What a day! On 9 May 2026, the United Reformed Church in Rookstone Road buzzed with energy, creativity, and a shared passion for making Tooting a better place. TootingCAN, organized by Transition Town Tooting (TTT) and funded by the Wandsworth Grant Fund, brought together 108 participants from all walks of life to celebrate the skills, resilience, and kindness that make our community thrive.
From the moment you walked in, you could feel that this was more than just an event. It was a testament to what happens when we come together to learn, share, and care for one another. Whether you were trying your hand at British Sign Language (BSL), crafting a comic book, or whipping up date balls in the kitchen, there was something for everyone, and everyone had something to give.
Stitching the Totes
A Celebration of Skills and Community
TTT’s mission is to tackle the climate and ecological emergency through volunteer-led, community-driven action right here in Tooting. TootingCAN is our moment to convene the people with skills and experiences from our locality to do exactly that through sharing, showcasing that our work is nothing without the vibrant and diverse community right here in Tooting. Participants left with new experiences, fresh ideas, and a sense of belonging that’s vital to build a flourishing sustainable future.:
108 participants engaged across 15 activities.
15+ workshops delivered, from worm composting to AI sustainability and Indian dance.
Around 75% of attendees were Wandsworth residents, proving that the best solutions start right where we live.
But the real magic was in the story we all started to weave:
9 out of 10 participants praised the event’s warmth and inclusivity, with many highlighting the friendliness and the diverse, healthy food as standout features.
Activities like the BSL workshop and Creation Station, led by children and supervised by Core Group member Abby, (where attendees crafted badges, mugs, and comic book stories) were particularly beloved, with participants calling them “inspiring” and “connected to family heritage.”
Special mention for Kelly’s cooking class for children; firstly as it enabled children to experience the joy of cooking nutritious meals from scratch, secondly as it introduced them to cooking sustainably through plant based recipes. It is hoped that this will plant the seeds for these children to enjoy cooking and cook meals that are good for the planet – potential huge long term gains if they can be sustained (through more Tooting CANs!)
The event closed with a community meal, performances of the fresh BSL skills and slick Indian dance moves before a collective sing song with the Lido Choir which brought the room to life, proving that joy is a skill we all share.
Lap around a Laptop, take a look inside…
Feedback That Warms the Heart and nourishes our work
This year, we had an engaging and creative way to gather feedback on the walls of the entrance corridors. One attendee, a 70-year-old singer, said:
“I loved the community atmosphere, anyone can sing! I’d love to see more singing in future events.”
Another, a 50-year-old stitching enthusiast, shared:
“I connected sewing to my family heritage and loved the Lido Choir. The whole event felt so welcoming.”
Contributors (our 30+ volunteers) echoed this sentiment. They loved seeing the diversity of skills on display and the buzz of activity, and the collective effort of hosting TootingCAN.
Indian dance, clack! clack!
What’s Next?
Transition Town Toting have run TootingCAN for the last 3 years and the enthusiasm for it grows each time. This year, we received loads of ideas for workshops at future TootingCANs, such as:
More singing and creative workshops (think choral singing, book clubs and dance)
Deeper dives into IT topics like AI and sustainability.
Arts and Crafts from crochet to lino printing, collage to painting & sketching
Food and cooking workshops like fermentation, kimchi and baking
Finally, the practical stuff: gardening, bike maintenance and woodwork.
Most importantly, TootingCAN proved that community resilience isn’t just a buzzword, it’s something we build, day by day, skill by skill, in community. Let’s see how next year’s tootingCAN develops!
Serving lunch
A Huge Thank You
To every participant, volunteer, and contributor, thank you for making TootingCAN a day to remember. Your energy, creativity, and kindness are what make Tooting special. Huge thanks to Amy and the United Reformed Church, our home from home. And to the Wandsworth Grant Fund, thank you for believing in this vision and helping us bring it to life.
The future is bright, and it starts right here in Tooting. Let’s keep sharing, learning, and growing together—because when we do, there’s no limit to what we can achieve.
Want to get involved? Perhaps you have something to offer for next year’s TootingCAN? Transition Town Tooting is always looking for volunteers and new ideas. Get in touch at [TransitionTownTooting@gmail.com] to join the movement!
Close with a sing song
Tooting can!
