Community action/Southwark

The aim of this page is to recognise, celebrate and encourage the self-empowerment of community agency networks (CANs) and community groups' activism for climate, environment and many other sustainability topics across Southwark.
News
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‘Hopeful and imaginative’: introducing the UK’s ‘best’ new building, positive.news (Oct 17, 2025) — London care home built to tackle social isolation wins major architecture award
Coin Street: How co-op ownership can keep the bulldozer at bay, thenews.coop (Apr 07, 2025)
How London’s low emissions zone is helping children breathe easier, positive.news (Sep 01, 2026)
Call for right to grow food on unused public land, BBC News (Aug 14, 2026) — Campaigners have called on City Hall to introduce a London-wide "Right to Grow" framework to help communities turn unused public land into food gardens
The climate cafe where misery is 'empowering', BBC News (Jul 26, 2026)
Plans for major overhaul of councils halted, BBC News (Sep 07, 2026)
Sardines are having a moment but could this humble fish turn the tide for the UK’s local fisheries?, wickedleeks.riverford.co.uk (Sep 03, 2026) — Can the UK learn from Iberian traditions and turn its booming love for tinned sardines into a lasting win for coastal communities?
Andy Burnham announces thousands of new homes, but is the government much closer to its target?, theconversation.com (Sep 02, 2026)
European farmers face ‘unprecedented crisis’ after successive heatwaves, theguardian.com (Aug 17, 2026)
Europe’s rivers are running dry, and the knock-on effects are disastrous, Yiannis Baboulias, theguardian.com (Aug 05, 2026)
How Australia combines modern tech and Indigenous knowledge to fight wildfires, BBC News (Aug 01, 2026)
Why I choose to build commons, rather than being an ‘activist’, growingcommons.substack.com (Sep 06, 2026) — And why I think you should, too, Dil Green
What Brazil’s supercentenarians can teach us about living to 120, positive.news (Sep 02, 2026)
How a South African town cleaned up its polluted river using stones, wood and sand, theguardian.com (Aug 31, 2026) — Scientists say system to treat contaminated wastewater offers a model for ensuring food security in a fast-warming climate
Networks and sustainability initiatives
[edit | edit source]- Southwark Circle, membership organization
UK and international events
[edit | edit source]UK events
Sep 7 - 11, 2026 (Mon-Fri) — Zero Waste Week, zerowasteweek.co.uk
Sep 11 - 20, 2026 (Fri-Sun) — Heritage Open Days, celebrating our fantastic history and culture. Your chance to see hidden places and try out new experiences – all of which are FREE to explore, heritageopendays.org.uk
Sep 18 - 27, 2026 (Fri-Sun) — Great British Beach Clean, mcsuk.org
Global or international events
Sep 15, 2026 (Tue) — Free Money Day, Global invitation for people to explore, in a liberating and fun way, what it might be like if our relationship to money was a little different. Sep 15, annually, freemoneyday.org
Sep 18, 2026 (Fri) — Park(ing) day, global, public, participatory project where people across the world temporarily repurpose curbside parking spaces and convert them into public parks and social spaces to advocate for safer, greener, and more equitable streets for people, myparkingday.org
Sep 21-27, 2026 (Mon-Sun) — Global Week Of Action For Peace And Climate Justice, climatemilitarism.org
Sep 21, 2026 (Mon) — International Day of Peace, Globally shared date, Sep 21 each year for all humanity to commit to Peace above all differences and to contribute to building a Culture of Peace, internationaldayofpeace.org
2021-2030, UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, International community action events
Each week 3 different short videos from across the UK or world.
Community action/Moray, Rewilding Scotland, Community action/Wiltshire / ...This week's featured Global videos / ... read more about Cosmolocalism
Southwark video
[edit | edit source]Community involvement
[edit | edit source]Commonplace Peckham Rye - Peckham Rye CoDesign - People's Republic of Southwark - Pocket Places Peckham
Communities online
[edit | edit source]Bellenden Residents' Group - Peckham Residents' Network
Community and voluntary action
[edit | edit source]Community Action Southwark, umbrella organisation (or Council for Voluntary Service) for the voluntary and community sector in Southwark - Peckham Voluntary Sector Forum
Food activism
[edit | edit source]Glengall Wharf Garden - Surrey Docks Farm - Walworth Garden Farm
Community resources
[edit | edit source]Coin Street Community Builders (CSCB) is a development trust and social enterprise which seeks to make London's South Bank a better place in which to live, to work, to visit and to study. Since 1984 CSCB has transformed a largely derelict 13-acre site into a thriving mixed-use neighbourhood.
