Welcome to the second of our seasonal newsletters. In this Summer edition, you’ll find a selection of recent news and updates from Bell House, which we hope you will enjoy!
Looking for a Quick Fix of Wellbeing?
Just one or two hours a week of voluntary work can deliver a bucketful of wellbeing, with the power to enhance both physical and mental health.
During the COVID outbreak, all face-to-face volunteering at Bell House was sadly curtailed, and some of our regular volunteers have been slow to return. As a non-profit organisation, dependent on our volunteers’ support, we were delighted to participate in the King’s Big Help Out initiative on Monday May 8th to welcome new and old visitors to Bell House, with the aim of encouraging more volunteers.
The Community Help Out Day showcased many of the activities we run at Bell House and promoted the ‘P4 bus route initiative’. Volunteers, led by Ann Revel and with huge support from the Garage Press, the quilters, the gardeners and our art tutor organised a fantastic range of activities for our visiting public to enjoy.
During the four hours, we welcomed a steady flow of 135 visitors including a special visit from local MP Helen Hayes who came along to provide us with her personal and social media support.
It was wonderful to witness the many positive responses to Bell House and our volunteering opportunities, and a number of initiatives were enthusiastically discussed including:
• Opportunities to help ‘front of house’ at Bell House events and in so doing get to enjoy it yourself for free.
• Potential to host regular meetings for older members of the ‘P4 bus community’ - offering an opportunity to chat and make friends.
• Bell House’s gardening opportunities are always a widely-discussed topic. In order to widen the accessibility of gardening opportunities we explored suggestions to enable children to volunteer at the monthly Open Garden Saturday mornings and to potentially launch Summer evening sessions, more suited to working people.
Without the power of the volunteer, non-profits such as Bell House could not exist. And as it turns out, volunteering helps to enhance our own wellbeing.
So why is Volunteering Good for You?
To list just a few benefits, it can:
• introduce you to new people and friendships.
• provide a sense of purpose and fulfilment.
• boost your self-esteem, making you happier and more fulfilled.
• help reduce stress. benefitting the health of our mind and body. In fact, some studies in older adults have shown even lower mortality rates in volunteers vs non-volunteers.
Nothing gets done by one person alone, which means volunteers have to band together to make a difference for the cause they are supporting.
Surprisingly, this is the first time Bell House has run a volunteering call up day, but it won’t be the last. The Help Out initiative will now become an annual event. We hope to see you next time!
In the meantime, if you would like to get a ‘Quick Fix of Wellbeing’ at Bell House, please do sign up for volunteering.
Children, Drones and Bumble Bees Helping Pollination
There’s a ‘politics’ in beekeeping. It’s considered a service to gardeners, but did you know that the current trend in bee-keeping is actually detrimental to the ecosystem?
We've all read the reports of ‘bees dying’ and the ‘need to save the bees’, but what is rarely reported is that there are ‘too many honeybees’. Spend a few hours with the Bell House beekeeper Annie McGeoch, and you’ll not only become a fan of honeybees, but you’ll also see the bigger picture.
What you may not already know about bees, and in particular honeybees ….
There are 279 bee varieties in Britain - of which just one is the honeybee.
Scientists and experienced beekeepers believe that the vast number of honeybees, combined with a lack of pollinator-friendly spaces, is putting other pollinators at risk.
Honeybees make more honey than they need - but why?
We don’t really know! But it’s thought that spare honey is used when forage is unavailable. However, if the hive becomes too full of honey, the queen no longer has enough room to lay eggs and produce her brood - then this is when a swarm is more likely to occur - the queen is leaving the hive with many worker bees, in search of a new home.
Bees can cope with the cold.
In the hive, the worker bees - wings vibrating, huddling together, heads pointed inward - cluster around the queen to keep her and her brood warm. Heater bees can raise their body temperatures higher than others and directly warm pupae as well as hanging out in the empty cells of a brood nest to distribute their body heat around the nest.
Can bees fly in the rain?
Yes, they can but it’s dangerous and so they usually don’t. Even mist on a bee’s body can interfere with its flight and a large raindrop can knock it down. The water impedes the bee’s wing beat, which is normally about 12,000 beats per minute. And without the sun, they have difficulty navigating between their food source and their home.
The worldwide overuse of neonicotinoid pesticides and greater urbanisation has killed off honeybees and other pollinators.
In some communities of the World, pollination techniques have become creative! Children climb trees with paintbrushes loaded with pollen, bumble bees are farmed and pollen is dusted on their legs before they’re released and drones have even been designed to carry out crop pollination!
