Category Archives: Environment

Brighton Life, Environment

Jim Gowans’ West Hill Watch

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ALTHOUGH DELAYED BY the Covid crisis, Brighton and Hove City Council are planning to conduct a review of the Local List of Heritage Assets – a list of local buildings, monuments, and other sites such as parks which may not be of sufficient national importance to warrant their inclusion in the Statutory List which is maintained by Historic England (formerly English Heritage), but may nevertheless be valued for their contribution to the character of the local area or for their local historical associations. 

The last review in 2015 resulted in five buildings or structures within the West Hill Conservation Area being included in this Local List. The five comprise (rather remarkably) three pubs, one chapel and one set of petrol pumps! The pubs are the Royal Standard, the Queen’s Head and the Grand Central (more of which in a later article) and the chapel is the Providence chapel in West Hill Road (pictured below). The petrol pumps are outside 19A Bath Street and date from the early 1950s. These pumps, which are unfortunately lacking their original advertising “Shellmex” globes, are of historic interest as part of one of the first (if not the first) petrol stations in Brighton. 

The host building is a 19th century residential property which was greatly altered in the 20th century to allow the ground floor to be used as a petrol station and garage. The chapel in West Hill road was built in 1894-6 by architect Charles Hewitt as the Nathaniel Episcopal Reformed Church. Acquired by a Strict Baptist congregation in 1965, it was renamed Providence Chapel before being re-opened in 2013 as the West Hill Baptist Chapel. 

Its architectural style and red brick are a pleasing contrast with the (mostly) white painted rendered facades of the surrounding streets, whilst its sympathetic scale and unpretentious design all contribute to its being a valuable local heritage asset. 

If any readers of the Whistler wish to suggest additions to the local list, please send them to the editor. Do bear in mind that a number of buildings and structures in the West Hill area are already nationally listed, the most notable being Brighton Station which is Grade II.  

Brighton Life, Environment, Features, Health Matters

Lockdown Ideas: Global Sharing Week

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Globally, we have enough surplus food, shelter and water to end poverty, hunger and homelessness. Global Sharing Week is the largest annual mass engagement campaign to promote and enable the sharing of vital resources with those who need them most, whilst protecting the planet at the same time. Created by the Brighton-based charity I created, The People Who Share, Global Sharing Week reaches over 100 million people worldwide. This year, with the world suffering the challenges of the Covid-19 crisis, Global Sharing Week will see a phenomenal online campaign to ensure that those in need receive the resources they need to survive the crisis. Projects and vital resources from food banks, to groups making PPE for frontline healthcare workers will be listed on a global map at globalsharingweek.org

Participation is open to all, everyone can play their part by adding projects and available resources to the Global Sharing Week map and sharing what’s there. Global Sharing Week helps us to demonstrate that where we have poverty, we can have prosperity, where we have loneliness, we can have community and where we have landfill we can have reuse.

The People Who Share is currently running Covid-19 Food Relief, a campaign to ensure that nobody in the UK goes hungry during the Coronavirus crisis. Currently, 1.5 million adults and 830,000 children in the UK are not getting enough food, whilst 53% of NHS workers are concerned about accessing supplies during the Coronavirus pandemic. (The Food Foundation, YouGov Poll, March 2020).

Covid-19 Food Relief is a mass call to action and a one-stop source of information to help people find food urgently, donate or volunteer. By making vital supplies easy to access, and galvanising the UK’s population to act now, we can help save lives. At The People Who Share, we believe that a united effort can mean that nobody goes hungry during this crisis.

Covid-19 Food Relief has been created to promote and support organisations including FareShare, The Trussell Trust, FoodCycle, Independent Food Aid Network, Meals for the NHS, The Careworkers’ Charity and many other community groups working on the frontline to ensure that everyone in the UK has sufficient food.

If you are hungry to help, you can volunteer or donate to a range of organisations working to provide #FoodRelief to those who need it most during the Covid-19 crisis at www.thepeoplewhoshare.com To get involved or find out more information email: foodreliefC19@thepeoplewhoshare.com Let nobody go hungry during the Covid-19 crisis.

