London community resources

This article is an offshoot of London community action focusing on community resources and assets. Resources such as community involvement, networks, and events (people and relationships) can be considered as primary resources. Also resources are the activism and physical assets (or what citizens value), such as green spaces and biodiversity, cycle lanes, etc, from other London community pages.

The majority of our information about resources is collated via our place pages...Near you.

Networks

• Time To Grow!, "network of gardeners who help people turn unused space into productive and wildlife friendly gardens to grow food for our communities. We currently have 15 gardens across North London, and a team of 15 active coordinators." added 14:03, 12 June 2024 (UTC)
• Capital Growth, London's food growing network
• Community Food Growers Network, London-based support network of food projects putting land into community use

Events

• Jul 07, 2024 (Sun) — London Permaculture Festival, Camden
• Jul 21, 2024 (Sun) — London Land Justice Fair, Myatt's Fields Park. Let's make #London a #commons! For food growing, housing, environment, green spaces, recreation, community, heritage, for US!

Regular events

weekly, Friday-Sunday Real Food Market at Southbank Centre

How to's

• How to organise a seed swap (PDF) information from the Soil Association

Maps

• Big Dig London
• Fruit City, growing map and network of all the fruit trees in public spaces in London.
• Fruit & Nut Map of South London
• How do I find a seed swap?, map from the Soil Association
• London Food Map, helps people in real need to find where and how to access free or low cost food in their area
• Too Good to Waste, find restaurants supporting this campaign

Policies

• Policy G8 Food growing, Draft New London Plan london.gov.uk

Past events

• September 19, 2015, Capital Growth's Edible Gardens Open Day

Food Growing, Land, and London - a film by Community Food Growers Network

Authors: Community Food Growers Network

Date: 2018-10-28

London Permaculture Festival 2018

Authors: London Permaculture Festival

Date: 2018-06-23

More video...

People's Supermarket - Sustainable Restaurants, Co-operative Supermarkets, Arthur Potts Dawson - The GLA High Streets Project Colour - Underground Tomatoes - Food from the Sky - London Open Garden Squares Weekend 2011 and Capital Growth food growing projects - CG LET'S GO LET'S GROW, Aug 2009

News and comment

Interdependence

Food is just one of many aspects of interdependence between cities and their hinterland. For example land, water, energy and people may be needed to help grow the food, markets to help distribute it and transport and other systems to get the food to market and deal with food waste and any other by-products.

see also: London and South East England

Campaigns

Capital Bee campaigning for bees, forage and a pesticide free city

External links

• Be Enriched, South London based charity, focused on reducing social isolation, through food. The Food Bus, be-enriched.org, providing low-cost food in Lambeth and Wandsworth. added 20:55, 14 October 2024 (UTC)
• The Felix Project, fighting hunger and food waste, London charity, added 17:05, 11 April 2021 (UTC)
• Wikipedia: List of markets in London
• Abundance London
• Edible Landscapes London
• Hawkes, cider maker "...about action, people and community."
• Local Greens, not for profit weekly veg bag scheme run by four enthusiastic people living in Herne Hill and East Dulwich, and providing the local area with great tasting, seasonal veg from small organic or spray-free farms, near to SE London.
• London Food Link
• Nomadic Community Gardens, not for profit organisation based in East London
• People's Kitchen
• Open Orchard Project
• The People's Supermarket, food cooperative whose stated aim is to provide the local community with good cheap food that's fair to consumers and producers. It was set up in May 2010 by Arthur Potts Dawson, Mikkel Ryding, Kate Wickes-Bull, David Barrie and a team of supporters and professional advisors in Lamb's Conduit Street, Holborn, near Great Ormond Street Hospital. As of February 2012 it had 1000 members. ^W
• Plan Zheroes, grassroots, not for profit movement (and now a registered charity) which prevents food waste and food poverty by connecting businesses with surplus food with local charities and people in need of it.

Farmers' markets

London Farmers' Markets, organisation operating certified Farmers' markets in Greater London. ^W

Selce clip from new Chilean documentary film, The Other Current - the Power of Community Energy.

Authors: South East London Community Energy (Selce), 3.00 mins.

Date: 2025-08-19

• South East London Community Energy, creating "a clean and just transition to an energy system that is fit for the future through:

💡 Distributed and renewable energy

💡 Reductions in energy demand

💡 Leaving no one behind" , added 20:46, 28 February 2026 (UTC)

• Repowering, empowering communities with clean, local energy, link checked 19:32, 1 August 2023 (UTC)

London Community Land Trust: Creating communities through affordable housing

Authors: Cooperative City, 8.51 mins.

Date: 2020-11-17

• London Community Land Trust
• The Open Workshop - London
• East London Community land trust

From Walter Segal to RUSS - the story of community-led housing in Lewisham

Authors: World Habitat, Oct 23, 2018

Senior Cohousing_A Different Way of Living SUBS

Authors: New Ground Co-Housing, Dec 7, 2017

• Community-led Housing London, resources and advice hub, added 15:29, 3 March 2022 (UTC)
• Older Womens Co-Housing

see also: Lewisham community action, Housing UK community action resources

• My Fair London, an autonomous group associated with The Equality Trust that works to promote the findings contained in The Spirit Level.
• Small Works

• The Loneliness Lab
• London Fairness Commission
• No Second Night Out

Networks

• 4in10, campaigning network of organizations working to improve the lives of the 4in10 children living in poverty across the capital.

