Bell House Summer 2026 Newsletter

June 3, 2026 Cher Roque

Welcome! In this Summer newsletter we celebrate 10 years since Bell House opened its doors as a charity. Here’s just a few glimpses of what we have achieved so far.

Bell House Dulwich at 10: Education and Community

by Sharon O’Connor

Since 2016, Bell House has steadily expanded its programme and now offers creative workshops, courses, talks, performances and community events. Visitors might join an art class, attend a concert, learn lifesaving skills, adopt touch-typing or discover the world of honeybees. At times the entire house is transformed into an art gallery. People hone their sewing skills making quilts for premature babies. Filmmaking is both taught and used as a way to get events to a wider audience: 15,000 people have seen the local history talks via YouTube. Health-based projects began with dementia support and now cover anything from social prescribing to women’s health. The breadth of activities reflects a belief that learning should not be confined to any one area or stage of life.

Over time, the site itself has become an integral part of the charity with the rooms and gardens an active, inspiring resource. The cellars now house a letterpress and bookbindery studio offering a wide range of courses, while a purpose-built pottery studio welcomes newcomers and experienced potters alike. Regular open days invite visitors to enjoy the gardens and explore the house’s rich history.

Significant work has also been undertaken to preserve and improve the house. Restoration projects have included renovating 50+ windows and uncovering the historic ha-ha. At the same time, Bell House has invested in sustainability such as installing a ground source heat pump, solar panels and insulation, ensuring the building can serve the community while reducing its environmental impact. Similar skills are passed on to the community through the popular Repair Hub where people can bring objects and learn how to fix them.

As Bell House celebrates its first ten years, it does so with a clear sense that learning should be accessible, enjoyable and lifelong. Its success reflects the same spirit that shaped the house when Thomas Wright built it: a belief in community and shared benefit.

10 Years of Gardening at Bell House

by the Garden Volunteers

Volunteer gardening began in September 2017, a suggestion over coffee, between friends. "How about a gardening group?" There were nine the first Saturday, none of us professional gardeners but everyone keen and willing. We wanted to look after the garden, grow a community. We put up a welcome board and gave the growing group of volunteers coffee and croissants after ninety minutes of gardening.

One year in, we decided to start growing vegetables. A greenhouse followed, roses in the front, clearing of the front lawn and ha-ha, new compost bins. Duke of Edinburgh volunteers came forward with their parents, some of whom we persuaded to stay.

Our aim was gardening for community and wellbeing, but each new volunteer and new skill brought the chance to do more. In 2019, we opened for the Open Garden weekend, sessions became two hours, the grass became longer and we focused increasingly on how to support wildlife.

During COVID the garden became a lifeline. We stayed open, working within and adapting to changing requirements, with a list of suggested jobs on a board. We dug a bog garden in the hollow beneath the bridge and installed the winding dead hedge.

Eventually there were more volunteers, more expertise, more experience. We grew to three sessions a week, added ponds, shared produce, and were introduced to a fruit tree expert who advised on orchard trees to plant. After some consideration we began hosting the monthly Open Garden on the first Saturday of each month.

The year 2023 was when we started to grow organically. With the gift of the Pickwick garden, things really started apace. We opened up the fence line, recycled materials as habitat posts and shelters, built a circular log wall to enclose the bees in their new apiary. The next winter was spent organising and building sheds. Successful grant applications allowed the planting of native hedges and new beds with plants for pollinators. The polytunnel meant growing more from seed and propagation, and gave us somewhere to work on wet days. The Pavilion gave us an HQ to organise, run sessions and a warm space for coffee.

There’s more planned. The dry garden is starting to take shape and new beds, structures and planting schemes will emerge in the future. We’re recording wildlife, planning bio-blitzes, gardening as organically and as thoughtfully as we can.

We garden for wildlife, for visitors and for our volunteers. We’ve made friends, grown in our knowledge and gone on to do bigger things. None of this venture would be possible without the community we have created between us, the many many hours of dedicated volunteering, and the visitors to our open days who through their encouragement and generosity allow us to do more.

The Evolving Arts Events at Bell House - Behind the Exhibitions

an interview with Lucy Macdonald

How did you get involved?
I first started at Bell House as a beekeeper with Annie McGeoch as my mentor. Then, this time last year, having taken early retirement, it allowed me to pitch an idea to the Arts Events volunteers to put on an exhibition focussed on crafts grounded on traditional skills yet are contemporary. The display was entitled Threshold, running over three days in December with six exhibitors: a rug maker, basketmaker, embroiderer, painter and two printmakers.

A quarter of the exhibition sales went towards supporting the Bell House Creative Health project which partners with local health charities to demonstrate how art can enhance wellbeing and bring people together.

Do you plan exhibitions?
Yes, among six of us in the Arts Events group including Rosie Bayliss, artist-in-residence, and Anna-Maria Amato, group co-ordinator, where we rotate on who organises the exhibitions.

We had Saturday Characters in April, a life drawing exhibition co-curated by Rosie and Chris Allen, a member of the group and an apprentice in the Print Room.

I have just curated Viridis, a solo exhibition of Alexandra Oliver's landscape paintings, of which 25% of sales fundraised for the Bell House Adult Literacy group.