By Rich Couldrey
Step in to the creation station, stick, squeeze, badge Take a lap around a laptop, who knew AI was… Stitching ties, totes to carry your prize, whirrr, prick, chat, chat Chaat chaat, making chaat, spiced cascade, A taste of tooting in date … balls and pizzas made, squeeze, need and dough The meal begins to assemble ...
But wait, we dive underground, dark, as worms wriggle and squirm outside, Past quests for reflection, to planters repaired and hands in the soil, plants go in... grow, grow!
In community, we relate, a rainbow human family, What did you say? Hands sway and flow, in letters made as we move, my name, your name, hello hello.
Gestures turn to dance, sticks clack clack! As Ragini moves, with such grace and poise, we follow, Kathak, Kathak.
And back, to find a way into a digital world, clickety clack of fingers on keyboards learning to excel, nearly time to relax...
Wooosh! A gleeful child runs and newspaper kites fly out back, time to rise up... up... up... to see a drawn map of us all, BAT BAT.
Enough of all that, Take a breath, in and sing, feel the healing, "hold on, my dear, here comes the dawn" rings, And stop, pause, time to eat and reflect, A leek and potatoes soup to fill the...head… heart and hands, and celebrate... Tooting's rainbow soul, ‘til next time we gather and change the world once more.
Sewing and Sanctuary is a women’s sewing group which was founded in May 2022.
It is a Transition Town Tooting project run in partnership with Oxfam Tooting.
We are a place of sanctuary where women of refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds and women from the local community meet, stitch and chat. We enjoy learning together, sharing skills and helping one another. With an emphasis on reuse, we make beautiful creations whilst reducing textile waste.
Our priority is promoting good mental health. We use lots of different textile related techniques including hand stitching, machine stitching, crochet and knitting. Have a look at this lovely video of our work.
Having been inspired by Fishponds Bioblitz we decided to do our own and to start with looking out for our garden animals.
A BioBlitz is defined as a short, intensive period of time during which a group of people find and identify as many species of plants, animals, fungi and other organisms as possible within a specific georgraphic are.
We decided to focus on animals this time and spend a gardening session to expore our own area. Maybe a little less scientific but nevertheless fun. We also wanted to see how much diversity we have in our garden and to continue doing these exercises year on year to monitor the development of animal diversity.
Equipped with containers, brushes and sticks we ventured around the garden, we looked closely at our flowers to look for pollinators, we turned over stones for invertebraes and lifted the rugs from our compost bins to capture some of our many arachnids.
The writer of this post was most surprised by the diversity of snails and slugs in the garden. Not their best friends when it comes to cultivating kale they thought there is ‘THE slug’ and ‘THE snail’. A leopard slug is surprisingly pretty.
We found Parakeets eating the greengages (see the video on our Instagram of that), different sizes of crab spiders a jumping spider a red tailed and a white backed bumblebee.
We learned the difference between a millepedes and centipedes. Did you know that centipedes are carnivorous and actually have fangs to immobilise their prey.
We collected a variety of types of woodlice of all sizes.
Some of our hollyhocks have already started to go to seed – and it is fascinating to watch the tiny weevils with their trunk munching on the seeds.
The kids surprised with their knowledge of bugs and most of all how they handled the bugs and spiders.
Many years ago a previous community garden group grew wheat and managed to bake one loaf of bread from it. So why not try it again?
Inspired by one of our members who was asking for a source of getting wheat for her garden we also got ourselves some seeds. We tend to grow low maintenance crop in the garden as we don’t have the resource to tend to delicate plants. We also found in recent years weather volatility is driving us towards the hardier end of plants that tolerate draught and rain. So the wheat seemed a good idea.
We got in touch with the Brockwell Bake Association https://www.brockwell-bake.org.uk/ who offer ‘April Bearded’, a grain last commonly cultivated during the 19th century. Their seed stock of this was grown and harvested by Kent farmer Andrew Lingham at Court Farm, Halling. Heritage wheats are generally more suitable for non-farm and organic farm sowing as they do not require the chemical fertilizer, herbicides, pesticides, fungicides and growth regulator typically used in conventional wheat farming for success with modern wheat lines.
We prepared an area that we had to clear to give our apple tree a bit more space and sowed our 2m2 of wheat in rows. Watered it twice to allow germination and now wait and see.
Below are photos from the first 3 weeks of the wheat project. We will provide regular updates on our Community Garden Instagram.
