Bell House Spring 2023 Newsletter

 

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.

 

ALEX - AN ATTENDEE OF THE AFTER SCHOOL CLUB IS AN ENTREPRENEURIAL SUCCESS

Alex was one of the children attending the After School Club last year. The club is held at Bell House and is run by Suzanne Jessel and other volunteers on every Thursday to support dyslexic children.

Alex’s mum wrote to tell Suzanne about what Alex who is 10 years old and his brother Prince, who is 12, have been up to since early December last year.

They have started their own business - the “Juicing Bros’ - after their mum bought their dad a slow juicer for his birthday.

The boys had a major feature written about them on ‘londonnewsonline’ on January 24th which you can read here.

“Once the brothers got hold of the juicer it was clear to see they were naturals, and the boys were encouraged to sell juices to their neighbours in Ulverscroft Road.

Alex, 10, said: “Our mum bought our dad a juicer for his birthday. We started making juices for the family for fun and realised we were pretty good at it.

“We started with our mum asking on our street’s WhatsApp group whether people would buy our juice, and we had a great response.”

In just six weeks the boys have had 78 orders, amounting to more than £600 in sales. They also have 28 five-star reviews on Google.

Prince, 12, added: “We have advertised on the East Dulwich forum and generated more business. A whopping 77 orders in just six weeks.

“We can definitely see this being a future career for us as we have many ideas which will help develop and expand the business.”

Alex said the orange, carrot and ginger juice, known as the ‘Phoenix,’ is his favourite flavour as it “has a real kick to it”.

Prince said: “Beetroot, orange and carrot AKA ‘Bee Reddy’ is my personal favourite as it has a perfect mix of sweet and veggie flavour.”

The boys’ mum, Simone Harvey, said: “I am so proud of my young entrepreneurs, they started out reading books like Be a Young Entrepreneur and Think Like a Boss: Kids Edition so they were in a really good mindset.

“Starting this business has not only taught them a great work ethic, but also helped build their confidence.

“Alex has dyslexia, and I’ve always told him it’s his super power and it can help him achieve anything he wants in this world.”

You can follow Prince and Alex on Instagram @juicing_bros

Pictured above Alex Cook left, a satisfied customer and Prince Cook (Picture: Juicing Bros)

Pottery at Bell House

This Autumn saw Bell House running for the first time weekly Pottery classes guided by expert potters Ekta Chakraborty and Annie Antoine.

The classes have been buzzing - a hive of activity - friends made, conversations flowing, skills learnt and importantly work to show for their time spent. Everyone enjoyed getting their hands dirty working the clay and revelled in decorating their pieces.

All work has now been fired and the results really do speak for themselves.

Big plans are afoot.

These classes were the first toe in the water for pottery at Bell House. 

We are currently building a Community Pottery Studio in the garden which is scheduled to be completed in July 2023. There will be a new and larger kiln, half a dozen wheels as well as every other piece of equipment needed to run a thriving and dynamic pottery space. Our tutors Ekta and Annie have been supporting and advising with the build  as well as several local professional potters including Julian Stair and Birgit Pohl

There are no community pottery studios nearby. Bell House wants their studio to be not only for building pottery but also for building friendships.

The studio will be used in the daytime, evenings and weekends so that all our local community can enjoy potting!

In the meantime, Ekta and Annie say: “We want to be able to grow our workshops over the next year to a number of days during the week and turn the pottery into a friendly, creative hub with regular, repeat, diverse participants.”

The new classes for 2023 are now available to book - go to our events page to learn more.

We also look forward to interviewing Ekta and Annie in the new year to find our more about their love of pottery and to hear about the building progress of Pottery studio.

But in case you need some more persuading to sign up for a pottery class - this is what Annie and Ekta say about working with clay.

“Clay is a great medium as it’s so tactile and very forgiving with mistakes. Nothing ever goes to waste, everything is recycled. It’s grounding and a mindful practice and also known to be beneficial for people on the spectrum or with ADHD.

Not only do you gain a new skill and hopefully learn something about the science of clay but you also devote time to yourself and your friends. It’s a slow process to be able to create an object with clay and results are generally never exactly the same and so this encourages the potter to enjoy the process, slow themselves down and focus!”

Bell House - All dressed up for Christmas

This year the decorations are bigger and better than previous years in readiness for the the Christmas play.

Four Magical Scenes from the Bell House’s long and fascinating history will be told in promenade throughout the house and is being performed Friday 2nd, Saturday 3rd (Gala evening) and two performances on Sunday 4th December.

Our wonderful volunteer florists, Dawn and Janie have created stunning displays to reflect the character of the rooms and the period of the scenes being performed. Apart from the twinkly lights and a few baubles on the tree, they’ve only used sustainable and natural materials.

Bell House is grateful again to Dulwich Park and their head gardener Michael, who supplied a bountiful quantity of seasonal foliage, without which all this would not be possible. And as always, the Bell House garden was scavenged and there was an early morning visit to Covent Garden market for the final touches.