Beth Worth has an open call inviting artists to submit works for The Flower Show, taking place on June 12-14th.

We also branch out and invite others to curate. In October, Kirsten Hecktermann is putting on an exhibition of embroidered panels and smaller works by Kenyan artist, Dhahabu Ngambau Dadu, and will feature a stitching/free-hand embroidery workshop.

Collaboration?
All volunteers in the Arts Events group support one another from helping hang displays, to invigilating and running the Private View. The exhibitions wouldn’t be successful without the help of other volunteers, including those who lend their expertise. Sven Arnstein and Liam Sherriff recently recorded footage at the Viridis exhibition to create a short film. The Print Room members Simon, Tania and Chris have all helped with hand printing invitations and promotional materials.

Benefits?
The objectives of the group are to enjoy working with artists to support them on their career journey, foster collaboration, and raise funds to support the Charity's ongoing projects.

If this appeals to you and you’d like to join us, please contact [email protected].

Annie’s Nurture Group: Reflections

by Annie McGeoch

The Nurture Group evolved from the School Enrichment Programme, a single day out for up to sixty children organised in partnership with a local school just before the end of term.

At these meetings I noticed that there were some children who could manage those large groups and hectic days but some seemed at sea. I had a meeting with the headmistress of Crawford Primary school in Camberwell and we discussed what I and Bell House could do to improve the lives of some of the children. She suggested a Nurture Group where we would take a small group of children out for the afternoon. For three years we met on Wednesday afternoons at Bell House for an activity or an outing. It became clear that half a day was not always productive as we were short of time. By the time we had walked from the school to the bus stop, taken the bus to Dulwich Library and walked across the park to Bell House, we only had an hour before we had to travel back, often arriving late.

This year, we start making our way in the morning and return in the afternoon on Tuesdays, allowing an appropriate amount of time for travel and activities. The idea is that it's experiential learning - no aims and objectives, no measured outcomes. Just ten 7 to 10 year olds having a day out outside of school. The school selects the group members, described to me by the headmistress as the children who are perfectly behaved, though not necessarily in a positive way: they are the quiet ones alone in the playground, not engaging with the noise and all the activity around. Most were not born in London but speak adequate English while also speaking another language at home. They are from Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, Kosovo, with parents often working zero-hour contracts where one goes out to work when the other comes in to sleep, not allowing time or resources for outings. What the group is offering is a chance to make friends, to have something to talk about in school, and “stick out” a bit. It turns out they are envied by other children for their outings and the chance to go to Bell House.

The idea is to help them feel like individuals. We use their names a lot, talk about birthdays, family members, siblings, simply showing interest in them like we would with our friends. It’s about establishing relationships so they could support one another in school when surrounded by larger groups.

We have had outings at the Battersea Park Children's Zoo, Jurassic World, Horniman Museum and the Dulwich Picture Gallery. Had hot chocolate at a café, practicing not to make a huge mess. A trip to the Vauxhall City Farm, and one afternoon spent in the park, talking to dogs and their owners. At Bell House we did clay sessions, a drama workshop, printing courses, and heard stories of the history of the house. Before the end of summer, we will head to Westminster Abbey, the House of Parliament, and finally, a picnic in Ruskin Park.

If anyone has ideas for activities or would like to help with the outings, message [email protected]. We will have a new group of children next year so it would be great to have a new team member or two - it's always good for the children to meet new people.

Bell House Pottery is delighted to welcome its second Potter-in-Residence in August

by Birgit Pohl

On 11 September 2023, a modern pottery studio was opened in the grounds of Bell House.

The pottery studio has been a core part of the Bell House mission to provide creative learning to the widest community. Working with clay can be a satisfying creative pursuit with tangible results. In a kind and supportive environment, pottery classes can also support people struggling with mental health.

Burgess Architects, who specialise in sensitive restoration of historic buildings, were commissioned to design the pottery studio with sustainability and energy efficiency in mind. Key features include solar panels, a ground source heat pump, and the use of natural materials such as Douglas fir, with its low carbon footprint. The big picture window at the back of the studio looks out onto the beautiful Bell House garden.

A variety of courses and workshops are being offered to potters of all levels.

This summer, we are pleased to announce our second Potter-in-Residence.

Megan Cox is a potter living and working in Liverpool. Her work is grounded in a philosophy of slow living - valuing thoughtful design, mindful making, and the quiet beauty of everyday life. Megan’s work is inspired by the traditions of British studio pottery and a deep fascination with medieval and Anglo-Saxon pottery. Drawn to the simplicity, raw beauty, and enduring forms found in these historical pieces, as well as the use of local, natural materials. During her residency, she will utilise access to the vast collections of pots found in London museum collections. Through an open, iterative process of making and testing, she is hoping to create a body of work that establishes a visual language connecting the past and present, resulting in a resolved series of functional vessels that integrate form and surface within contemporary use.

Megan is planning on running a workshop centred on stamp-making and surface decoration towards the end of her residency. Keep an eye on the website for updates.

Bell House Spring 2026 Newsletter

March 3, 2026 Cher Roque

The four seasons of 2025 have flashed by! We are excited to bring you the first of this year's quarterly newsletter with four new articles which we really hope you enjoy reading.

