Transition Town Tooting

Tag: Walking

  • Time to Act on Climate Change – 7th March

    A group of a dozen of us from Tooting went to the Time to Act march on Saturday in London. 

    Why march? To express yourself, to be counted, to meet friends and strangers, to witness change in the making, to represent others, simply to be there. 





     
    Making and feeling the weight of your message in your hands – it’s unusual, active, and personal. Totally unlike holding a phone. 




    The sun was hot; the wind blew the banners so they tugged like sails.

     
    At one point in the march, between The Savoy and 
    Charing Cross, everyone sat down on the warm tarmac of the Strand. 


    For me that was a good moment – not quite touching the wild earth, but certainly feeling in touch with London, and valuing it as a physical place that shelters us. 

     
    None of us wants to be preached to, and I liked these diverse messages –  direct and also complex; creative and calling up so many associations.

    Why march, why do what we do locally in Tooting?
    Naomi Klein from the introduction to ‘This Changes Everything‘:
    “We know that if we continue on our current path of allowing emissions to rise year after year, climate change will change everything about our world. 
    And we don’t have to do anything to bring about this future.  
    All we have to do is nothing“
    – Charles 

  • fanSHEN Tooting Walks

    Theatre group fanSHEN took centre stage at this year’s Foodival with their anarchic performance of the Applecart, which engaged young, medium and old alike.  They also sent at least 50 interested visitors around the local area on a guided Tooting Walk.  Two walks have been recorded and anyone can try them out: one a half hour loop from Samaj Hall and the other from Tooting Broadway to the Lido which lasts about 40 minutes.  Both walks are available for download at the fanSHEN site HERE.

    Applecart at Foodival, Sep 14th 2014

    fanSHEN director Dan Barnard says: “the sound files and route maps are free to download and you can either listen to them as you do the walks (which enhances the experience) or just listen to them as radio programmes, which works well too! You may recognise some of the voices! “

    Thanks to Dan and the team at fanSHEN for producing these fascinating and enjoyable trips round Tooting.

  • AGM Report

    The 2014 AGM and 6th birthday party took place last Tuesday.  There was a Tooting related quiz and the usual AGM formalities of re-electing co-chairs and presenting accounts before a brief update on projects past present and future. 

    While we look forward to big events like the Foodival, three exciting new ideas include a drive to promote products “Made in Tooting”, Carbon Collaborations to add to Conversations and an autumn Looking Out For Tooting event finding alternative viewpoints of our beloved urban nexus.  Keep a look out for more on these on this blog and social media.

    Meanwhile today there’s a well being walk (Sir Owain and the Lady of the Well) ending on the Common where fanSHEN will perform the Applecart, both as part of the Wandsworth Arts Festival Fringe. Get down there if you can!

  • Walking: Mind How You Go

    “I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out I found was really going in.”  John Muir

    A very interesting Walking event was held on Jan 11th at Mushkil Aasaan, led by Belinda & Lucy, and featuring a variety of words of wisdom from Battersea Arts Centre Producer Lynn Goh, local GP Tom Coffey and Susie Morrow of Wandsworth Cycling Campaign.  Belinda recommended walking meditations such as those in this book, Lynn told us about a silent walking project she’d run, Tom talked about walking and health, (Walk4Life guided walks are a Wandsworth Council initiative), while Susie recommends The Energy Glut for a good read. 
    Several people had brought photos of five places on their own Tooting walks which we hope to develop into a walking map.  Can you identify my inspirational Tooting places above?!  Please send us your five photos. DT

  • Transition Town Tooting – a history in maps

    This piece was produced as a response to Rob Hopkins call for examples of Transition Towns using meaningful maps.  It seemed a good moment to post it here as a taster for next Tuesday’s Open Event  where we will create ‘mini walking maps’ that may develop into official Tooting Walking Maps. See more info here.

    Tooting is an amorphous area stretching between and beyond two tube stations – Tooting Bec and Tooting Broadway.  The road that runs between the two – the A24 – was originally a Roman road and is now a major arterial road leading from central London out towards the suburbs.  At one point its position as a tram interchange made it a centre for cinema – we once had 5 cinemas and now have none!  It carries 10 million cars a year in addition to several busy bus routes.  One of our earliest TTT blog posts shows a map and satellite image of the area.


    Transition Town Tooting (TTT) has developed a ‘tradition’ (if you can have one in such a short history!) of using maps as a focus for activity.  This stems from the fact that, though there are …numerous indoor and outdoor spaces used by local groups for social, education, faith, sports and other activities, there is no generally recognised physical hub available to the whole community.  Tooting has numerous halls but no Town Hall, two indoor markets but no Market Square, much green space but little centrally that is openly accessible.  Unsurprisingly the absence of shared public space is an issue which comes up regularly in our open discussions.   In the absence of an obvious ‘public’ space to gather, TTT has developed a peripatetic approach to several of its key activities, using maps as focus, publicity and guide.

