On The Inky Shoulders Of Giants

An introduction from Bell House historian Sharon O’Connor:

“I know Simon and Tania won’t blow their own trumpet about the amazing event last Sunday so I am going to! 

As part of London Open House, the Stationers’ Company opened their building to the public on Sunday 22 September and in what we believe is a historic first, our volunteers Simon and Tania were actually printing in the livery hall! They spent a hectic day printing the ingenious matchbook almanacs, designed by Tania, and talking nonstop about Bell House. 

They also had a lovely display about what goes on at the house. I joined them late in the day but early enough to see that many more people now know about Bell House. 

The Stationers were of course blown away by the matchbox almanacs and by the attention Simon and Tania got - Simon has reiterated our standing invitation for them to visit Bell House. 

Bell House has a strong connection to the Stationers as the man who built the house, Thomas Wright, was a Master of the Stationers’ Livery Company and printer of almanacs himself. More on him here: https://www.bellhouse.co.uk/wright-family. 

We have two miniature almanacs from Thomas Wright’s day which can be viewed on request and at our monthly open days.”

Simon Trewin tells us more…

Bell House’s Print Room & Bindery went to The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers on Sunday September 21st to take part in an exhibition of fine books & hand bookbinding held as part of a city-wide initiative called Open House London. We were honoured to be with the Royal Bookbindery and to make friends (and swap tips!) with them during the day and to meet the team from the charity Bounds By Veterans and to hear more about the incredible work they do teaching heritage crafts to former servicemen and women suffering from PTSD.

For our part - the brilliant Tania Hurt-Newton, my partner in print at our Bell House Print Room & Bindery, designed a beautiful miniature Matchbox Almanack containing a potted history of the Stationers’ Company relationship to this wonderful part of publishing history. We printed various pages of our Alamanack in the 17th century Great Hall itself (on top of a 300 year olf table!) and made up little kits for many of the 650 visitors to take home to assemble themselves.

We also brought along some precious Almanacks from our archive and some magnifying glasses to get people to wonder at the  highly legible typesetting of tiny metal type. People were almost disbelieving at how advanced precision engineering was 350 years and were also fascinated at the thought that Bell House was built for the  Master of the Stationers’ Company in 1777. All that connective tissue made of ink, history and ritual was awe-inspiring for us all.

It was also astonishing ‘back to the future’ moment to think that Thomas Wright had very probably stood on exactly the same spot, on the SAME FLOORBOARDS no less, where I set up our stall with Tania and where we inked up our presses.  I even wondered out loud to the current Master - Paul Wilson, as we presented him with a copy of our Matchbox Almanac, as to whether we might have been the only people ever to have been allowed to print in the Great Hall. We are all going to do some research on that front and will report back...

AND COURSE we couldn’t resist being photographed in front of the stained-glass window that shows William Caxton with his press and his assistant Wynkyn De Worde. We liked the thought of WC and WdW looking down jealously on our humble but brilliant Adana 8x5 SELF-INKING press.

A great day out and the beginning, I hope, of a deeper relationship between my Livery company and a rather special Georgian mansion in Dulwich Village… 

Bell House Pottery - The First Year - A Volunteer’s View

It’s August. The first year of the pottery’s life is completed, and it is closed and quiet for a month whilst tutors have a well-earned rest.  

I say ‘quiet’ but I doubt it has been quiet at all. There is always something going on at the pottery - work never seems to stop. I’m sure tutors are, in fact, getting ready for September, and I see that a lovely new forecourt has been installed since classes stopped for the summer.

I started as a volunteer before the building of the studio was even completed so I have seen it transformed from a roofless structure to the beautiful, airy space it has become. There are further developments to look forward to all the time, such as new garden planting nearby and outdoor seating to enjoy in the future months.