But do come by on a Saturday 11.00 till 13.00 (and often until much later – because once you are in the garden it’s hard to leave) and join us in sowing and planting for the next season.
Whether it is cooking, growing, sewing, pickling, soldering or making : the community of Tooting has an abundance of skills and talents. On 15th March 2025 we came together for our third Tooting CAN! to share skills, meet our neighbours have some fun!
Dive into our blog below telling the story of the day (with ‘how to’ links and delicious recipes!)
Pickling and Fermenting
Ben showed us how to make kimchi, kombucha and beer pickles – we had a taste and took away some recipes to have a go for ourselves.
Gardening
Volunteers from our Community Garden joined us to be talk worms, compost and what keeps our soil healthy for growing. These images show the worm home hard at work in the garden!
We planted seeds to take it home.
Find out more about the garden and get involved here.
Mask Making
Great fun for children (and adults!) – Dora lead a team teaking us how to make fabulous cat masks using paints and textiles!
Soldering
Dermot of Repair Club led short taster sessions teaching people how to build and test a simple electronic kit, and pick up some basic soldering skills that can be used for a range of repair jobs.
We were joined by the team at Sewing and Sanctuary to make bags from upcycled materials. Some of us made a plastic free, fabric shopping bag https://morsbags.com/) with Gloria on the sewing machines, others made hand stitched drawstring bags to be used as gift bags, lavender bags or storage.
Future food Tooting!
We were joined by Fast Familiar to celebrate our favourite Tooting food hotspots and build what we think is missing… with Lego!
Origami
Maggie from Tooting Scrapstore taught us the ancient art of paper folding – including boxes, butterflies, cups, and flowers!
Want to reduce your food miles and gain a new pet? Chicken keeping may be the answer. Laila shared tips and answered questions on how to keep chickens in your Tooting back garden. Top question – how do you keep them safe from foxes?
Fantastic local photographer, Phylisha Wisdom, shared I-phone photography tips and hints (and took lots of lovely pictures of the event which we’re sharing here – thanks Phylisha!)
Abby helped us explore an accessible mindfulness activity using your senses to help you stay in the moment – easy to use in almost any environment. Find out more about the exercise here
Cooking
Our team of cooks taught us how to make make alu tikki, rustle up a hearty vegetable soup and whip up a super easy two ingredient vegan chocolate mousse – then join us all in tasting the results!
Finally we gathered together at a long table, shared the delicious food we had cooked. We celebrated all the wonderful things we had learnt and made together and our mask makers led us in a march of masks accompanied by Ranjit on the dhol!
We will run Tooting CAN again in 2026!
What skills do you have you could share?
Contact us to find out more at transitiontowntooting@gmail.com
Read all about Tooting Repair Club launch, Repair Week 2025 and Leaping out of Windows without fear from local fixer Dermot – and email us at repairclub.org@gmail.com or visit the Tooting Repair Club web page to hear about future sessions.
The first rule of Repair Club is: “You do not talk about Repair Club”
So like an ancient mariner of fixing…here I am – a week later and still buzzing from an energised evening in Tooting launching tooting Repair Club, as an official partner of Repair Week. And very happy to talk about it.
First of all: it was an absolute blast to spend an evening with people either already in the repair world, or peeking into it curiously.
Oh, but I’m jumping ahead. Many of you will have heard of repair cafes – there’s over 2,500 of these community ‘bring and fix’ groups worldwide – but Repair Clubs? Probably not. Until last week there were just three of them, all in North London. And now the new kid, Tooting Repair Club, makes it a total of four!
What’s a Repair Club? It’s not really defined: and it’s kinda up to each club to decide for itself. Broadly speaking it’s a place for habitual fixers to meet, share and develop skills, drink tea, eat the occasional pizza, and of course fix stuff. All in a social setting. There’s probably training too. They’re a not-too-far-distant relative of Mens Sheds, Stitch and Bitch or the Hacker/Makerspace movements.
As Tooting Repair Club is brand new I’m not going to presume to define it – its personality will emerge over time, formed from the people who join and drive it. So I’m going to return to the night in question: Wednesday 5th March 2025, after a beautiful – almost t-shirt weather – late Winter’s day.
