London Gathering

Hello and welcome!

Jamie and Fran of the Transition Town Stoke Newington buildings group thought that it would be useful and fun for groups working on energy efficiency projects in their communities in London to have a little get together. The aim of this gathering is to meet each other, find out what everyone’s up to and see whether there are any areas where we can collaborate and support each other.

While every home is unique and has its own particular quirks when it comes to energy efficiency, there are many common themes running across the London housing stock (shockingly poor air tightness, solid walls, single glazed sash windows, suspended timber floors etc) and so there is a lot of commonality across the varied geographic areas of the city.

This will be a great chance to discuss the opportunities and challenges ahead of us, from sourcing draught proofing materials to securing funding and finance for the more expensive measures and finding good quality installers to implement them.

The event will happen on the afternoon of Saturday 6th November from 1pm – 4pm (with continued discussion in the pub afterwards) at the Bath House Children’s Community Centre at 76 Shacklewell Lane, Dalston, E8 2EY (public transport directions below).

We will also be getting some interesting people to come and give some talks on transforming our houses into comfortable, low carbon homes.

Chris Bird, author of the just published Transition book Local Sustainable Homes has kindly agreed to come down to London to give a talk that afternoon (and you’ll be able to buy a copy of the book).

Smart Energy Coop (which grew out of Transition Town Maidenhead) will also be talking to us about how to go about getting groups of householders together to install solar power on a wider scale, reducing costs.  Check out the interview on the Transition Network website.

Below is a form to register your interest in attending or to ask any questions.  Please use the comment field to describe what household carbon reduction activities you are up to or planning and we’d be very interested to hear about any particular topics that you would like to discuss on the afternoon. The event is free but donations to cover venue and speaker travel costs would be greatly appreciated!

Getting to the venue

Contrary to popular belief, this part of town is well connected with public transport.

The recently opened Dalston Junction station is 10 minutes walk away and served by the East London Line, connecting Dalston to West Croydon via Shoreditch, Wapping, New Cross Gate and Crystal Palace.

Dalston Kingsland station is less than 10 minutes walk and served by the North London Line, connecting Dalston to Highbury & Islington, Kentish Town, West Hampstead, Willesden Junction and down to Clapham Junction or towards Richmond.

If you’re near the Victoria line then a quick option is to buzz up the Victoria line to Seven Sisters and then take the overland down to Hackney Central which is 15 minutes walk away. You can also get from Liverpool Street to Hackney Central on the overland.

And then we have lots of buses which will take you to Dalston from London Bridge, Waterloo, Victoria, Marble Arch, Finsbury Park, Seven Sisters, Clapton, Hackney Wick or Canary Wharf.