Diary Alert: Inaugural “Wayzgoose Celebration” planned for Bell House this year

by Simon Trewin, Print Room & Bindery

Walk down the old steps into the basement of Bell House and you’re met not by silence but by rhythm: the clatter of type, the sticky crackle of ink, the soft thump of paper meeting platen. It’s a sound that once echoed through towns across Britain, when printing presses were as common as corner shops. Today, though, that sound has almost vanished.

That’s why the news that the Bell House Print Room & Bindery, co-founded by Tania Hurt-Newton and I, has received a major grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund feels so significant. The funding will allow us to expand the Bell House Print Room & Bindery and create a new home for endangered crafts such as letterpress, etching and bookbinding, collectively known as the Bell House Heritage Crafts Studio. It will also, crucially, allow us to expand our community reach.

The new funding means we can do far more than keep the lights on. We’ll be able to restore and preserve our presses, train volunteers, create new teaching spaces and host a celebratory Wayzgoose — the traditional printers’ fair. Most importantly, it means we can welcome people who might never otherwise discover this world of type and ink: children, older adults, and anyone facing barriers to creative opportunities.

I’ve seen it time and again. Someone comes in convinced they don’t have a creative bone in their body. Within minutes they’re setting their name in metal type, eyes narrowed in concentration. Then comes that first pull of the press, and suddenly their face lights up - a mixture of disbelief and delight.

'Unlocking creativity' is an overused phrase, but here it’s literal. We’ve seen retired teachers, teenagers and refugees all sitting around the same table, sharing rollers, jokes and cups of tea, producing something together that none of them could have done alone.

That’s what The National Lottery Heritage Fund is really supporting — not just machines and materials, but possibility. Thanks to players everywhere, we can preserve these skills and open them up to anyone who wants to learn.

One of my favourite recent visitors was a man in his seventies who arrived “just to watch.” Half an hour later he was at the press, grinning like a schoolboy. When he pulled his first print he said quietly, “I didn’t know I could still do something new.” That, to me, says everything.

We see this new phase not as preservation but continuation. The presses downstairs aren’t museum pieces; they’re instruments waiting to be played. Thanks to this grant, their song — and the creativity they inspire — will carry on for years to come.

We would love you to come and experience it for yourself when next at Bell House.

Please follow our instagram feed @intheprintroom and message [email protected] if you would like to organise a visit.

Printing & Bookbinding

Did you know? 13 acres of the Bell House Garden were donated to help create Dulwich Park

by Sharon O’Connor, House Historian

Dulwich Park was created in the late 19th century as part of a wider movement to provide green public spaces for London’s rapidly growing population. Sir Francis Peek, a local businessman, philanthropist, and governor of the Dulwich Estate, strongly supported the creation of parks and had been working towards establishing one in Dulwich since 1872.

That year, he offered the Estate a large donation to help create a public park, but his proposal was rejected. Undeterred, Peek continued to negotiate with both the Estate, which owned the land, and the local authority. In 1885 the Estate agreed to sell around 70 acres, taken from local farms and the gardens of large houses along College Road and Dulwich Common, including Bell House.

Thirteen acres were taken from the Bell House garden to help form the park. The garden had been extensive, stretching to where the rivulet and boating lake now lie. However, the Gowan family, who lived at Bell House, still retained three and a half acres for their garden.

Some Dulwich residents opposed the creation of the park, fearing it would 'lessen exclusiveness' and become a 'playground of the poorest classes.' Sir James Douglass, who lived at Stella House, 11 College Road, and was also an Estate Governor, initially supported the scheme but later tried to prevent it from going ahead.

Charles Gowan of Bell House also had concerns. When his lease was amended due to the loss of land to the park, he requested annual contracts in case the park’s presence prompted him to move. The Dulwich Estate was sympathetic and renegotiated his lease on a year-by-year basis for several years.

He must have been reassured however, as the Gowan family remained at Bell House for another decade. Their smaller, though still substantial, garden remained a source of pride. In 1890 and 1891, their gardener, William Farley, won prizes for his begonias, gloxinias, and sweet peas at the Surrey Floricultural Show.

Bell House Garden continues as a source of pride - particularly for the volunteer gardeners who spend time there each week, and for the local residents who can enjoy the Open Garden each month, due to take place on Saturday, 7th March.

We’d like to end with a quote from George, a Bell House garden volunteer:
“We garden because we care about the future - it’s a vote of confidence in the future.”

Gardening

Yasmin “tapping into her cheffing expertise to throw beautiful, bespoke plates”

by Jim Belben, Pottery Planning Group

We are thrilled to welcome a new member to the Bell House Pottery teaching team, Yasmin Hamouda.

Eureka moment

Yasmin has a distinctive story. She started out as a chef in Northern Ireland. She worked in hospitality for many years. She loved her work and was much in demand. She also ran her own supper clubs, offering creative tasting menus.

Then she had what she describes as her Eureka moment. In 2018, she started a pottery evening class and soon realised that

“I loved cooking, but I did not only want to make the food that went on the plate, I wanted to make the plate as well. So food and plate work together to enhance both. A conversation. That started me on the journey I am still travelling.”

Bespoke dinnerware

Yasmin took a pottery diploma in Bangor, NI, then came to London for a full-time ceramics degree at Central St Martins while still working full-time as a chef!