In the midst of a cluster of curious people – ranging from students to the long-retired – I’m dispensing some easy repair tips as if they’re magic tricks. I’m aware of more people coming through the front door and small groups of people gathered in animated conversations spread across the room. We’re slightly swept off our feet: pleasantly surprised by the popularity of event. Guests have arrived even before opening time, and we’ve not finished setting up the activities…but the core team is riding the wave and going with the flow. I have a sense of the energy in the room, but can only catch a fraction of the conversations. This of course makes me an unreliable teller of this tale…however I’ll try to give a snapshot of what I’m seeing.
TThere’s so much curiosity in the room. Curiosity seems endemic to fixers: and along with dogged determination is one of the core characteristics needed to repair things nowadays. We live in the information age, yet there’s never been less sharing of information by manufacturers of the workings of our everyday gadgets; a key resource that would open up millions of repairs.
A young journalism student – Will Harris from City News – is coming down to record a radio piece. He’s touring a few Repair Week events for this assignment. I notice someone arriving from the corner of my eye; something about his presence tells me this is Will – but for once at a repair event he’s not the only young person in the room. I peel off from the group and head over to greet him.
But I should have introduced you to where we are: as I said, my script is out the window, so forgive this, but it’s not too late. We’re gathered in Mushkil Aasaan’s community hub in Upper Tooting Road: guests of this renowned local charity started by a group of muslim women, that supports families, and also generously opens their centre to a broad spectrum of community activities. Mushkil Aasaan could be described as the spiritual home of community repair in Tooting. It’s where we held our first Tooting Restart Parties back in 2014 – a decade ago – and this lends extra resonance to tonight’s session
A decade on and the change in attitudes to repair – and depth of knowledge of our guests – is palpable. Back in 2014 you would have to constantly explain what a repair cafe is, and I’m not sure any of us fixers had yet heard the expression “Right to Repair”. We also struggled to get people through the door. Now our visitors flood in, preloaded: they know the landscape, they’re acutely aware that our stuff all seem to break long before its time – built-in obsolescence is ingrained in their consciousness.
Where was I? Oh yes, chatting to Will the journalist. He seems quick witted and professional, and forgives my bad jokes. After a couple of questions I’m pleased he’s done his homework on the subject – these are better questions than some of the BBC interviews I’ve done…but we’re not going there right now.
I’m in First Rule of Repair Club mode, and Will is making it easy to eulogise Repair Week and community repair, and express some of my views about the state of manufacturing of our stuff…
Chatting with Will has given me a chance to pause and reflect on what I’ve heard tonight and who’s in the room: from intern, to home maker, to retired sound recordist. Maybe repair skills are not just a niche for tinkerers and those prepping for the zombie apocalypse, perhaps they’re essential life skills? Wouldn’t every home benefit from having someone who can wire a plug, data-wipe a gadget, or persuade a toaster to hold down toast?
Back in the room tea is being brought round and a huge mound of locally made samosas is being wafted under our noses – it’s after sunset during Ramadan, and I momentarily wonder if they taste even better when you’ve fasted all day? But in front of me a group has gathered around the solder station, and it’s my pleasure to guide them through a taster session of the essential repair skill of electronics soldering. I’m impressed how quickly they’re able to pick it up, and we’re getting some high quality solder joints…but our full soldering workshop is over four hours, so I try to temper expectations and guide them to further studies, and practice! I note that there’s a high proportion of younger women in the room: smashing norms in both the tech and community repair worlds.
I told you about the first rule of Repair Club, and tonight we have a one-off second one: no fixing(!). A very tough one for fixers to agree on. We see a broken thing and are viscerally drawn to fix it. But Garry – who’s now doing the ‘magic tricks’ – was clear: if we end up fixing things all the taster sessions and engagement opportunities will get shelved. Broken items would be Kyrptonite. Garry had a solution: “We just won’t have the tools on site – then we can’t fix”. A hard choice but this is a taster and engagement session, and we need to be aware of our capacity.
Did I say Kryptonite? I meant catnip…
It’s a good plan, and we have a list of future repair cafes and pro repair businesses on hand to direct people to…
But, like many good plans, this simply crumbles in the face of a broken and needy item in the arms of a bringer (‘bringer’ is the popular term for people who come to repair cafes).
And who ends up doing the bulk of repairs that evening? Yep, Garry: he finds a Leatherman multitool (a kind of industrial grade Swiss army knife) had stowed-away in his pocket, enabling him to carry out a range of repairs…so it seems there is no such thing as a ‘get out of fixing card’.
