees were slowly stirring into life and seeds were beginning to sprout beneath the ground. Nothing much to see. You just had to hope and trust it's happening! Imbolc proper falls on 1st February, but we'll be busy then helping Think & Do celebrate a new Community Orchard they are creating with local residents in West Hampstead. Further details will be available nearer the time.

Saturday 23rd March 2.0 - 3.30pm - Emerge:
A Spring Equinox Walk around Parliament Hill Fields to celebrate the great unfurling of leaves and emerging energies of Spring. With the TKT Nature Connections team and ecologist Jeff Waage as our expert guide. Further details will be available nearer the time.

Communi-trees Planting Days

Two Camden estates have planting days for Communi-trees in the next few weeks. For more details, email [email protected].

Westcroft Estate
Kent Hall, Westcroft Way, NW2 2RL
Help plant your new trees on Wednesday 29th & Thursday 30th January, 10am-1pm.
Design a nature mural on Saturday 1st February, 11am-2pm.

Sydney Boyd Court Estate,

NW6 4RA

Help plant your new trees on Monday 17th & Tuesday 18th February, 10am-1pm
Celebrate your new trees on Friday 21st February.

Sharing Space Eats শেয়ারিং স্পেস

Do you have an event that needs catering? Why not commission a local Camden chef? Our chefs supply tasty homemade vegetarian meals using fresh ingredients:

Starters/snacks:
Samosa, Pakora, Paratha, Daal bora

Mains:
Vegetable Biriyani, Paratha, Lentil/Veg Curries, Hot Soups, Stir fry, Rice

Sweet treats:
Coconut bites, Pitha

Contact:
[email protected]

Rewear + Repair

New Year's Sharing Spaces Takeover

Somers Town community, what if we all made a New Years commitment to sustainability?

Start 2025 in style - together, let's upcycle, swap and repair!

When:
Wednesday, 22nd January, 2pm-6pm.
Where:
Ampthill Square TRA Hall, NW1 2JX.

Nature Recovery Corridor Project

Transition Kentish Town is proud to be one of the local groups supporting the development of a Nature Recovery Corridor from Hampstead Heath in Gospel Oak/ Dartmouth Park down to Talacre Town Green and beyond in Kentish Town. Developed and led by local ecologist Jeff Waage, with support from a growing number of local green and residents groups, it will connect green spaces, community gardens, the Kentish Town City Farm and local parks, to create a connected-up corridor for Nature in our urban community. And negotiate a corridor of Nature-rich habitats through the major new developments proposed for the Kentish Town railway lands. Giving Nature a seat and a voice at the table in this sort of large-scale urban development is both powerful and vital for all of our futures - whether we are bees, trees or humans. Both globally, and locally in Kentish Town, our lives and futures are all connected in Life on Earth! In late winter/ early spring a small grant from Kentish Town River of Hope will enable a walk and workshop event for representatives of residents groups along the route. Further details about this inspiring project will be available later.

Kentish Town Community Talks at Acland Burghley

Kentish Town Neighbourhood Forum is putting on a couple of talks on 5 February at Acland Burghley School at 6.30pm-8pm.

One is about developing a community space at 2, Prince of Wales Road. Camden Council has appointed architects IF_DO who worked on the transformation of the Observer Building in Hastings into a community space and workspace and have agreed to speak about the forthcoming plans. Camden wants to test new models of community engagement and different operating models. The design process will be ongoing in 2025, and community projects will be evaluated over the next few months.

The second speaker is Sergeant Matt Howard of the Neighbourhood Policing Team. There have been concerns over increasingly visible drug taking in Kentish Town, along with a perceived rise in burglaries and Matt will talk about the issues and potential solutions.

For more information or notification, if you want to attend, please email: [email protected].

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