Since graduating she has developed her own unique approach to making. She works with restaurants, learning about their ingredients and their environment and their culture, then designs and makes bespoke dinnerware to enhance their whole restaurant experience.

Calm and peaceful

Yasmin came to Bell House thanks to our contacts at the nearby Kiln Rooms in Peckham – where several of our team have practiced. She teaches at the Kiln Rooms but has also taken on teaching an all-levels Wednesday afternoon throwing course, as well as regular taster sessions for beginners.

“I love the Bell House Pottery. Such a nice area of course, and the studio is so calm and peaceful. Super clean, well managed, it’s easy to teach here. The views into the garden are wonderful, I am so looking forward to the summer when we can enjoy the garden into the late evenings.”

Yasmin finally left cheffing at the end of last year but intends to continue to offer her supper clubs – food and plate in harmony – in the future.

Upcoming courses

You can see more of Yasmin’s work on instagram @yasminhamoudastudio, and you can catch her on her next Throwing on the Wheel taster session on Friday, 6th March 6.30pm or 6-week course from Wednesday, 15th April 3pm.

Pottery Studio

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn.”

Benjamin Franklin

by Madeleine Hay, Dyslexia Committee

Jump. Hop. Punch the air. Lunge. Ballet steps. These probably aren’t the words that first come to mind when you think of dyslexia. Yet, for our Bell House dyslexia specialists, movement and whole-body engagement are central to how we teach. Why? Well, before we even look at the research, we know something simple: people learn best when they are relaxed, engaged and feel a sense of ownership over their learning.

Sitting at a desk using a traditional pen and paper approach may not tick these boxes, particularly in neurodivergent learners. But give the same child a Harry Potter wand to write letters in the sky, invite them to write giant letters on paper and jump on them to spell words, take turns in punching out letters in the air, and you see true learning in action: engagement, an eagerness to participate and, most notably, a child who remembers what they have learnt.

So, what does the research say about why adding movement has such a positive impact on learning? The most common signs of dyslexia include: difficulties with phonological processing (detecting and manipulating sounds in words), working memory, recognising spelling patterns and processing speed. One of the key challenges this creates is linking information — connecting sounds to letters, and letters to the spelling of whole words.

However, when we move the body and engage a range of senses, we simultaneously stimulate several different areas of the brain, encouraging new connections to be made and long-lasting memories to be formed. Consequently, when learning involves seeing, hearing, saying and physically doing, multiple pathways are created to link the same piece of information. The more pathways the brain builds, the easier that learning is to retrieve later. This is neuroplasticity at work — the growth and reorganisation of brain connections that are essential when we learn new skills or absorb new information. Importantly, purposeful movement can also support regulation and attention; a calm, alert brain is far more receptive to new learning than one that feels stressed or fatigued.

If you’re a parent, carer or education professional supporting a learner with reading and spelling, keep an eye on the Bell House updates and social media for the learning through movement sessions we are running in 2026. Every dyslexic individual is exactly that – individual, so there is not a one-size-fits-all solution for how we build movement into learning. The key is to work with a learner to find out how and when they want to move so that they feel in control of their learning. Dopamine, the body’s powerful, ‘feel good’ chemical is then released in the body, meaning we’re setting a child up to succeed in their learning. Get moving with your learner and build a great learning environment!

Join us for our next talk in the Dyslexia Series: Movement Therapy for Retained Primitive Reflexes by Learning DNA.

Dyslexia Support

Bell House Summer 2025 Newsletter

June 5, 2025 Cher Roque

Welcome to our Summer newsletter - it’s time to tell you what’s been going on…

What’s New @ the Bell House Pottery?

by Jim Belben

Raku

Anyone who has watched the Great Pottery Throwdown will have witnessed the excitement of Raku. This ancient Japanese art is famous for its dramatic 'live' outdoor firings with a strong element of surprise.

Well, in July, Raku will come to the Bell House Pottery for the very first time!

We have spaces for 32 students across four courses from beginners to intermediate. The making sessions will be led by Gaby Mlynarczyk who is the latest recruit to our teaching team, then the following weekend the glazing and dramatic outdoor firing will be led by visiting Raku expert Andy Mason. To book your place, please click here.

‘Let’s Clay Together’

From the start, one of the aims of the Pottery was to extend our reach to people who we know would enjoy and benefit from a pottery session but who can’t afford it or don’t yet know the benefits. We feel like we have made significant progress over the past year.

We now offer two half price places for every course which are paid for thanks to the generosity of other students, many of whom give a top-up donation when they place their order.

We are also gradually building links with community organisations who we invite to the pottery for a free ‘Let’s Clay Together’ session. We try to run at least one per term. We have so far hosted two school groups, a Ukrainian youth group, a GP practice, Kingswood Arts, and most recently the Paxton Green Timebank. Next up is to work with Aphasia Reconnect thanks to the introduction made by the Creative Health group.

If you know of a community group whom you think would benefit from ‘Let’s Clay Together’ please email me, [email protected]

Potter-in-residence

Following the success of the artist-in-residence scheme, we are proud to announce our first ever potter-in-residence, Rowena Hamilton from Derbyshire.

