Welcome to the Newsletter of the Belsize Society. (The whole pdf of the May Newsletter is here, but you can link to individual articles below.)
This issue of the Newsletter covers some of the activities in the Belsize area, responding to Covid 19. The Hampstead and Kilburn Community Relief Team started in March and has quickly grown to over 300 local residents/volunteers supporting their neighbours and communities. This Newsletter also give details of how to support the Chalk Farm Foodbank, which is currently requesting donations of food and supplies, and the Royal Free Charity. The Charity has been providing vital wellbeing support to front-line workers at The Royal Free Hospital, Barnet Hospital and Chase Farm Hospital.
The Winch has been upscaling the support that it is providing to local communities, responding to Covid 19. A Community Hub has been established and Winch CEO Rashid Iqbal describes some of their work, helping deliver essentials and reducing isolation. We were very pleased that Rashid could attend the AGM in March. We also carry a short piece about the AGM, covering his remarks to us (updating us about the Winch especially its running of the Belsize Community Library) and the wider AGM agenda, covering the progress the Society has made in its first year as a charitable body.
At this time, many of us are taking walks around Belsize that are very different to those taken only weeks ago. No longer in a rush to get to work or to the shops and restaurants, the nature, heritage and wildlife of our area is being experienced in unusual tranquility. Bettina Metcalfe describes the rich diversity of trees in our streets and highlights where and what to look out for in our wanderings. We have Alain de Botton’s essay, guiding us from a philosopher’s perspective about how a walk allows us to rediscover places, casting off one’s present situation and how a confinement allows us to reflect on past travels when we were freer to make journeys. We also have a poem by Robert Ilson celebrating this liberty.
We also include reports of Society activities. There has been a lot of work done to get Tradesmen You Can Trust ready, but we’ll send this out to you when practical. Many of you helped on the pollution monitoring project and results are now being analysed. Our what’s on page gives you details of events you can enjoy from home.
Hope you enjoy this Newsletter.
Contents of the May Newsletter: Notable Trees in Belsize, Pollution Monitoring Update, incl Planning Matters and Tradesmen You Can Trust, Belsize Poetry, Essay: The Broader Perspective, AGM Report, The Winch Community Hub, Covid 19: Royal Free, Foodbank, Hampstead/Kilburn Community Relief, Dates for Your Diary