My role, which I fell into almost by accident, has turned out to be interesting and rewarding. Becoming part of the Bell House Pottery Committee has meant working with a talented and committed group which believes in the importance and value of individual creativity, and in providing opportunities for people to be involved in a practical and personal way. Through the bursary places and the ‘Let’s clay together’ programme there are free or low-cost courses available to people in the community who could not otherwise afford it. I have found the effort and commitment of those who envisaged the project and are now leading it, very impressive.

The tasks I have helped with might sound mundane in some ways: taking minutes at the monthly planning meetings; putting forward a volunteer’s point of view; being an extra adult helper at some classes; helping in practical ways or at open events. However the volunteer role has given me the opportunity to think about things new to me, and to meet an entirely new set of people. I’ve even enjoyed mopping the floors after a few particularly messy courses, thanks to the friendly conversations with tutors and participants while clearing up is going on.  As a former teacher, I’ve particularly liked seeing young people having great fun while trying a new skill which is not available in every school. 

Highlights of the year for me have been the opening of the pottery studio itself, the enthusiasm of people for the place and the courses, the hundreds of visitors during Dulwich Open House, and the Christmas events and party. 

I’ve also sampled some of the courses myself. First a two hour taster session, which many people reading this will have tried. I went along with two friends. There was much laughter at the time and even more when we collected our pots - they were tiny - but at least they looked as if they were intended to be pots!

Then I tried two evening sessions involving using slip and decoration techniques. I managed to make some small but passable pots. I began to think that some of my mother’s genes had been passed down to me. Pottery was her hobby and consequently I never thought to try it out. Encouraged by my first ‘magnificent’ pieces, I booked taster sessions for my family as a Christmas present. However they wanted me to come too. We all know the expression “Pride comes before a fall”.  My nephew seemed naturally talented and threw several successful pieces first time. I could not produce a single pot that day! They would all have gone into Brymer Jones’ reject bucket, so I saved him the trouble and threw them in myself. But it was a great Christmas present for us all to enjoy together.

After such dismal failure will I go back again?

Even as a beginner, there is something absorbing, fascinating and even therapeutic in the process of handling clay. Sometimes the pots seem to want to build themselves, it feels natural, but that day the clay seemed to resist my efforts to create anything at all recognisable, except a mess.

I have to go back to face the challenge.

I want two vaguely similar soup bowls by the end of this year.

Jacqui Pick, Aug 2024

Bell House is sponsoring a football coach at Peckham Town FC

Gustavo Oliveira, our sponsored coach at Peckham Town FC.

Through a generous donation, Bell House is able to sponsor a football coach at Peckham Town Football Club, an entirely volunteer-run football club just around the corner from Bell House.

Peckham was founded in 1982 by Bryan Hall, and now has 28 teams from junior to senior. The men’s first team coach is ex-England and Arsenal footballer Mary Phillip, who is the highest ranked female coach of a men’s team in the country!

There are a lot of exciting things going on at the club. They have a partnership with the Rio Ferdinand Foundation to create opportunities for young people in Peckham to enhance their skills in loads of different areas, from coaching to managing social media channels, club finances and events.

Peckham Town does a huge amount of work in the community and run great campaigns around Black Lives Matter and Black History Month; check them out @peckhamtownfc on Twitter and Instagram.

 Over lockdown, Peckham Town was unfortunately the victim of vandalism of the pitch and clubhouse facilities, with people breaking in at night starting fires, leaving huge amounts of rubbish and mess. Peckham Town put out a call to help on social media, and volunteers arrived in swarms to get the pitch back to match-ready condition and make the facilities safe for all the teams to train on.

This sense of community runs all the way through Peckham Town, just like Bell House and the club is committed to developing opportunities for everyone to play, watch and enjoy the many aspects of football.

 Bell House is sponsoring Gustavo Oliveira (@coachgusoliveira on Instagram), assistant coach for the Peckham men's first team. This is a great collaboration for Bell House given our whole ethos is championing creative education and lifelong learning for all – that is certainly what Gustavo is doing up on Dulwich Common. Gustavo will be combining his role at Peckham with his full-time job at Arsenal Academy so he is going to be busy.

