SharedCity, London (2024)

30/07/2024

Our funky heritage plaques have gone up. Learn more about this project at https://www.sharedcity.org/willesden-immigrants-trail

04/07/2024

Taking pics today with of these stunning stained glass windows, originally designed by David Hillman for the now closed Cricklewood Synagogue on Walm Lane which was a vibrant community venue between the 1930s & 1980s.

A fraction of the many windows designed by David Hillman for Cricklewood were rescued and placed on display in the prayer hall of new synagogue on Brondesbury Park, which opened in 2022.

David Hillman features on our Willesden Immigrants Trail. He came from Lithuania to this country with his father, a prominent rabbi, in 1908 and became an artist (very much against his father's wishes). He enrolled in and later the where he specialised in portraits and later .

26/06/2024

A great sun-dappled hour filming a great-great-great-great-great-great grandson of one of the most important people buried in :

Rabbi Nathan Adler

Nathan Marcus Adler was a German who became the first Chief Rabbi of the British Empire and played a massive role in Victorian society, with close links to the royals as well as a passion for education. He and his son worked to develop schools and united the established and immigrant Jewish communities of Victorian era.

He has 1,800 descendants - but we are happy to meet 12 year old Ethan and his mum Gemma - who didn't know the grave was here until we started our project.

The Willesden Immigrants Trail features lots of intriguing people and places - more soon!

Thanks to for her excellent camera work 📸📸📸

16/04/2024

And it's a wrap! Our heritage art project in South Kilburn is over. The exhibition today showcased the art work of all our participants. A lovely crew of all ages, skills and backgrounds - thank you for joining us. We hope to see you again soon!

18/03/2024

👉Celebrating Women's History Month with an icon of Willesden who is featured on the Willesden Jewish Immigrants Trail (something we are busy working on right now...more soon)

👉Presenting... Stephanie 'Steve' Shirley who was born in Germany (her birth name was Vera Buchtal) and arrived with her sister as a Jewish refugee child on a Kindertransport train.

👉She resorted to using the name Steve when men in business didn't respond to her letters 🤔

👉Settling in north London, Stephanie married at Willesden Green registry office, soon after setting up a tech company for female programmers. This was in 1959, way ahead of her time. She was a definite trailblazer for female entrepreneurs & flexible working 💪.

👉She retired in 1993 and continues work to this day as a philanthropist and has given away over £70m to causes close to her heart.

Among her many honours, in 1980 she received an OBE for her services to industry and in 2000 she became a Dame.

Funded by

17/03/2024

Talking & sharing is central to SharedCity - we started out with a mission to celebrate, share & understand all the cultures/religions of London.

With lots of talk of division in the news it felt good as a Jewish woman (& founder of SharedCity) to attend an Open Iftar event Modern last night, along with a few hundred others.

There were people from all over London, and from different corners of the world. Amazingly amongst all the diversity the people sitting next to me were from the same NW postcode. It's a small world sometimes!

We had warm conversations and laughter as we shared food & drink - staying true to the Ramadan Tent Project's core mission 'to turn strangers into friends'.

Dowshan Hamza, the evening's host, made everyone welcome - Muslim or not, religious or not - and made it a calm, friendly & positive event - so very refreshing in these difficult times.

Delicious tagines were passed along the rows of guests, each made with love and donated by (the slide above is the founder Comptoir Lebanais, Tony Kitous, who made an emotional speech about his journey as a teenage refugee arriving alone in London).

My only wish is that I had actually fasted before going - so i was hungrier!

Thank you and for your hospitality and creating a welcoming interfaith community space filled with optimism.

14/03/2024

Lovely evening celebrating all the amazing heritage projects in Brent - including our recent project celebrating the heritage (& looking at dramatic changes) in South Kilburn - and our free funded tours & trails of Welsh Harp, Queens Park & Willesden Green.

Thanks to for your kindness, enthusiasm & support for our projects and to for hosting last night's event. It was such a happy event filled with delish canapes and showcasing the work of some of the very best people of Brent 😅

Shout out to some of the AMAZING projects happening (and about to happen) across the borough in no particular order: .brent .co.uk

07/03/2024

25/02/2024

Pictures of our multi-generatuSetting off on our walking tour of Willesden Green today looking at the many layers of history found in our neighborhood.