I’m not sure what’s getting fixed. I glimpse a table lamp, and some small hinged boxes? But I need to stay focused on the task at hand, I need to keep myself well upwind of that catnip..
As I said, we’re largely on an engagement and fact finding mission this evening (now with Garry temporarily down, caught up in fixing), and delighted to see roughly twenty new faces along with some of our old friends. Hilary is facilitating the give and gain walls with a plan for some breakout discussions later (we never get to them) – sharpies and post-its abound. She’s also testing the water with Tooting Repair Rooms – our mid-term goal to create a permanent repair hub in Tooting. The idea goes down well: long-time fixing friend Shaz describes it as “the natural evolution for repair in Tooting”, and this seems to get nods all round.
You can tell that many different roads have led people to Repair Club tonight: some just need a thing fixed, some are looking to be part of the repair revolution, others have deep skills they want to share – there’s a strong climate and environmental vibe – and all think something has to change. These are future origin stories: important strands in the tale that’s told when we look back on this throwaway age from the vantage point of a fully fixable world. If we decide that’s our future it needn’t be far distant either. I might even live to see it.
There’s an underlying pang for an all but lost world of quality: clothes that have a future as vintage, appliances that last decades rather than barely making it past the retirement age of their one year warranty. Quality products are in living memory, and of course still around us: Kenwood Chefs (the Galápagos tortoises of kitchen islands), vintage Hoovers still in use by elderly relatives, and being built today: the Dualit Classic toaster. A stainless steel tank of an appliance – perhaps designed to survive a nuclear Armageddon and supply toast for that zombie apocalypse – assuming the survivor generation is one that’s got some basic repair skills.
Oh, did I drop some teaser about leaping out of windows in the title – is that what’s kept you reading? The wait is over…
Leaping out of Windows (10) – less scary than you think
On October 14th this year the axe could be falling on 240m non-upgradeable Windows computers when Microsoft ends support for Windows 10.
Absorb that for a moment…240 million laptops, desktops and tablets potentially on the scrap heap.
A terrific sales opportunity – salesperson of the month trophy makers will be working overtime.
A disaster for the planet. All leave will be cancelled at the electronics crushing and grinding plant for the foreseeable future.
(note to self: startup idea #113. Salesperson of the month trophies made from repurposed Windows 10 laptop parts! #circularity)
But there’s a way out – and Mike’s at a table towards the back, near where the samosa mound has come to rest, live-demonstrating just how painless it is.
The solution – putting Linux Mint on your device – is simple and has many benefits: it’s free, it’ll speed up your computer, and for many of us it’ll deliver everything we need – some users might need to stay on Windows (not all external hardware is supported on Linux) – but software wise there’s not much you can’t achieve on Linux nowadays. We’re looking into running some sessions just for this. It feels like an urgent problem, but one with a solution…yet a solution that’s either not known about or misunderstood as highly technical.
The crowd has thinned a little – a bunch of us are reading the give and gain walls out loud. We reflect that there’s a very high match of skills needed to those offered, just amongst the thirty or so people in the room! From PAT testing to 3d printing via zip replacement and making tea.
And then, seemingly in the snap of fingers, three hours have passed and it’s time to close the Repair Club…phew!
It’s after 9pm, and we need to load the van and shift the tables. We’re tired but wired: Julie is firing on all cylinders, making mental connections, linking ideas, turning challenges into possibilities. And the most common question we all heard: “when’s the next one?”. It feels like we’ve really started something here – some brains won’t be switching off for hours, mine included.
We had a buzzing evening, with dozens of interesting, interested people. Ideas flying around the room. We sensed that we’re at a tipping point in community repair, and that there’s an appetite from an enlightened section of the public to get stuck into the next phase. We’ve taken away a bunch of suggestions and ideas, and now need to organise and find venues. We’ll be back very soon with some more Tooting Repair Club dates!
After this first session an image is starting to form around what Tooting Repair Club might be. Come join us and add your DNA to the mix, or perhaps get together in your area and form the fifth ever Repair Club (you might have to be quick though).
