We're excited to launch our new quarterly newsletter. It’s a chance to share a few short stories which we hope you both enjoy and find interesting.
Bell House - A Magical Place
Lovers of Bell House say it's magical. Visitors and volunteers describe it as a truly special place where people gather to learn, create friendships and enjoy themselves. There are no rules at Bell House we welcome new ideas, however daft, for events and classes. We are always looking for ways to broaden the appeal.
Sadly not enough people get to experience Bell House. The volunteers who help run the place want to create a more open-door policy to address this, and to make sure that everyone feels welcomed to the house.
The house is part of the infrastructure of Dulwich Village - a beautiful building with very special gardens yet few people really know what goes on inside. There’s a notice board by the gates where walkers will often stop to read the signs but they still don't really understand all that the house has to offer to the community. We want to improve awareness by creating a ‘P4 bus route community’ through which Bell House will reach out and advertise Bell House, a magical place for everyone to share.
Bell House is growing – originally founded as as an educational charity with the aim to help children with dyslexia, it has continually diversified and continues to extend its reach. Over recent years, it has grown its learning from neurodiversity to include health and creativity. The volunteer-led charity is building a new ‘P4 community’ to extend beyond Dulwich to its neighbours in South East London and is looking for new ways to share messages and news.
Bell House wants to share its magic and welcomes ideas for creative learning - however daft.
Dulwich - where town planning was masterminded
Love them or hate them, Southwark Council’s road changes have got us all talking and believing we know the solution to the congestion and air pollution issues.
But what you may not know is that the founder of British town planning was a Dulwich man - Ebenezer Howard (1850-1928) who lived at 4 Ildersley Grove, West Dulwich. Howard wasn’t a professional town planner, but a shorthand writer for the House of Commons.
By listening to all the debates, he understood the problems arising from the Industrial Revolution. People migrated in huge numbers from the countryside to work in urban factories, living in overcrowded slum conditions, breathing polluted air.
Another Dulwich resident, Henry Aldridge (86 Oglander Road, East Dulwich) campaigned for better living conditions for working people. He was the secretary of the National Housing and Reform Council (NHRC), the organisation established ‘to advocate and work on non-party lines for practical housing reform’.
In October 1894, Aldridge gave a talk to the East Dulwich Radical Club on ‘The Town Problem and the Land’. He spoke of ‘the unhappy environment in which the worker existed - his clothing, shelter and food were the meanest…’
If you'd like to learn more about these and other Dulwich Social Reformers, Duncan Bowie, author of 200 Years of Dulwich Radicalism, is giving a Bell House online talk on Tuesday, March 7th, 20.00 which you can book using the link below.
Three ways to plan for the gardening year
The long, hot dry summer followed by the recent deep frosts, have been tough for plants in the garden. Some won’t have survived but in their place we get to try new things.
Here are three ways we are preparing and planning for the year ahead:
Being less tidy. It’s challenging but there’s a happy mix where we can enjoy our gardens and support wildlife and biodiversity. We’ve left long grass, long stems and seed heads over the winter to encourage biodiversity. Dave Goulson’s book, The Garden Jungle, is a great reference.
Considering what we plant. Anything new in the garden should earn its place. We’ll look for open flowers which allow in pollinators, different flowering seasons, plants which will be happy in their spot and won’t need watering once established. Take a look online at the Dixter garden for inspiration. https://www.greatdixter.co.uk
Planning our mowing. We will mow our main lawn soon, varying the cutting heights around paths and edges and then leave through May. If left alone, lawns will be rich in daisies and clover for bees and other pollinators. The key is variety in the cutting heights and no feeding or spraying. Plantlife.org.uk is a great resource.
If you are interested in helping in the garden and learning together, come and speak to us at our Open Gardens on the first Saturday each month from 11.30am to 1.00pm.
Photo: Sara Lloyd
Domino - you're fired!
During the 1957 flu epidemic, the Bell House dormitories were turned into a sick bay as Dulwich school’s sanatorium was full. The doctor would solemnly progress through the dorms, followed by Miss Law the Matron and the House Master’s wife, Patricia Knight.
Following in their wake came Domino, the Knight’s blue-roan spaniel, ‘gathering up as many slippers in his mouth as he could’. Domino was expelled when he tripped up the doctor.
However, Domino was useful in other ways: food for the invalids was brought down from the school but as it consisted of ‘gristly slices of cold meat and even colder potatoes’, it was often surreptitiously slipped to Domino.
Check out Domino’s portrait in the Cabinet of Curiosities next time you’re at Bell House.