Rowena is based in the Peak District in Derbyshire. Since graduating from Clay College in August 2024, she has been making functional and decorative pots on the wheel with some hand-built elements. Her work references archaeology and anthropology.

During her residency she’ll research and develop new shapes, combining forms and textures from basketry and other found materials.

This is particularly exciting because normally our studio would close during August to give the teachers and technicians a break. To see it well used over the summer will be so exciting.

Thanks to everyone in the Bell House community for their incredible support of the Pottery over the past two years. It has been an amazing and rewarding journey to everyone involved and we are very excited about the future.

“Doing our best” in the Bell House Garden “thanks to our volunteers”

by Martin Cook

It's been another successful, fulfilling and encouraging year in the garden at Bell House.

Re-shaping

The pollinator bed planted late last spring is maturing really well. This was funded by a grant from the London Bee Keepers Association (LBKA). We have added plants and developed the new 'Pebble' bed, so the borders along the South wall are shaping up really well. We have planted new climbing roses around the roped terrace, an area which gets lovely late afternoon sun and have been gradually moving existing turf about to reshape the house lawn. The walled garden goes from strength to strength. Herbs particularly seem to thrive in our raised beds.

Native species

We have seen far more butterflies this year, hopefully because of our planting efforts, but definitely helped by the dry, warm early spring. Toads are in the compost again, plenty of newts in the wildlife pond and some plump tadpoles have survived our introduction into the dipping pond. We watched a Sparrowhawk nest and raise a fledgling in one of our oaks last summer. We are gradually seeing a wider range of native species in the meadow beds and the snakes head fritillaries were magnificent. In the Pickwick grassland we have lady's smock appearing.

Garden HQ and Tool Shed

The tool shed is now well stocked and in full use and we are meeting in the beautifully refurbished building, the garden pavilion (which we like to call our HQ! ) but will be used by all projects at Bell House. It’s situated next to the bees.

The polytunnel success

The polytunnel is being well used and we’ve had good early food crops. Bought in plug plants have been successfully grown on and mostly planted out in the garden. On our regular open days, visitor numbers have increased. It's lovely to see people relaxing, sipping coffee and enjoying the garden. Our plant sale offering is gradually improving and brings in welcome income to help with funding and increase the range we can stock.

Volunteers - our not so secret army

We have roughly 60 active volunteers, whose skill set has improved enormously. The social atmosphere is delightful and we can see there is a strong feeling of ownership developing. However, we have realised that as areas are improved, the maintenance effort has to go up enormously! So we would welcome more volunteers please. Landscaping the pottery entrance is the next big project. As well as improving the entrance, it will provide new, dry garden conditions, to broaden our range and habitats.

Our ethos remains the same. To do our best for wildlife, in terms of the variety and quality of habitat and food source we supply. We have added new habitat towers using the old pickwick fence posts and in many other areas. It's been a challenging dry spring and we could really do with some decent rain, but we do our best to give things the conditions they need to thrive, watering deeply when needed and mulching heavily.

Happy gardening all.

The Incidentals - an in-depth look at the exhibition

by Kim Thornton

Each year Bell House opens its doors for the Dulwich Festival Artists’ Open House and invites a team of curators to create a thought-provoking exhibition. The show is a survey of contemporary artists practising and exhibiting in London.

This year’s theme was The Incidentals. The curators, Kim Thornton, Lucy Soni, Min Angel, Sarah Sparkes, Jane Millar, Léonie Cronin, Monika Kita and Lucy Bainbridge approached this in a variety of conceptual ways such as whether any painting brush mark could ever be considered incidental or unimportant, through contemplating the incidental nature of materials or by searching for incidental every day subject matter. In total they invited over 70 artists whose works would contribute to the story each curator wanted to tell.

Bell House welcomed in the region of 2,000 visitors during the two May weekends of the exhibition, some local and some who had travelled to see the work of artists they knew or had discovered on social media. The exhibition was overall very well received.

But of course, everyone evaluates and perceives art differently depending on their own experiences, beliefs, feelings and views. As Whoopi Goldberg said, “Art and life are subjective”. However, it can be interesting to learn more about the thinking behind an artwork as a doorway to a different kind of viewing experience.

In the Wissman Room you may have come across a small, framed photograph of a woman wearing a stole with some kind of fascinator in her hair. On closer inspection the material that these objects are made of becomes apparent. They have been carefully fashioned from tampons, an everyday item used at some point by almost all women around the world, yet something discrete that is not usually made visible.

The work was born from a parliamentary debate in 2015 where the notion of female sanitary products falling within the government’s list of luxury items for tax purposes was discussed. The idea was to impose an additional 5% tax on these “non-essential, luxury” items.

The artist Kim Thornton, who uses humour and rebellion to explore contemporary issues and the politics of being female, decided to make a ‘luxury’ tampon stole and fascinator to comment on this ridiculous idea. The tampons are carefully stitched together with their blue strings pulled from them and knitted into the hairnet or used as tassels for the stole. The staging of the photograph was inspired by an image of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and the framing references postage stamps where royal profiles are commonly placed.

Bringing Poetry to Bell House

by our featured Volunteer: Matthew Otor

A Little Background - Why Poetry?

