On a glorious sunny day in May 2012, Transition Town Tooting (TTT) held a day-long walk celebrating the places and things that contribute to our local wellbeing. The walk brought together two recurrent themes of Tooting transition: a ‘mobile’ approach to making local connections and a focus on community wellbeing.
Tooting stretches between and beyond two tube stations and along a major arterial road used by 10 million cars each year. Although the area has numerous spaces for education, faith, sports and other activities, there is no central communal shared space. We have numerous halls but no Town Hall, indoor markets but no Market Square, much green space but little centrally that is openly accessible. In the absence of a clear, shared ‘public space’, we have developed an often mobile approach to our activities.
An early experiment was the Tooting Earth Talk Walk which visited seven places of worship at each of which a faith leader spoke followed by a representative of TTT. Much common ground emerged between Christian, Muslim, Sikh and Hindu teachings about man’s care for the earth, while TTT representatives spoke of their hopes and fears for the future.
At the same time in Tooting we have been seeking ways to introduce people to ideas of wellbeing as a way to build local resilience. Many transition initiatives, focusing as they do on people doing something active and constructive with their neighbours, report those involved feeling happier and their communities feeling more robust and more connected. In addition, research shows ‘happiness and fulfillment come less from material wealth and more from relationships; less from focusing on ourselves and more from helping others; less from external factors outside our control and more from the way in which we choose to react to what happens to us’ (Action for Happiness: 2012).
Bringing these themes together, our walk ‘Treasuring Tooting’ celebrated places and things that contribute to our local wellbeing. More than 60 local people joined us as we wended our way through 12 locations from the Lido to the Library, the Bingo Hall to the Market, the Community Garden to the Islamic Centre. At each a different aspect of our happiness and wellbeing was experienced and celebrated – through stories, making, talking, laughing, learning, planting and giving.
Below you can see images from the day as well as a map of the walk and a short video.
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