 

Benita Matofska

Global Sharing Week 2019, saw 540 events take place in 211 cities across 49 counties on every continent, creating massive social impact. To get involved, find or register a project or shared resource head to globalsharingweek.org

 

 

Brighton Life, Environment, Features

Lockdown Books: Generation Share

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It’s official, Brits are turning to books during lockdown, with 1 in 3 of us reading more since the March directive to ‘stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives’ began. My own book, Generation Share, published last year by Policy Press has just been voted ‘top isolation read for a positive future’ by Forbes. The idea was born right here on Compton Avenue, when fed up of the barrage of negative news, I decided to embark on a journey to bring the positive stories of change-makers worldwide who are building a more caring, sharing society.

As a public speaker, changemaker and former journalist, my mantra has become, ‘to change the world, we need to change the narrative’, so I set out to do just that.

I invited Hove-based photographer and visual storyteller, Sophie Sheinwald to join me as I wanted to inspire positive change and bring these incredible stories to public attention in a way that people could connect with and feel part of. Each of the 200 change-makers interviewed for Generation Share, tell their stories in their words and along with my social commentary and Sophie’s stunning photography, it’s been dubbed ‘the big yellow book of hope.’

Each chapter showcases the extraordinary stories of social entrepreneurs and innovators who are tackling pressing issues such as climate change, poverty and inclusivity. You’ll meet the UK entrepreneur who has started a food sharing revolution, the creators of a life-saving human milk bank, a trust cafe and  the founders of a fashion library who are changing the world

The book itself is made from 100% waste materials, with fair trade, ethical production. Each copy sold, plants a tree and educates a girl in the slums in Mumbai through change-maker Aarti Naik’s Sakhi School for slum-based girls. Currently, proceeds have been helping Aarti run a Digital School ensuring that slum girls can stay at home safely during the Covid-19 crisis and run a food drive for some of India’s poorest families.

I’m proud to say Generation Share has been loved worldwide and has even sparked a global movement of change-makers. I believe, although our planetary resources may be finite, our potential to share is unlimited — inside each of us is a change-maker, just waiting to be unleashed.

Benita Matofska

Generation Share by Benita Matofska and Sophie Sheinwald can be purchased online from Policy Press with a 50% discount until the end of May using the code APRIL50 at checkout. Proceeds plant trees via the Eden Reforestation Project and support slum-based girls in Mumbai via Aarti Naik’s Sakhi School initiative.

https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/generation-share

For more information on change-making and Generation Share, Benita can be found @benitamatofska or benita@thepeoplewhoshare.com

Brighton Life, Environment, Features

Lockdown Poem: Like Riding A Bike

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Like riding a bike

 

We do half-moons around each other’s

personal safety circles,

past carbuncled stumps, potholed

pavements, car bonnets.

 

Yet, pure-as-glass children

still shout out to strangers,

amidst this absence of playful

passing bys and high-fives.

 

We have to shrug it off,

this yearning for touch.

Back and forths across park fields –

must postpone hugs.

 

Where does it end?

Where is the line crossed?

If a learning-to-ride child

wobbled and then flopped

 

off their bike –

knees all scuffed –

would we stop and pick them up?

They’re learning too,

 

all these new rules,

the sliding scale of age,

teachings of temporary measures.

Would exuberant youth

 

stick out a palm to

the two-metre long

reach of help and refuse?

Picking up their bikes,

 

no shrieks, return to size-four feet

to hop back on the seat

and go again.

 

 

Christy Hall

www.mybrowblog.co.uk/

 

 

Environment, Health Matters

Coronavirus Actions

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  1. Think of others, consider your actions and be kind. All of us face the challenges of COVID-19 in some way, from needing basic provisions to help if we are unwell.
  2. Reach out to your neighbours. As self-isolation increases, stay connected and check in on one another for our physical and mental well-being. Share phone numbers and stay in touch. Continue reading Coronavirus Actions →