Southwark

| Map | |
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| Location | Southwark, London |
| Coordinates | 51° 30' 14.13" N, 0° 6' 17.88" W |
The aim of this page is to recognise, celebrate and encourage the self-empowerment of community agency networks (CANs) and community groups' activism for climate, environment and many other sustainability topics across Southwark.
News
‘Hopeful and imaginative’: introducing the UK’s ‘best’ new building, positive.news (Oct 17, 2025) — London care home built to tackle social isolation wins major architecture award
Coin Street: How co-op ownership can keep the bulldozer at bay, thenews.coop (Apr 07, 2025)
London’s low-traffic zones ‘cut deaths and injuries by more than a third’, theguardian.com (Jul 07, 2025) — “LTNs have led to considerable reductions in road traffic injuries inside their boundaries for all road users – from pedestrians and cyclists to drivers. At the same time, concerns about nearby main roads becoming more dangerous aren’t supported by the evidence.” Dr Jamie Furlong
Stampede in Soho: puppet animals on an epic trek bring wonder and warning to London streets, theguardian.com (Jun 28, 2025)
How a community-focused vision for net zero can revive local economies, theconversation.com (May 06, 2025)
‘It fully changed my life!’ How young rewilders transformed a farm – and began a movement, theguardian.com (Nov 25, 2025)
‘Robot’ buses could bring more environmental benefits than public transport with drivers, theconversation.com (Nov 20, 2025)
How heat from old coal mines became a source of local pride in this northern English town – new study, theconversation.com (Nov 20, 2025)
Sharing soil, sweat and tears, ffcc.co.uk (Oct 30, 2025) — Are farm partnerships the future? We talk to the team behind Abunda to find out
Renewable energy investment should come from defence budgets, say retired military leaders, theguardian.com (Oct 23, 2025) — Former European officers say spending on low-carbon power would make nations more resilient to threats from potential aggressors
Green to Grey, How Europe is squandering the little nature it has left, greentogrey.eu (Oct 01, 2025)
The Cambodian women rising up to protect their communal land, positive.news (Nov 20, 2025)
Bees, Community, and Shared Futures, grassecon.substack.com (Nov 20, 2025)
‘Robot’ buses could bring more environmental benefits than public transport with drivers, theconversation.com (Nov 20, 2025)
Networks and sustainability initiatives
- Southwark Circle, membership organization
UK and international events
UK events
Nov 10 - 16, 2025 (Mon - Sun) — Living Wage Week, livingwage.org.uk
Nov 13, 2025 (Thu) — Kindness Day UK, Nov 13 annually, aiming to increase the value of kindness in society as well as increase the amount of kind acts that take place, making kindness a greater part in our daily life, kindnessuk.com
Nov 16 - 22, 2025 (Sun - Sat) — Road Safety Week, brake.org.uk
Nov 22 - 30, 2025 (Sat - Sun) — National Tree Week, The Tree Council's annual tree celebration. People across the country planting thousands of trees to mark the start of the winter tree planting season. "Trees and hedgerows are some of the most powerful tools we have in the fight against climate change.", treecouncil.org.uk
Global or international events
Nov 05, 2025 (Wed) — Media Liberation Day, Change the Media, Change the Future, mediarevolution.org
Nov 06, 2025 (Thu) — Outdoor Classroom Day, celebrating and inspiring outdoor learning and play, outdoorclassroomday.com
Nov 13, 2025 (Thu) — World Kindness Day, Nov 13, annually, highlighting good deeds in the community focusing on the positive power and the common thread of kindness for good which binds us, randomactsofkindness.org
Nov 16, 2025 (Sun) — International Day for Tolerance, Nov 16 each year, fostering respect, acceptance and appreciation of the rich diversity of our world's cultures, our forms of expression and ways of being human, unesco.org
Nov 19, 2025 (Wed) — International Men's Day, Nov 19, annually
Nov 28 & 29, 2025 — Buy Nothing Day, en.wikipedia.org
2021-2030, UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, International community action events
Each week 3 different short videos from across the UK or world.
Northern Ireland community action, Haringey community action, West Midlands community action / ...This week's featured Global videos / ... read more about Cosmolocalism
Southwark video
Community involvement
Commonplace Peckham Rye - Peckham Rye CoDesign - People's Republic of Southwark - Pocket Places Peckham
Communities online
Bellenden Residents' Group - Peckham Residents' Network
Community and voluntary action
Community Action Southwark, umbrella organisation (or Council for Voluntary Service) for the voluntary and community sector in Southwark - Peckham Voluntary Sector Forum
Food activism
Glengall Wharf Garden - Surrey Docks Farm - Walworth Garden Farm
Community resources
Coin Street Community Builders (CSCB) is a development trust and social enterprise which seeks to make London's South Bank a better place in which to live, to work, to visit and to study. Since 1984 CSCB has transformed a largely derelict 13-acre site into a thriving mixed-use neighbourhood.