I grew up always feeling like I had something to say. From as early as I can remember, I'd gather kids in my compound and just talk to them - there was this sense that something inside me was waiting for an outlet. I felt like I had a different opinion or perspective that needed to be shared.

Initially, I thought politics might be my path. I was drawn to how members of parliament could make their words carry such weight and meaning. However, when I stumbled upon spoken word poetry on YouTube, I just knew this was what I'd been searching for. It's been a life-altering journey ever since.

Discovering Bell House

I was new in town and actively looking for poetry communities when I found Wendy and Robert's Fringe event on Eventbrite. I thought it would be perfect for me, though I didn't realize the audience for that event was quite mature - everyone was surprised to see me there!

Despite the initial surprise, I had such an amazing time. Right after the event, I had a chat with Angus where I mentioned that I used to host poetry events back in Lagos. He immediately asked me to explore the idea of hosting one at Bell House. And that's how "Poets at Bell House" was born.

The Vision Behind Poets at Bell House

When we started planning, the thinking was simple but ambitious: create a space where poetry could flourish authentically. We wanted to build something that honored both the art form and the community that surrounds it.

Ambitions

We're hoping Poets at Bell House becomes a household poetry event in London - a place where experienced and emerging poets alike can share the same stage and tell their stories unapologetically. Our vision is to create a safe space where poets can express themselves with complete freedom.

We're also focused on increasing our production value and creating much better content that truly befits the amazing poets we host. The dream is to grow into more frequent editions, building a stronger, more vibrant poetry community.

A Personal Favourite

One of my favourite poems I've written is titled "SCUM" - Society Cannot Understand Me. In it, I tell two vivid stories of people in society we would typically consider as lowlife and useless, but I reveal their backstories - showing how they became the "monsters" we all see today.

Poetry allows us to look beyond the surface and find the humanity in everyone's story. That's what we're building at Bell House: a space where every story matters, every voice is heard, and every poem has the power to change someone's day.

Poets at Bell House continues to grow as a vital part of London's creative community, offering a platform for authentic expression and meaningful connection through the power of spoken word.

Bell House Spring 2024 Newsletter

March 2, 2024 Cher Roque

The four seasons of 2023 have flashed by! We are so excited to bring you our second Spring quarterly newsletter with four new Bell House articles which we really hope you enjoy reading.

Magic can happen in a Shared Reading Group

During lockdown in 2020, Bell House hosted an ‘Elevenses’ coffee morning on Zoom for volunteers to chat and support each other. At one of these meetings, they were introduced to Ben Abel and the concept of “Shared Reading”. And so the Bell House “Shared Reading Group” was born. As a long term member says: “It saved my sanity during lockdown and was great fun.”

The reading group is now run by Guilia Cellerini who joined Ben in the early days, then subsequently took on the role of host. Giulia is a recently-qualified Primary teacher working in Kennington. But what is really fascinating is how she became involved in Shared Reading.

After reading English at London University, Giulia was applying for a PGCE teaching qualification and wanted to strengthen her personal statement. Her professor recommended that she look into the charity 'The Reader'.

The Reader is a national charity, originating in Liverpool, that wants to bring about a Reading Revolution “so that everyone can experience and enjoy great literature”, which the charity believes is “a tool for helping humans survive and live well".

It is free to all and available to everyone. The charity reads with schools, families and looked-after-children, adults in community spaces, people in care homes, people with physical and mental health conditions, those coping with or recovering from addiction, and people in the criminal justice system - globally.

The Reader has extensive reading resources but groups can also choose their own pieces. The meetings happen in all kinds of places - libraries, community centres, shops and high-street cafes and in the case of Bell House, on-line.

Research shows Shared Reading improves wellbeing, reduces isolation and helps us find new meaning in our lives.

“Hearing others read aloud and taking time to pause and reflect, is a therapeutic experience.”

”Shared reading supports me through difficult times.”

“Reading together, you can end up sharing things that you may not share with others - you’re not hiding these things - they just haven’t come up before.”

Giulia successfully applied to The Reader, was trained and then was recommended to Bell House in 2020.

Her groups are small; she has some regulars, others drop in. One regular lives alone and values the company; another is unable to leave her home; and further afield there’s a regular attendee from Canada, who joins the session at 5am in the morning. This lady is always very relaxed, she may be looking out of her window sipping a coffee and may or may not participate vocally - but she tells Giulia she very much values the group. There are even drop-ins from North America, India, Sri Lanka and Eastern Europe to name but a few!

Giulia says that the most popular reading subjects are about Nature, Familial Relationships and the Emotions of Love - so very much reflecting lived experiences. As one of her regulars says: “I love the varied programme with lots of literature I would not have known about.”

When asked about her feelings on her Shared Reading group, Giulia says: “I surprised myself. I have found that I get from these sessions exactly what the groups are set up for - a feeling of community and a coming together for the pure joy of reading. Sharing a poem or a short story creates precious moments of connection and intimacy - the impact of shared reading is profound.”

Bell House Shared Reading sessions are run on a Wednesday at 6.30pm - March sessions 13th, & 27th. Why not drop in? You just need to register and the sessions are free.

As Giulia says: “Something magical happens in a shared reading group.”

Click here if you’d like to learn more about The Reader charity and maybe get involved.