• East London Green Jobs Alliance

How to fix society, explained to a 6-year old

Authors: ReSpace Projects

Date: 2022-09-01

What is The Hive? (NCS)

Authors: ReSpace Projects

Date: 2020-02-25

Respace Sunday on the BBC!

Authors: ReSpace Projects

Date: 2018-06-28

• Respace Projects, re-using space for social good. Video: Respace Projects on youtube.com, added 15:47, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
• Little Village, a gift form one family to another.
• Room for Tea, a new kind of home sharing network

Maps: mapjam-2016-london

Free stuff

• Free London, Londonist
• londonforfree.net
• More London Free Festival

Citizens data initiative

• Environment quality: A recent study from King's College in London estimated that, in London alone, roughly 9,500 premature deaths each year are linked to high levels of air pollution...Yale Environment 360
• Blog, London data store
• London's Poverty Profile

Funding

London Mayor's Office and Spacehive

The London Mayor's Office has teamed up with the U.K.-based civic crowdfunding service Spacehive to support community driven initiatives throughout the city.

Local groups placing projects on the platform can apply for a pledge from the Mayor of up to £20,000 ($25,960). The "Regeneration" office (which belongs to the Greater London Authority) uses several criteria to judge the projects. Their endorsement not only gives a direct financial boost, but also makes the projects more visible and credible for other potential donors, thus attracting more and bigger donations. The city government assists in other ways as well, such as setting up meetings with key stakeholders and helping project initiators to find good consultants to maximize impact and to support delivery. The goal is to innovate with a limited amount of money, empower people to participate in developing the city, and promote citizen power and new forms of engagement.

According to the city of London's website, 57 projects have been supported in the first three rounds; with £800,000 ($1.03 million) worth of pledges made by the Mayor, leveraging more than £900,000 ($1.16 million) of crowdfunding match from more than 6,000 backers. Campaigns backed by the Mayor had a 95 percent success rate, compared to a 47 percent average success rate for those that did not get such support.

Initial evaluation has revealed significant social impact. Local groups delivering projects have cited increased civic pride, skill development, new community bonds and improved knowledge of the planning and development process as consequences of the program...Shareable

Learn more from:

Civic Crowdfunding Programme (Spacehive)

• Crowdfund London

Apps for sustainability

• London Bike Share Map

Library of Things: A local neighbourhood activator

Authors: Library of Things, Mar 21, 2019

Library of Things is a women-led circular economy start-up affordably renting out useful items like drills, sound systems and sewing machines from high street hubs like libraries. Having developed the service in London since 2016, we are now working with local authorities, businesses and communities to bring borrowing to every neighbourhood that wants it. This is all part of fulfilling our mission to make borrowing better than buying – for individuals, communities and the planet... Library of Things press release, Nov 28, 2019

• Library of Things

News and comment

• How Wales is building a sharing economy through its ‘libraries of things’, theprogressplaybook.com (Apr 05, 2025)
• How rental ‘libraries of things’ have become the new way to save money, theguardian.com (May 06, 2024)
• Library of Things helping Charlton Kings residents save money, BBC News (Apr 11, 2024)
• Sustainable Tiverton preparing to open it's ShareShop, a 'community store cupboard' where people can borrow household/travel/event things at low cost., twitter.com/TransitionTog (Sep 18, 2023)

• 2021: Year in Review, Library of Things, Dec 16, 2021... libraryofthings.co.uk/blog

• Changing London
• Another London: Visions of a Future City, Wildonomics
• Welcome to The Greater London National Park*, officially a Notional Park

• GoodGym, helps people get fit by doing good
• London buses: one bus at a time
• Magnificent Revolution, Bike Power People
• Platform, describes itself as "bringing together environmentalists, artists, human rights campaigners, educationalists and community activists to create innovative projects driven by the need for social and environmental justice, (Wikipedia)
• Wikipedia:List of twin towns and sister cities in the United Kingdom#London

Citizens data initiative

• Right to Know, Learn about the systemic and environmental trends that could be impacting your health. right-to-know.org, enter your postcode for local results, added 10:26, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

Research

• Centric Lab, added 10:09, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

Campaigns

• Clean air in London, added 13:26, 14 March 2025 (UTC)

• London Community Resource Network
• Recycle for London
• The Restart Project, repair, don't despair! towards a better relationship with electronics
• Restarters London, Meetup

• Livingmaps Network, network of researchers, community activists, artists and others with a common interest in the use of counter mapping for social change, public engagement, critical debate and creative forms of community campaigning. added 14:13, 31 March 2022 (UTC)

Charge point map, Source London - Find your nearest fountain - London Neighbourhood Forums, February 2013 (PDF) - Mapping for Change - OpenEcoMaps uses OpenStreetMap - Staying 'Cool' in the City

Cycling: Central London Grid

Education: London Sustainable Schools Map

Environment quality: How polluted is my road?

Food: London Community Food Map

Open spaces:

How green is London? These 34 maps have the answer

Parklife

Trees, woodland and forest: Map of London trees maintained by local authorities

Walking: #walklondon

From Wikipedia:Centre for London

Centre for London is London's think tank. Based in the UK, it undertakes research and organises events aimed at developing new solutions to the capital's critical challenges. The Centre, which is politically independent, advocates for a fair and prosperous global city.

The Centre is a registered charity. It is funded by a mixture of public, private and third sector supporters.

• Centre for London
• University of Greenwich sustainability blog