CHUG will be opening the basin up as part of the Capital Growth Edible Open Gardens day, on Saturday the 15th of September. It’s a combined event with Capital Bee, so we’ll be running little boat trips to see our beehive in its secret location too.
As usual there will also be tea and cake on the lovely floating pontoons, and a chance to meet CHUG and find out more about our projects, history and exciting plans for the future.
Come down between 11am and 4pm on Saturday the 15th of September.
On Sunday the 23rd of September we will be opening the basin as part of London Open House.
We’ll have tours of a few boats, boat rides, and tea and homemade cake on the tranquil communal floating pontoons. Drop in for a nose around, we’ll be open from 10am to 5pm.
Neighbours – come and say hi over a cuppa and a piece of boat-home-made cake!
Residents have now moved into to the first completed blocks around the basin – Downham Wharf, at the north east side of the basin, and Commercial Wharf and Canal Wharf off Kingsland Road. To welcome our new neighbours and give old & new residents a chance to meet, CHUG is holding an informal Residents’ Tea Party at the moorings: Please join us on Sunday 16 September from 3 to 5pm!
As part of our new Outreach & Education program, CHUG offers a series of Community Skill Sharing Sessions this summer. Our first session is giving practical advise on tying knots. By James Hewson.
Tying Knots • Thursday, 12th July • 8pm • at the moorings
Access is via 305 Kingsland Road. Please call James on 07711 031318.
A documentary that hopes to ‘change the way Londoners buy food’ uses CHUG’s work with the allotment as an example of people who are working to make healthy, local and sustainably produced food accessible to everyone. The film will premiere on the 15th July at the Gallery Café in Bethnal Green. The independent film features award winning journalist Felicity Lawrence, scholars Tim Lang and Jason Moore, and UK farmer Michael Duveen.
An article announcing the Telegraph’s third “Gardening Against the Odds Awards”, describes the Allotment barge, which was enabled in collaboration with the Shoreditch Trust and Capital Growth, as a good example of gardening in an inhospitable environment.
The Gazette pursued as inflammatory an angle as they could, and the print version was even worse, claiming that CHUG’s boats were ‘squatting’. They chose to omit that CHUG pay rent on the basin, and that the move was very temporary and brought about by works requested by Hackney Council. Thankfully, from the look of the comments below the Gazette’s article, readers were generally able to read between the lines.
What CHUG wrote to the Gazette
After being approached by the Quebec Wharf residents, the Gazette got in touch with CHUG to ask why the boats had moved. This was the reply we sent:
“We have moved from one side of Kingsland Basin to the other. The move was part of scheduled development works in and around the basin, undertaken by the basin owners, L&Q. Canals and canal basins occasionally need dredging as they fill with silt over time. As well as the dredging, new piles are being added along the length of the basin to support a new walkway as part of Hackney Council’s plan to open up the basin for public enjoyment. Both the dredging and piling works require the temporary move of our boats.
We have communicated as much to Francis Loney from Quebec Wharf. The boats are only in front of Quebec Wharf until the West moorings are rebuilt, due by mid-June. Some boats will remain on the East side, but they will not be in front of Quebec Wharf.
Since Quebec Wharf was turned from a disused spice warehouse into luxury flats some ten years ago we have not had any dealings with its residents – until now. We have lived and worked in Kingsland Basin for almost 30 years, and enjoy good rapport with our land-based neighbours who frequently attend our events and support CHUG in its various endeavours. Please find attached our factsheet to give you an overview of CHUG’s remit.
As we have also explained to Francis, now that the building works are nearing their completion CHUG is working towards returning Kingsland Basin to the delightful, green & tranquil place it used to be. We hope to engage old & new neighbours alike in this process. We have recently installed a beehive at the south end of the basin, and are gearing up to run more neighbourhood events this summer. Last summer’s weekend cafe on our allotment barge was very popular, as was the London Open House weekend during which we invited members of the public to view our boats, ran free narrowboat tours along the canal, and sold allotment produce & eggs from the basin ducks. With any luck this year we’ll be able to sell jars of basin honey too!“
CHUG was happy to be asked to host this beautiful floating forest and glade during the 2011 summer. The huge amount of effort and creativity behind the project came from the inspirational Kindest Group. Passers-by were invited to take a ride on the floating glade, along the canal a little way, until it reached the floating forest. Whilst falling for the calming charms of the water, and relaxing beneath the impressive plywood tree, people were offered a wooden symbol on a ribbon. Each symbol had a meaning to get them started, and forest passengers were asked to interpret each other’s symbols, before putting it around their necks and stepping back onto the towpath and into the real world. TimeOut blogged about the project, and Wired wrote about it too.
EDIBLE GREEN CORNERS – The Floating Allotment, Kingsland Basin, Hackney – Courtesy of Edible GreenCorners Website
A community of 14 Hackney boat dwellers has turned one of the old boats into a floating allotment on which herbs, perennials and annuals grow. The boat is a cornucopia of rosemary, basil, Thai sage, chives and mint, strawberries, artichokes, lettuces, tomatoes, squash, beetroot and much more. The produce is shared between the households involved and when there’s a particularly bumper crop, it’s left in a common area so people can help themselves. Here Valerie Easty, Tim Storey and Marnie Collins are congraulated by Susan Hampshire.
‘Some of the borough’s more adventurous residents share the secrets of life on the river’
Jenny StevensMonday 5 July 2010
‘Tucked behind Kingsland Road and encased in a rickety black fence lies Kingsland Basin, home to Hackney’s secret narrowboat community. From the bridge overlooking the basin from the Regent’s Canal, a series of neatly moored narrowboats bob like toy ships. The brightly coloured vessels are surrounded by pots of budding vegetable plants, compost bins and paint pots: a tidy yet shambolic home to the basin’s residents.’