    The first of these – the first Tooting Earth Talk Walk – visited seven places of faith and worship and each stop on the walk a faith leader spoke followed by a representative of Transition Town Tooting.  Much common ground emerged between Christian, Muslim, Sikh and Hindu teachings about man’s responsibility to care for the earth and its bounty.  The Transition Town representatives gave personal perspectives about their involvement in the movement and their hopes and fears for the future of the earth.   Sue Rentoul’s beautifully drawn map – served both as a notice of the event and a guide on the day.

    Following this theme our second Foodival event involved the collection of locally grown produce which was distributed to and cooked up by seven local restaurants.  A growing number of local people followed this map as the fold-up ‘table of plenty’ used to served the food Pied Pipered its way the high street.  

    We’ve also used maps as a focus of discussion at several open events.  In March 2009 TTT joined in BATCA’s (the Balham and Tooting Community Association) Open Forum on the theme ‘Let’s make Tooting Better’.  The event included a workshop facilitated by Paul Squires of the New Economics Foundation which focused on key themes for wellbeing emerging from NEF research – ‘ connect’, ‘be active’, ‘ take notice’, ‘keep learning’, ‘give’.   A large map on the floor formed the focus for people’s ideas – more people friendly streets; more greenery and trees and (not surprisingly) lots of suggestions for shared community spaces…. 

    In 2009/10 maps of Tooting took over our lives.   On 29th June 2009 the TippingPoint Commission selected from 178 applications nationally the Trashcatchers’ Carnival in Tooting as one of 4 projects to be funded in 2010. The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Miliband, presented £20,000 to Project Phakama and Emergency Exit Arts to lead a year long project in Tooting alongside Transition Town Tooting to use art, carnival, celebration and the collective ingenuity of all the community to create a large scale promenade on 4th July 2010.  Using recycling as a metaphor its aim was to build a vision of a low-energy future for Tooting and have a lot of fun in the process.

    The long and tortuous process involved in seeking permission to peacefully process the carnival through the heart of Tooting’s community needs a chapter of its own.  Suffice it to say many many hours were spent, both within TTT and in official organisations and agencies, poring over maps considering possible routes.  Both access to public roads, and the Carnival’s final destination – a piece of public land used as a playing field – were problematic.  Discussions which began in September 2009 continued until literally the 11th hour on 2nd July 2010 when access to a partially closed high street was eventually confirmed by the local police.

    To cut a long story short – what started with our imaginations and a map (see this poster for the event) finally came alive on the day as over 800 Tooting carnivalistas found themselves in a brief but amazing shared space in the heart of their community.  

  • MIND HOW YOU GO!

    MIND HOW YOU GO! 
    Tues Jan 11th 7-9pm. Mushkil Aasaan, 220-222 Upper Tooting Road.
    TTT’s first step in 2011 will be a confident one.  
    We look at well-being and start with WALKING! Join us for an evening to celebrate this most human of activities and the manifold benefits it brings to our physical and mental well-being.
    To celebrate our local area, we will create ‘mini walking maps’ that may develop into official Tooting Walking Maps. We would like you to try this activity out, and bring your 5 most relevant photographs along to on January 11th.
    Do you make time for yourself to slow down and nurture calmness? 
    Here is a creative opportunity to connect with yourself, the environment and others and increase your physical activity in a way that is good for your wellbeing!
    By practising the art of stopping, we can enter the present moment and be nourished by the beauty and wonder of life in and around us.
    Instructions for Photo Walk:
    Go to the start of your chosen route. This doesn’t need to be anywhere special. It could be a route your walk daily, or one you do with the family, one that you’ve been meaning to try out. It could start at the side of a busy road, in a green space, inside a building.
    Make sure you are safe from vehicles, unlikely to be bumped by passers-by.
    Take a moment to close your eyes. Take in a breath, hold your breath and let it out, all for the count of 9 (3 in, 3 hold, 3 out). Do this 3 times.
    Still with your eyes shut, draw your attention to the big sounds around you, focus on them, and listen to them. Do the same with the sounds immediately around you. Then try to listen to your internal sounds, heart- beating, cracks, rumbles etc.. Carefully open your eyes and readjust yourself. You are now ready to do your photo walk! Dwell mindfully on your steps by taking slow purposeful steps. Stop walking from time to time, simply breathe, listen, and relax.
    Make this walk as long or as short as you like. As you walk, listen carefully to the sounds around you. Use your camera to focus on the sounds that draw your attention. Be selective with your shots. Try to capture things that illustrate this sound route.
    At the end of the walk, we invite you to select 5 images that portray your experience and illustrate this particular route and bring them to us on Jan 11th as A6 prints on paper. We will create walking maps together on the night.
    Join with others to hear about how central walking is to our communities and lives; our medical and spiritual health; our local history; Living Streets and how reducing carbon has many positive health benefits.