From the evidence above you’re probably convinced that I am the ancient mariner of maintenance and repair – a steam iron hanging by its frayed and gnarly cord round my neck, words flowing like an electrical short circuit. Yet on some level I just want to shut up and help fix things. To stop me talking just waft a misbehaving item in my peripheral vision. But someone’s got to say this stuff and in spite of the fun and social aspects of Repair Club, we’re operating in a safety-critical environment, and rules is rules, and I’ve agreed to abide by them. So until the first rule changes you’ll be hearing plenty more from me…
One final thing: if you’ve gotten this far and found something that chimed with you, then I encourage you to honour the first rule, and tell at least one other person about something about Repair Club.
Town Anywhere Tooting is a large-scale, participatory, community visioning experience – bringing together people from across Tooting to ‘rehearse the future’ of our vibrant community.
Monday 21st October, Patidar Samaj Hall, 26B Tooting High Street
9.30 for 10.00 am prompt start – finishing 4.00pm.
“Town Anywhere is an extraordinary exercise. It invites us to step into the future, to reimagine and rebuild the world, and then inhabit it. One of the most magical things I’ve ever been a part of. ” Rob Hopkins, Transition Network.
Who is it for?
Anyone who lives, works or has an interest in Tooting’s wellbeing and future.
What will happen?
Town Anywhere Tooting will take you on a journey to imagine and build a thriving ‘Town Anywhere’. The Town Anywhere experience will be a day of reflecting, thinking, creativity, visioning, and sharing. It will be a space to explore what we want the future to be. It will enable us to connect together to help us envisage pathways through to the future we want.
You will explore a Town called Anywhere in 2040 at individual, neighbour and street levels. Then we will work in small groups to develop actions and ventures for the whole town across a range of areas, including ; goods and services, food, economy and finance, livelihoods and exchange, climate and ecology, governance, infrastructure, civic and cultural networks and communications, learning, celebrating, art and design, biodiversity, public space, health and wellbeing,
Using immersive future scenarios, large-scale model-making and timed challenges, the Town Anywhere process helps participants to play and practice community visioning, ideation and storytelling in a virtual, but tangible, environment.
By the end of the workshop, as residents of the new Town Anywhere, you will have created a physical representation of the thriving town we are all longing to live in. Collectively shaping and inhabiting this potential fair and sustainable future can strengthen our enthusiasm and resolve to go on and make it real.
The Process: The Town Anywhere process safely, constructively and playfully opens up inspirational and holistic thinking in communities and participants about possible fair, resilient and sustainable futures following these key phases:
Time Travel to the future
Creating home, meeting your neighbour, sharing stories
Exploring what we can do together at street and neighbourhood levels
Going to Town and leaving requests for community developers
Identifying our role in Town Anywhere, and who we can work with
Designing and making initiatives in 3D with cardboard, string, sticks, tape and imagination
Filling in the Town Anywhere Charter
Official Town opening celebration
Walkabout – Exchanging, connecting, pledging
Reflection, harvest and grounding
Town Anywhere is a process in which everyone is welcome and where everyone can learn and have fun.
Why we are doing this?
If we can’t imagine the future we want, then we can’t set a course to achieve it
It is often hard to imagine beyond what we are dealing with now, the systems we have, the barriers we face. A crisis of civic imagination is blocking many of us from envisioning the future we want to strive for. At a community level we need to build the capacity of our collective imagination, so that we can imagine a better future and design it together. By the end of the workshop, we, the new residents of Town Anywhere 2040 will have created a physical representation of the sort of thriving inclusive town that we long to live in. Collectively shaping and inhabiting this potential future, strengthens our enthusiasm and resolve to go on and make it happen.
What will happen afterwards?
We are exploring how we can imagine the future we want and then start working towards it together. This will link into your work, projects, passions and how you may have imagined it working differently. We want to maintain the connection we build in the Town Anywhere so this is not a one off event. What we co-create together will become the focus of action for change. So we want to keep in touch with you (if you choose) to harness the creativity and energy that we know will be inspired on the day. We want to build on connectedness across the city to support how we bring the ideas you develop to a reality and doing this in collaboration.
This inspiring hands on process (coming to Tooting for the first time) has enabled previous participants to
Gain greater capacity and confidence to imagine and explore low-carbon futures and initiate more transformative projects locally
Learn how to work more collectively, gaining new practical, analytical and collaborative skills
feel better resourced to voice fears, hopes and visions for the future, understanding individual and collaborative creative expression is inherent to a flourishing life
Feel a greater sense of belonging to their neighbourhoods; more connected to their past and present and able to play a role in their futures
Be more able to co-design creative projects where people live or work to better prepare for social and environmental challenges.