If you get stung by a bee - scratch off the poison, don’t squeeze it.
And remember they mean you no harm - you may have just got in the way of one of their bee highways - and after all, when they sting you, they are committing suicide, so don't be too hard on them!
As it transpires, it’s not just the honeybee that makes too much honey for its needs - we humans do too. There are just too many hives being set up in the belief that honeybees will help pollination. But to concentrate on the honeybee as the main crop pollinator is to fail the rest of the insect pollinator community, including flies, wasps, beetles, butterflies and moths.
To guarantee healthy crops of fruit, nuts and veg, to ensure plentiful harvests of non-self pollinating grains and to guarantee a wealth of pollen-making flowers, we need to control the number of honeybees.
And the 278 other varieties of bees deserve our attention and care too. After all, they make a huge contribution to our eco environments in gardens, fields, woodlands and other habitats.
To leave the last thought with the Bell House beekeeper, Annie McGeoch:
“Honeybees are completely different from us - they cooperate with each other in order to survive - it’s a lesson for mankind.”
Windows and Thresholds - a Reflection
It's rumoured that in years gone by, you’d have been harangued by your neighbours or even fined for hanging out your washing on a Sunday in Dulwich Village. Yet last month for two weekends, Bell House did just that. A line of washing stretched from a tree in the front garden to a top window. It certainly caught everyone's attention but why was it there?
The washing line was making a very public statement to announce the Bell House ‘Windows and Thresholds’ exhibition, featuring over 40 artists as part of Dulwich Festival’s Artists’ Open House. Five female curators each took a room and invited us to look inward and outward. It was a great success, with over 2000 visitors during the weekend.
Lucy Soni, a local multi-disciplinary artist created the washing line piece. The work was named “What’s Left Behind and What We Keep”. Lucy was inspired by the things she found in her mother’s cupboards after her death. These inherited white linens were stained with memories of times past of her mother’s life.
This attention-seeking work, visible to everyone who passed by, was a reinforcement of how present-day women artists can work, wherever they wish, in the open, outside - something that was frowned upon, and for some prohibited in the past.
The artwork was also a nod to the Dulwich Picture Gallery's current exhibition, which is showing work by the 18th century artist Berthe Morisot. She was one of the most significant Impressionist painters and the only female founder of the Impressionist movement. Morisot lamented that unlike male artists of her time, she was limited to painting early in the morning - preferring to be home by 9am before the ‘masses were out and about’. And so, many of Morisot’s works, depict views through windows and doors.
One work that really got the visitors talking to each other was Monika Kita’s “Who Is it?” As visitors passed by a cupboard in the Gowan room, they heard a knocking sound. What was it - was someone in trouble - were they trapped - should they open the door and let them out?
And over the first weekend, Laura Moreton-Griffith delivered her performance piece “A Hauntology” around Bell House. Laura played the haunted protagonist wandering, a key in hand, searching for the door it would open.
There were so many wonderful works - paintings, prints, sculptures and installations - sadly too many to mention here. The exhibition works showcased Bell House to perfection - highlighting its history and beauty but also its ambition to be a house which opens its doors and gardens to the local community for all to enjoy.
And in case you're wondering, there were no letters of complaint about the washing line. Kim Thornton, curator-in-charge said: “We wondered if there would be, an artist always wants to disrupt!” There may have been no haranguing this time, but the ‘Windows and Thresholds’ exhibition certainly received a lot of approval from its neighbours!
The Bell at Bell House
Although a grand house, Bell House wasn’t built for a grand family. It was commissioned by Thomas Wright, a warehouse worker who started his own lucrative business publishing almanacs, bibles and prayer books.
From humble beginnings, Wright later became Sheriff of the City of London in 1779 and Lord Mayor of London in 1785. He built Bell House in 1767 as a rural retreat from City life. At the time, the house included several acres of farmland, later forming part of Dulwich Park.
Wright was a charitable man, generous with his time, money and business expertise. He supported many local charities and helped fund a fire engine and a shed near the Burial Ground to store it.
For 100 years, the bell of Bell House was rung when a fire broke out in the Village. According to a local resident Thomas Morris, when a fire broke out at the bakery on Bonfire Night around 1847, the ‘Fire Bell’ at Bell House was rung with all its might.
Nowadays it is rung when a person is visiting the house for the very first time. At our recent Bell House Community Open Day on the 8th May, the bell was rung many times to welcome our new visitors.
Come and visit Bell House soon - if you ask nicely - you may even be able to ring the bell.