Bell House is proud to sponsor Gustavo and is looking forward to supporting Peckham Town FC this season!

https://linktr.ee/peckhamtownfc

The 2024 plans for the Bell House Garden are “the bee’s knees!”

The 2.5 acre site at Bell House provides the garden team with plenty of scope to create a range of habitats for wildlife and different garden spaces for visitors and volunteers.

Work began in the autumn to create a series of new flower beds around the main lawn to be filled with plants for pollinators.  Paths will take visitors through drifts of bulbs, perennials, grasses and shrubs chosen to provide pollen, nectar and interest through the year.  Volunteers will learn to grow the plants from seed, cuttings and small plugs, potted out and brought on in the polytunnel.  Hornbeam and yew hedges will frame the beds, providing a backdrop to the planting and a shelter point for birds foraging in the garden.  Lavender will surround the terrace to bring colour, scent and attract pollinators. 

A new native hedge will be planted in the Pickwick garden, with willows and Dogwoods to soak up the ground water.  The plants are part of a grant awarded by The Tree Council to support community engagement, enhance wildlife and education around on-going care.  

Parts of the Pickwick garden are very wet after the winter, so swales will be dug to allow water to collect naturally, creating temporary lagoons now and sunny hollows in the yearsummer.  Soil removed will be left exposed as banks for mining bees to tunnel and nest.

The Bell House honeybees are now settled in a new apiary under an oak tree surrounded by a low log wall built by the volunteers.  All fallen branches and cuttings are kept on site and added to log piles, the dead hedges and stumpery.  The stumpery, where logs are stood, half buried in the soil, was built by three volunteers one Saturday and will be a valuable resource for beetles, woodlice, wood wasps and other insects who need deadwood for survival. 

In the walled garden the vegetable beds have been mulched and weeded ready for this year’s growing season.  Two new apple trees, a morello cherry and mulberry have been planted in the orchard.  Each has been chosen by our visiting orchard expert to cross-pollinate with our existing trees and be resistant to disease.  Heritage varieties were chosen, which could have been planted by the Victorian owners when the new servants’ wing was added to the house. 

Come and see the garden and our plans for 2024 on the first Saturday of every month, 11.30pm to 1.00am.

Tickets for the Easter Open Garden

If you’re interested in volunteering in the garden click here.

Bell Health - Here to Help

Is there a health issue you’d like to talk about with an expert and fellow sufferers - to learn and share knowledge and experiences?
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Bell House is renowned for its support of Dyslexia - in fact it was the raison d'être for the original conception of the charity. Over the years there have been so many other different health initiatives for the body and mind. For example, Bell House is currently offering a course on menopause and have a talk planned on men’s mental health in April.

Bell Health is a new team tasked with further developing health support and events at Bell House, with an important focus on demand from the Bell House community.

In fact a perfect example of what Bell Health plans is the current ‘Menopause Connections’ - an Holistic Approach to Menopause, proudly presented by a team of local menopause practitioners. Menopause Connections covers nutrition, fitness and pelvic health, as well as medical and natural approaches to managing menopause symptoms. Take a look online to get an idea of how it is being run. The feedback has been very positive: ​“What a great session, so informative.” and “The best talk on menopause that I’ve been to. Informative and clear.”  The course will be a template for future events. 

So what would you like to learn more about? Anxiety or depression; sleep issues; coping with arthritis; dealing with IBS; building greater self confidence; dermatological problems; loneliness; the list is endless.

Bell Health's aim is to create a safe space at Bell House to run support groups with a common health issue  - where attendees can learn from an expert, feel comfortable asking questions and, as a result, share their experiences. When you’re part of a community, you not only learn more about the subject but also more about yourself. 

As this initiative is demand-led - we are dependent on you talking to us.  We need to hear from members of our Bell House community - that means we need to hear from you! Use the link below to contact Bell Health. Please take a little time to tell us about the health issues you’re interested in, or to tell us about any specialist subject support you could offer:  [email protected]

Please help us build a thriving Bell Health community at Bell House - we’re here to help.