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

Plans for the Bell House garden are mind-blowing - in fact we think they’re the bee’s knees! Just read on to learn more.

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 specially chosen to provide pollen, nectar and year-round interest.

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 whilst lavender will surround the terrace to bring colour and scent to attract pollinators.

A new native hedge will be planted in the Pickwick garden, with willows and dogwood 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 summer. 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 - see photo above. All fallen branches and cuttings are kept on site and added to log piles and the stumpery.

The stumpery, built by three keen volunteers, is made of logs half-buried in the soil to provide 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. And if you have been amazed by what you’ve just read and would like to get involved, do check out our volunteer programme using the links below or email direct to: [email protected]

Photo: Sara Lloyd

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?

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.

Exiled for a coat!

In 1769 James Simpson was accused of stealing a livery coat, valued at £1 (about £140 today), belonging to Thomas Wright’s coachman and left in the coach outside the Bell House stables, which are shown in the photo above.

Simpson was foolish enough to offer the coat to a clothes dealer in Paternoster Row. At that time, old clothes were sold there as it was the centre for the paper trade, in times when paper was made from rags.

Unfortunately for Simpson, Paternoster Row was the very place where paper merchant Thomas Wright worked. So Simpson had taken the coat to the one place in London (apart from Dulwich) where Thomas Wright’s livery would be recognised. Added to that bad luck, he offered it to someone who was an off-duty City of London policeman.

Simpson was duly arrested and sentenced to transportation to the American colonies - all for stealing a coat!

Bell House Winter 2023 Newsletter

November 30, 2023 Cher Roque

Welcome to the fourth of our seasonal newsletters. In this Winter edition, you’ll find a selection of recent news and updates from Bell House, which we hope you will enjoy!

The Illusioneer at Bell House

12 years ago Barrie Westwall was tempted by a local businessman to take over a small shop, tucked away at the bottom of Half Moon Lane in Herne Hill. It became ‘The Illusioneer Little Theatre and Studio’ - you may have visited it - but sadly it’s now closed. Nowadays Barrie hosts a wealth of events both private and public. He’ll be performing at Bell House this Christmas - Barrie is The Illusioneer!

Barrie’s speciality is getting the audience participating, inviting them into the illusion and leaving them pondering: “how did he do that?”

Barrie has a career in media and his particular expertise is helping organisations communicate better - both with clients and with their own people. But how is this pertinent to Puzzles, Illusions, Minds and Magic?

“Well magic goes back to ancient Egypt, if not further, when priests and shamans used illusions to establish their power behind the throne." he says.

He uses his skills as an illusioneer to illustrate how to stop people in their tracks, encourage them to question their views and as a result help them see another way forward.

Barrie says: “Magic has always been used as a source of influence, but also at another level, in street markets to gather crowds and sell stuff. That’s a big intellectual range.”

As a dyslexic he was labeled lazy, even slow at school. Thankfully attitudes have improved in recent years but there is still a lot of work before the true value of dyslexics is understood. As Barrie knows, dyslexics think about things differently and this has helped his life as an illusioneer.

He has a long association with Bell House, in fact when it was a private residence, he performed at a Victorian Evening with a cellist, an opera singer and his wife, Annie, the Bell House beekeeper.

You might be wondering who was the businessman that tempted him 12 years ago? Angus Hanton and as many know Angus and Fabienne are behind the magic of Bell House and all that goes on within.

So what about this year’s Bell House The Illusioneer Family Christmas show?

Well it’s just that! It aims to entertain adults and children alike with puzzlements and conundrums and inject a healthy dose of Christmas Magic to set us up for this festive season.

Come along and be confounded!

A first for Bell House - an Artist in Residence

Bell House is excited to announce painter and sculptor Atalanta Xanthe as their very first Artist in Residence.

Atalanta’s role at Bell House will be twofold: as a teacher, running fortnightly art classes, and as a studio artist, producing a series of paintings at Bell House, inspired by the Bell House garden and the nearby Dulwich Picture Gallery - these works will be exhibited at the end of her residency.

She will help to promote Bell House as a place to come, learn and experiment, encouraging independent production of individual art.

Having taught a range of people, from Masters Art students, to children aged 5, to adults who haven’t picked up a pencil since they were 5, Atalanta is excited to bring her experience to the Bell House community. She’s particularly excited to run classes targeted at young people: “Having access to inexpensive life drawing classes as a teenager was a game-changer for me. Not only was it the first environment where I felt taken seriously as an artist, but seeing so many body types in a non-judgemental context gave me a healthy relationship with my own body-image”. As a dyslexic, she didn’t learn to read until she was 7 and so she understands the power of creativity to help express yourself when struggling with the 3R’s.

Xanthe is an internationally exhibited painter, whose most recent show comprised layered, fantastical paintings which she makes based on large cardboard theatre sets she builds in her studio. Her background in painting at Oxford, Sculpture at the New York Academy of Art, and a decade of life-drawing practice have given her a wide-ranging technical skill-set she’s excited to share with the Bell House community.

She’ll be opening her studio, in the Barclay’s room, every Thursday, so stop by if you’d like to get a glimpse of her process.

All in all, Atalanta is the perfect ‘afflatus’ for Bell House - the perfect creative inspiration.