Maps
Heart of the Elephant and Castle Urban Forest Map, Maps, open data and activism on the Heygate estate, Tom Chance's blog, April 19, 2011
Visions
Climate action
- Climate Change Citizens’ Jury, Nov 2021 to Feb 2022, southwark.gov.uk, added 10:03, 5 January 2022 (UTC)
Sustainable transport activism
Thames Path
Cycling activism
Community Cycleworks, not for profit organisation that runs build-a-bike courses, bikefix, and road and mountain biking rideouts, for young people in the London Borough of Southwark and beyond - Southwark Cyclists
Open spaces
The London Borough of Southwark, occupying a roughly triangular area south of Tower Bridge over the River Thames, considers itself to be one of the greenest boroughs in London, with its 245 hectares (610 acres) of public parkland. There are more than 130 such green areas, ranging from the large areas around Dulwich and Southwark Park in Rotherhithe to the many sports grounds and squares.
Bankside Open Spaces Trust (BOST) is a horticulture, gardening and management of urban open space charity, based in Bankside, the southern bank by the River Thames, Southwark, Central London, England. BOST works local communities and organisations in London, such as Tate Modern community garden, to improve, create and enjoy the parks, gardens, green spaces, and, passive and active recreation areas.
The charity supports a network of parks, community managed green spaces and open spaces groups to carry out consultation, fundraise and oversee improvements. This includes help with choosing new play equipment, bespoke garden design and developing new areas, making accessible improvements and re-landscaping.
BOST initiates and runs community gardening clubs, award small grants for local horticulture projects and organises hiring out parks and open spaces for celebratory public and private events. BOST has set up a community garden resource centre with a pond and encourages people to grow their own food - vegetables, herbs, fruit trees and bushes - through 'edible projects', utilising raised-bed gardening and planting. They also provide informal horticultural training, landscape maintenance, garden maintenance, grounds maintenance and gardening work experience in the local parks, gardens and open spaces.
- Friends of Peckham Rye Park
- Peckham Coal Line (secure link not found 11:25, 18 February 2021 (UTC)), Grass roots initiative to create an urban park using disused space between Queens Road Peckham and Rye Lane.
- Friends of Goose Green
- Parks and open spaces on southwark.gov.uk
Trees, woodland and forest
Elephant and Castle Urban Forest - Video: Elephant and Castle Urban Forest, September 2011
News archive
2009-2020
- London hospital trust to pay £250k to install LTN for public health benefits, Nov 17, 2020...The Guardian
- Borough Market to phase out plastic bottle sales with free fountains, Aug 23, 2017...The Guardian
- Fossil Free Southwark: Our Story, Dec 14, 2016...gofossilfree.org
- Southwark pension fund to shed fossil fuel investments, Dec 14, 2016...IPE
- Why comparisons with the Highline are a double-edged sword... September 12, 2015...(secure link not found 11:25, 18 February 2021 (UTC))
- The planning points 4, February 1, 2014...peoplesrepublicofsouthwark.co.uk
- London Development Agency to provide £4 million to the Bankside Urban Forest - a programme of works to improve public space in the Bankside area from the riverside to the Elephant & Castle, london-se1, March 10, 2010.
- Clinton praise for London project, BBC news, May 19, 2009.
About Southwark
Campaigns
The London Borough of Southwark ( SUDH-ərk) in South London forms part of Inner London and is connected by bridges across the River Thames to the City of London and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council areas were amalgamated under the London Government Act 1963. All districts of the area are within the London postal district. It is governed by Southwark London Borough Council.
The part of the South Bank within the borough is home to London Bridge terminus station and the attractions of The Shard, Tate Modern, Shakespeare's Globe and Borough Market that are the largest of the venues in Southwark to draw domestic and international tourism. Dulwich is home to the Dulwich Picture Gallery and the Imperial War Museum is in Elephant and Castle. Major districts include Bermondsey, Rotherhithe, Peckham, Camberwell, and Dulwich.
External links
- Wikipedia: Spike Surplus Scheme
- Peckham Society, amenity society
- Peckham and Nunhead area action plan on southwark.gov.uk
- Regeneration on southwark.gov.uk
| Authors | Phil Green |
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| License | CC-BY-SA-3.0 |
| Cite as | Phil Green (2014–2025). "Community action/Southwark". Appropedia. Retrieved November 28, 2025. |