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)
‘I don’t like being stuck in an office’: the young people helping plant a ring of trees around London, theguardian.com (Jun 17, 2026) — London Tree Ring project aims to create corridors of plant and animal life around the city to strengthen its biodiversity
London, San Francisco and Beijing achieve ‘remarkable reductions’ in air pollution, theguardian.com (Mar 12, 2026) — Cycle lanes, electric cars and other interventions have helped 19 global cities slash levels of pollutants by more than 20%
East London is at high risk of extreme flooding – here’s how to limit the damage, theconversation.com (Feb 11, 2026)
Met Office issues rare red weather warning for Wednesday and Thursday, theguardian.com (Jun 22, 2026)
Rights of Nature movement grows, with the Wye and Ouse subject to new protection charters, wickedleeks.riverford.co.uk (Jun 18, 2026) — Nature sits at the heart of several new sets of rights and charters; it’s even headlining a festival this summer. Is the way that we view and value Nature within our political and cultural frameworks at a turning point? asks Hannah Marsh
This city had a flooding problem. So it turned to an animal that had been extinct there for 400 years, edition.cnn.com (Jun 18, 2026)
Amsterdam, along with other major European cities, bans public adverts for meat and fossil fuels [BBC], Daily Alternative (May 22, 2026)
How reindeer herds, nature and Sámi culture can thrive when forests are restored across northern Europe, theconversation.com (May 15, 2026)
Rewilding giants: captive elephants rehomed in Europe’s first sanctuary, theguardian.com (May 07, 2026)
Trapped by floods and fearing death in the heat: the Australians taking legal action over the climate crisis, theguardian.com (Jun 22, 2026)
‘The sea took everything away’: how Nigeria’s ‘Happy City’ is disappearing beneath the waves, theguardian.com (Jun 18, 2026)
Trash and dignity: The rise of inclusive recycling projects in Latin America, globalvoices.org (Jun 12, 2026)
Networks and sustainability initiatives
[edit | edit source]- Southwark Circle, membership organization
UK and international events
[edit | edit source]UK events
Jul 1 - 14, 2026 (Wed - Tue) — Community Energy Fortnight, communityenergyengland.org
Jul 02, 2026 (Thu) — Cycle to Work Day, cyclescheme.co.uk
Jul 17 - Aug 9, 2026 (Fri - Sun) — Big Butterfly Count, bigbutterflycount.butterfly-conservation.org
Jul 19 - 25, 2026 (Sun - Sat), The theme for 2026 is JOY — Community Centre Week, octopuscommunities.org.uk
Jul 24 - Aug 2, 2026 (Fri - Sun) — Love Parks Week, Keep Britain Tidy
Global or international events
July 2026 — Plastic Free July, plasticfreejuly.org
Jul 04, 2026 (Sat) — International Day of Cooperatives (CoopsDay), 1st Saturday of July. The celebration aims to showcase co-operatives’ role in building ‘inclusive, resilient, and sustainable communities’, coopsday.coop
Jul 18, 2026 (Sat) — Mandela Day, global celebration 18 July annually, to honour the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela. A call to action for individuals, communities, and organisations to take time to reflect on Mandela's values and principles and to make a positive impact in their own communities, mandeladay.com
2021-2030, UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, International community action events
Each week 3 different short videos from across the UK or world.
Rural sustainability UK, Community energy UK, Community action/Argyll and Bute / ...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 July 11, 2026. |