Town Anywhere will be led by artists Ruth Ben-Tovim, and Lucy Neal who created the Town Anywhere process that was initially commissioned by Transition Town Network. They specialise in designing and delivering participatory arts projects, interventions and processes in civic, community, ecological , education and placemaking contexts. These participatory interventions inspire people to unearth their own imaginative and instinctive power to shift how they see the world and their place within it.
Following a successful Town Anywhere in Hull in November 2023 attended by over 200 people, Town Anywhere Tooting is part of a wider network of ‘Town Anywheres’ taking place around the UK including in Bristol, Derbyshire and Merseyside. Town Anywhere Tooting leads the way in Greater London.
For more information – and to attend the event – contact us on transitiontowntooting@gmail.com
“Can we learn anything from visiting the future? How we see the world is often rigid and complicated by our present day circumstances. Clearly there’s an urgent need to rethink how we might co-exist if we’re going to occupy the planet and, certainly in Hull Minster, there was a real interest in what a positive future might look like. … There’s no reason why, with the right people in the room, we can’t put ourselves on a corrective course.” Dave Windass (Hull 2023 participant)
Funding for the project was received from The National Lottery Community Fund, distributed by Transition. Thanks to National Lottery players for making this possible. Look for more information about Transition Together at https://transitiontogether.org.uk/
We have now reached our second anniversary and the sewing group is going from strength to strength with around 20 regular members. Last year we featured in two short Oxfam films marking Refugee Week and Secondhand September. Also marking the latter, we ran a sashiko denim patch workshop for 30 Oxfam shop managers and staff, in Mushkil Aasaan and secondly, we ran a repair and upcycling workshop, on the Oxfam shop floor.
During the year we had two takeovers of the shop window, when we exhibited our handiwork to the shoppers of Tooting. The second of these was the culmination of a project ‘Different Ways to feel London is your Home’. This fantastic project was suggested and managed by our wonderful facilitator Patricia who brought her flair, skills and colourful creativity all the way from Columbia. Acknowledging that many of us were originally from different countries or other parts of the UK, we celebrated this by making items for the home collaboratively, using recycled materials and including colours, symbols, fabrics or techniques from our various homes and cultures.
The finished furnishings included a hammock made using crocheted strips of waste tee-shirts, a plaited rug made from sari falls recalling rangoli designs, a bed set using techniques from Afghanistan and labelled ‘dreaming of a better life in London’ and a fabric tea service recalling conversations over tea in Paris. As we made these items, various members of the group stood up and shared their memories of childhood, home and families and this was very moving.
We completed our beautiful ‘Sewing and Sanctuary’ banner with each letter created by a different member of the group using a variety of techniques and all from repurposed materials of course! You may have seen it on display at Tooting Can or one of our other events.
We took it along to a meeting organised by Wandsworth Welcomes Refugees involving a number of local community sewing groups where we met a team from Liberty. This led to two visits (including some of our group members) to the Design Studio at Liberty. We have also made connections with a local fashion entrepreneur, Sakina O’Neill of Re-Runn and with the Royal College of Art who included us in their stakeholder engagement focus groups as part of their research into creating a regenerative fashion hub in Wandsworth.
Over the past year we have continued to produce work for other charities, some of our knitters producing chicks for Trinity Hospice’s annual fundraiser and we made textile picture postcards for Sprout Art’s postcard sale. As I write this, Oxfam Tooting is temporarily closed for refurbishment but we continue to meet and in the future we have plans to sell some of our work in the Oxfam shop. Watch this space!
Thank you for taking a look at our Fundraising page.
TTT always welcomes donations to help support our free-to-attend community activities.
We are currently inviting donations in the memory of Rose deFalbe who died on 13 December 2024. Rose’s family have generously suggested that donations be made in her memory to support the Tooting Community Garden to which Rose contributed so much.
Rose was an inspiring and constant volunteer in the Tooting Community Garden since it was created in 2011. Her forte was quiet and focused gardening in the herb garden which became known as ‘Rose’s Bed’. She would garden there solo or more often with another volunteer, passing on her skills and knowledge to someone new to gardening.