Follow the links below to learn about Atalanta and view more of her work:

Her gallery website: Alice Black Gallery
Her instagram: @atalantaxanthe
Galerie Magazine Feature: Next Big Things
The Wick: Spotlight Interview

“It was the woodlouse that started it.”

Annie McGeoch, better known as the bee lady here at Bell house, tells us about a school enrichment day last September.

“It all started when a little boy wanted to hold a woodlouse. I was walking around Bell House woodland garden with a group of 18 children. We found a woodlouse instead of a hedgehog on our nature walk and picked it up to have a look. There were several children who had grandparents with gardens and were clearly articulate and knowledgeable about insects. The children were excited but in the large group of 18, not everyone could get close.

For example there was one boy at the back of the group who was desperate to look. He wanted to hold the woodlouse and had never seen one before. I explained that they were alive in the dinosaurs’ era and he was amazed to be able to hold this tiny insect.”

That’s when Annie decided to commit to holding sessions for the non-assertive children. She is having meetings with the head of school and several teachers and they are busy identifying children who they say need nurturing .

Annie learnt another valuable lesson when she was working with the School Food Matters charity at the apiary at Battersea Park Zoo. She takes small groups of five children, suitably dressed in bee suits to see honey bees in their hive. She tells us: “We take a frame from the hive and the children get to hold the comb of honey and look at the bees close up. I talk about how the life-cycle goes in the colony and the children ask lots of very good questions. They leave buzzing with knowledge and a small jar of honey.”

In one of these sessions, a teacher came to her and said she had been surprised by one of her pupils. The teacher knew the child spoke to her parents at home but hadn’t spoken in school since lock-down - and yet this pupil had asked a question. Annie says: “I can only assume my more relaxed approach and everything being so different from a usual classroom lesson, the child felt brave enough to speak.”

The Bell House School Enrichment Programme plans to work more with children who deserve to come to a safe place where they can be brave and ask questions and find things out they didn’t know before. A centre for wider learning. The team want these sessions to steer right away from school subjects and activities and be about finding out and looking and talking. Bell House is not school and is not home - it is a safe place - especially for children who are struggling.

As Annie say: “If you live on the 20th floor behind Kings College Hospital there are no woodlice or snails and certainly no hedgehogs!”

And what sort of fun info do the children learn on one of our days? Well a woodlouse has some cute nicknames - Bible bugs, Cheesy bugs, Coffin-cutters and Tiggyhogs to name just a few.

Grow a Pair ….. of Ears!

The following article was written by Russ Kane OA - Dulwich College 1962 -1971.

In 1962, a time so far back now that it might as well be 1932, I was packed off to boarding school. This was particularly galling as my parents only lived in North London! The boarding house was, unsurprisingly, Bell House.

It has now been restored to its rightful former glory and my visit in January 2023 was a revelation. It also laid to rest some ghastly ghosts and that day I felt an extraordinary seismic shift in my mental well-being. Now there were just beautiful rooms. The atmosphere was one of charm, elegance and care. Which leads me neatly to my point – the dire state of Men’s Mental Health in the UK.

In 2019 I was reviewing the day’s newspapers for BBC Radio. The main stories could have been anything, but they happened to be a report on the suicide statistics of men in the UK. I was astounded. 80% of suicides were men. The main cause, as stated in every paper, was that ‘men don’t talk’. Within 48 hours I met up with my two business partners, and we formed Men’s Radio Station, a year after the formation of the sister station, Women’s Radio Station.

Our goal was to create a non-judgemental space for men to discuss matters that affected them deeply, Fascinatingly, 50% of our global audience are women – a wonderful bonus. We are on-air globally 24/7 and are now the recipient of dozens of awards, attracting some of the greatest minds of the day to come on-air.

Positive Mental Health is a passion of mine. There is much to say and even more to achieve. Waiting lists to seek professional help are unacceptable and too many people are falling through the cracks. When I was invited to give a talk on the subject at Bell House I jumped at the opportunity. It’s planned for Spring 2024. In it, I’ll explore what has led to this crisis, how we can help on a practical level and how reaching out can be life changing. The message is ‘You Are Not Alone’.

The world of 2023/4 is unrecognisable to 1962 - and it’s accelerating. One thing that has remained unchanged, however, are the challenges that poor mental health and negative well-being can bring to absolutely anyone.

© 2023 Russ Kane

This comes with a Bell House health warning!

Anthony Harding, who lived at Bell House in the first half of the 19th century, opened the world’s first department store but during his lifetime his main claim to fame was as a ‘six bottle man’.

It was normal for rich men to drink two bottles of alcohol a night; three bottle men like Harding’s son-in-law were common and Pitt the Younger was known as a five bottle man. Six bottle men however were something else.

Not surprisingly Harding lost the use of his legs after drinking that much and had a special dining chair made so his footmen could carry him safely up to bed. One of our volunteers has made a model of the chair – look out for it in our Cabinet of Curiosities next time you are at Bell House.

Alcohol didn’t shorten Harding’s life though; he was 90 when he died in 1851. His coffin was ready and waiting: it had been made years before and kept propped against the wall behind his chair in the dining room.

And what of his son-in-law and Pitt? Alcohol certainly didn’t treat them so kindly - they both died aged 47.

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