Talks & Events

Celebrity Talk with Guardian writer and author John Crace

We are delighted to announce that John Crace has agreed to come to the Project for a talk on Friday June 2^nd from 07:30pm-09:30pm

John Crace is the parliamentary sketch writer for the Guardian, where he writes on topics including politics, Tottenham Hotspur, his experience of mental health challenges and (occasionally) Tooting Common. He is the author of several books including A Farewell to Calm: The New Normal Survival Guide’.

This event is now SOLD OUT, it acts as a fundraiser, allowing us to continue our work in the community.

The Project Gardener’s Group

We have started a new group at The Project for anyone who is interested in gardening and finding out what’s growing on in our area!

The first official meet-up of the group is Thursday 25th May 6pm to 8pm

Every month there will be a meet-up to share tips, ask advice and learning about local green initiatives.

At our first talk Resina Chowdhury from Transition Town Tooting will give a short talk about their plant & seed swop initiative. We will also be finding out about The Big Green Week in June – when we’ll be getting a community planter to put outside The Project and an update about The Furzedown Farmers lottery bid – the last chance to vote will be on Friday 26th May!

Saturday Movie & Sports afternoons – Free at The Project

As part of our Warm Spaces funding from Wandsworth Council, The Furzedown Project is happy to announce the launch of our first weekend activity.

Every Saturday afternoon from 1pm to 4pm we are offering a FREE drop-in session to watch a classic movie or/and the latest sporting event. Entry is free and everyone is welcome, and we will also be providing lunch and refreshments for attendees.

The first film we showcased was the classic Hitchock film Rebecca (1940) starring Joan Fontaine and Lawrence Olivier, which was popular – as was the popcorn!

In May we will be showing Citizen Kane on 13th, To Have & Have not on 20th, Philadelphia Story on 27th and Sunset Boulevard on 3rd June.

We’re happy to put on anything that is of interest in the future, so please make a request of what you’d like to see. Any questions please contact James on services@furzedownproject.org

Energy Workshops

As we face soaring energy prices this winter, The Furzedown Project hopes to run FREE workshops on how to reduce your energy bills. The first ones in 2022 were very successful and we hope to do more.

This is in partnership with South West London Energy Advice Partnership (SWLEAP) (Habitats & Heritage and CREW Energy). It provides free energy advice across the London Boroughs of Richmond, Wandsworth and Merton to anyone in fuel poverty. To find out more about them visit: www.swleap.org.uk

Wellbeing Day

The Furzedown Project’s first ever Wellbeing Day on Friday 1th June, was a great success. We had a wide range of events to address peoples physical, emotional, and social wellbeing.

Read all about it HERE

Furzedown Voices

We are looking forward to our talks returning and in 2023 had the wonderful Theresa (who’s aunt is a member of The Project) bring in costumes from BBC’s Strictly Show and gave a fascinating talk. If you have any thoughts about what you’d like to hear, have any connections or could give a talk yourself please let us know.

Way back in 2014 we discussed the possibility of having a couple of talks on topics which might be of interest to our members. We started off with Helen Long, who told us some fascinating stories about the history of Furzedown. Little did we know that three years down the line, they have been a resounding success, proving not only very popular with our members, but also with members of our local Furzedown community.

Topics are based on the interests and skills of our members. We have had over twelve talks on subjects which include: Alternative Therapies, local history, Music Hall and Christmas traditions, Knitting and Crafts, Healthy Eating, Patterns in Asian Culture, History of E & A Wates and the Old Toy Museum.

The talks usually lasted approximately 2 hours, with a special musical talk and entertainment just before Christmas. We’re very fortunate to have a very talented group of members, tutors and local contacts who offer to share their expertise and experience with us.

Below are the posters used for our talks. We have included photos where we can, and we hope it will give you a flavour of the variety of our talks. Please come along when you see a notice in the newsletter or on the website and enjoy one of our talks.