Rose would demonstrate hands-on the small-scale foundations of good gardening with these colleagues, working a small patch at a time on weeding, soil condition, pruning, sowing and planting. Many people have shared that this close attention to the space and to individuals was inspiring and therapeutic. That wellbeing impact is exactly what the Tooting Community Garden was created to offer, and for Rose it was not a ‘project role’, it was part of her nature.
Follow this link to watch as Rose explains the herb patch in the Community Garden to Ryan.
If you would like to donate in memory of Rose, that would be greatly appreciated. Funds received here by TTT will be used in her memory in the Tooting Community Garden. We will plan what to do, whether it’s developing a space or acquiring plants or another appropriate and relevant memorial. You may have suggestions in due course and we’d welcome those.
Please use the TTT account details below to make your donation from your smartphone or computer. If you are asked for a transfer reference. please enter ‘Rose’.
Many thanks!
Our bank details are as follows:
Account Name: Transition Town Tooting
Sort Code: 16-58-10
Account Number: 20202776
Any amount you can offer is gratefully received, thank you!
Cooking, growing, sewing, singing, dancing, making or mending and more: the community of Tooting has an abundance of skills and talents which also make us stronger together. On 16th March 2024 we hosted our first Tooting Can… Celebratory Extravaganza.
Dive into our blog below telling the story of the day (with ‘how to’ links and delicious recipes!)
Check out our slide show of the day!
OurSewing and Sanctuary project team showed us what we can do with textiles! We had a go at mending, embellishing and making beautiful garments, bags and cushions out of repurposed textiles – and learnt Japanese sashiko and boro stitching!
Susan showed us to make your own washing powder – it’s easier than you would think, much kinder to the environment ( it uses only natural ingredients) and much kinder on your clothes.
Click here to find out make your own washing powder and other sustainable cleaning products.
We were joined by ace football coach Brad from AFC Wimbledon in a special outdoor session to learn footie skills. AFC Wimbledon coach the local Women’s Walking Football team at Fishponds Fields (Susie from the team is taking a kick in the pic!). After sharing his skills Brad went on to try his hand at some of the other skills on offer!
Mita bought a selection of saris and showed us how to wrap them – we topped off our gorgeous outfits with bindis. Doesn’t everyone look fabulous!
The team atSajna Hair & Beauty sent a fantastic henna artist to show us how to create wonderful designs – it was amazing to watch them deepen in colour over the week – we got lots of compliments!
Dermot from our regular Restart fixing and mending sessions invited us to Get Up Close with a Remote – showing us how to test, open up and fix common remote control problems from spilt drinks to leaky batteries. All ages were welcome to have a go!
We had a lot of fun at the beguni workshop making aubergine fritters. Participants were able to be as involved as they wanted to be. Some wanted to watch the cooking process, others prepared the beguni from start to finish until they were on the plate!
Conversations were shared about cooking in different cultures, which enabled people to connect with each other. And at the end – a delicious snack to share with all the other participants!
To complement the wonderful beguni, Naomi rustled up gorgeous nettle soup with foraged nettles and wild garlic – head to her blog Grow Forage Cook for the recipe and much more!
To round of our menu Lucy showed us how to make a plant based chocolate mousse – with only three simple ingredients and a fridge to prepare it – find the recipe here.
The team from Tooting Community Garden shared seeds and gardening tips – participants of all ages planted up beans and herbs in home-made newspaper seed pots (instructions here!)
All are welcome to join regular sessions at the community garden – find out more here.
Jeni and Gemma from Living Communitiesled a fantastic collaging workship – the beginnings of a vast community collage to help explore What Makes Tooting, Tooting?
You can see some of the results on their Instagram at the link here.
Last ….. by no means least! ….. Ranjit bought a selection of musical instruments to try out.
Not only that, he bought a big dhol and led a parade of performers to announce our delicious shared feast – followed by a parade of our gorgeous sari wearers!
Finally we gathered together in a sharing feast…
As well us giving the day a little ‘deadline’ magic, transforming the space quickly into a communal dining area, the Feast, created a celebratory moment at which everyone present could feel a part of how much CAN be achieved in just a handful of Tooting hours with a generous mix of shared skills and open-hearted fun. Special thanks to Tooting URC for being such a welcoming venue for the afternon!
Now we know the ‘recipe’ maybe we could do it again!!!