Maps
Heart of the Elephant and Castle Urban Forest Map, Maps, open data and activism on the Heygate estate, Tom Chance's blog, April 19, 2011
Visions
[edit | edit source]Climate action
[edit | edit source]- Climate Change Citizens’ Jury, Nov 2021 to Feb 2022, southwark.gov.uk, added 10:03, 5 January 2022 (UTC)
Sustainable transport activism
[edit | edit source]Thames Path W
Cycling activism
[edit | edit source]Community Cycleworks, not for profit organisation that runs build-a-bike courses, bikefix, and road and mountain biking rideouts, for young people in the London Borough of Southwark and beyond - Southwark Cyclists
Open spaces
[edit | edit source]The London Borough of Southwark, occupying a roughly triangular area south of Tower Bridge over the River Thames, considers itself to be one of the greenest boroughs in London, with its 245 hectares (610 acres) of public parkland. There are more than 130 such green areas, ranging from the large areas around Dulwich and Southwark Park in Rotherhithe to the many sports grounds and squares.
Bankside Open Spaces Trust (BOST) is a horticulture, gardening and management of urban open space charity, based in Bankside, the southern bank by the River Thames, Southwark, Central London, England. BOST works local communities and organisations in London, such as Tate Modern community garden, to improve, create and enjoy the parks, gardens, green spaces, and, passive and active recreation areas.
The charity supports a network of parks, community managed green spaces and open spaces groups to carry out consultation, fundraise and oversee improvements. This includes help with choosing new play equipment, bespoke garden design and developing new areas, making accessible improvements and re-landscaping.
BOST initiates and runs community gardening clubs, award small grants for local horticulture projects and organises hiring out parks and open spaces for celebratory public and private events. BOST has set up a community garden resource centre with a pond and encourages people to grow their own food - vegetables, herbs, fruit trees and bushes - through 'edible projects', utilising raised-bed gardening and planting. They also provide informal horticultural training, landscape maintenance, garden maintenance, grounds maintenance and gardening work experience in the local parks, gardens and open spaces.
- Friends of Peckham Rye Park
- Peckham Coal Line (secure link not found 11:25, 18 February 2021 (UTC)), Grass roots initiative to create an urban park using disused space between Queens Road Peckham and Rye Lane.
- Friends of Goose Green
- Parks and open spaces on southwark.gov.uk
Trees, woodland and forest
[edit | edit source]Elephant and Castle Urban Forest - Video: Elephant and Castle Urban Forest, September 2011
News archive
[edit | edit source]2009-2020
- London hospital trust to pay £250k to install LTN for public health benefits, Nov 17, 2020...The Guardian
- Borough Market to phase out plastic bottle sales with free fountains, Aug 23, 2017...The Guardian
- Fossil Free Southwark: Our Story, Dec 14, 2016...gofossilfree.org
- Southwark pension fund to shed fossil fuel investments, Dec 14, 2016...IPE
- Why comparisons with the Highline are a double-edged sword... September 12, 2015...(secure link not found 11:25, 18 February 2021 (UTC))
- The planning points 4, February 1, 2014...peoplesrepublicofsouthwark.co.uk
- London Development Agency to provide £4 million to the Bankside Urban Forest - a programme of works to improve public space in the Bankside area from the riverside to the Elephant & Castle, london-se1, March 10, 2010.
- Clinton praise for London project, BBC news, May 19, 2009.
About Southwark
[edit | edit source]Campaigns
The London Borough of Southwark ( SUDH-ərk) in South London forms part of Inner London and is connected by bridges across the River Thames to the City of London and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council areas were amalgamated under the London Government Act 1963. All districts of the area are within the London postal district. It is governed by Southwark London Borough Council.
The part of the South Bank within the borough is home to London Bridge terminus station and the attractions of The Shard, Tate Modern, Shakespeare's Globe and Borough Market that are the largest of the venues in Southwark to draw domestic and international tourism. Dulwich is home to the Dulwich Picture Gallery and the Imperial War Museum is in Elephant and Castle. Major districts include Bermondsey, Rotherhithe, Peckham, Camberwell, and Dulwich.
External links
- Wikipedia: Spike Surplus Scheme
- Peckham Society, amenity society
- Peckham and Nunhead area action plan on southwark.gov.uk
- Regeneration on southwark.gov.uk
| Authors | Phil Green |
|---|---|
| License | CC-BY-SA-3.0 |
| Cite as | Philralph (2014–2025). "Community action/Southwark". Appropedia. Retrieved September 7, 2026. |