This area has been home to many waves of people settling in it's tree-lined streets - from Irish builders (1890s/1900s), to Jewish EastEnders made good (1910s/20s), to refugees from N**i Europe (1930s/40s) to people from India, Pakistan & the Caribbean (1950s/60s/70s), to Australians/New Zealander backpackers (1980s) to East Europeans (2000s).

The area has seen many communities come & go.

The Jewish community - and all the kosher bakeries, butchers & delis of Willesden Green - had all but disappeared by 1990 - but over the last decade or so this community is growing again. Perhaps there will be a deli or a salt beef bar in the neighborhood again?!

Thanks to everyone from for coming along & sharing pools of knowledge & to for supporting this project.

.wonders

10/02/2024

Write together. Monday 11am to 12.30pm

22/01/2024

A few photos of Sunday's event . Our community came together and demonstrated that our appetite for hope & peace was as strong (stronger?) than our appetite for tea & cake.

Thank you to all who came, particularly those who came from far. And for all the delicious cakes you lovely people brought to share.

Special mentions for

Anyone interested in joining a local group of Muslim-Jewish women to promote peace as part of the wider Nisa Nashim network please get in touch here ❤️💖🕊️

17/01/2024

This Sunday we are helping to draw a peaceful crowd from across our wonderful north London community to hold space for all affected directly or indirectly by the war in the middle east.

The event is at the lovely Maqam Centre & supported by the Jewish-Muslim women's network - as well as a bunch of people with big hearts from all corners of our neighbourhood.

The idea is to share cake, humanity & love. All welcome. 3-4.30pm

We are also raising money for two local charities and - through tea & coffee sales. Please come & be generous if you are able to.

16/01/2024

Wow! Yesterday we screened the film we made of the summer history workshops at the OK Club. It was lovely to bring the community together and to celebrate something positive in the middle of this unsettling time of change in South Kilburn. It was a treat to have the wonderful 200 seat cinema to ourselves and be reminded of the positive power of film, intergenerational storytelling and local history.

If you live in South Kilburn you can learn more about the area and it's history via app. It's totally free - and we have uploaded points of historical interest for all to share. (We can add any missing points - let us know if you spot one!)

This project wouldn't have happened without , .co.uk , , and - so a big thank you to you all for playing a part, big or small.

16/01/2024

Wow! We screened the film When The World Came To Kilburn in a big cinema yesterday. The film was a snapshot of local history workshops we ran in the summer in South Kilburn. Here's a big thank you to Kiln Theatre for giving us access to your wonderful cinema space. In the midst of so much change in the area, it was a treat to bring the community together, and a wonderful opportunity to showcase the amazing work of the Oxford Kilburn Youth Trust - OK Club . If you would like to know more please get in touch :-)

12/12/2023

A beautiful night with a beautiful group of ten asylum seekers & refugees and two volunteers including .wonders from .

It sums up how we feel : London is a place for everyone!

Together our group walked from Baker Street to the South Bank to see as many of the London Xmas lights as possible. It was magical.

Many of the group have been stuck in hotels waiting for decisions on their future for 3 years and have been unable to explore far from their accommodation & never visit central London because they have no resources for bus fares or tube fares. London is so expensive.

They come from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and other troubled places in the world, they each have hopes and dreams for their lives. For now they can't work or plan or move on - they are depressed & trapped in the broken UK asylum system.

But last night was filled with laughter and joy as we traversed Christmassy London. It would be great to harness their positive energy for good. We all agreed that we had to stop and take a photo at the Choose Love sign by their shop on Carnaby Street and here is the result.

08/12/2023

Announcing a new Nordic experience for the Winter Solstice... This is for group of up to eight people. Perfect for a last minute gift or winter get together. Details here:

Gather together with friends for a beautiful authentic Finnish sauna in a secret London location

18/11/2023

We are starting a new monthly Writers Group for all local writers & aspiring writers. Please come along!

First two sessions are free to join at Kiln Theatre (who are kindly giving us space).

You don't need experience, just a desire to get your head down and write alongside others who want to do the same. No worries if you are writing a novel or a shopping list!

Dates:
Tues 12th Dec 11am
Tues 9th Jan 11am

Please share this with local writerly friends !

13/11/2023

Who wants to write? *New* Writers Group starting in December in North London. Details here... https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sharedcity-writers-tickets-757766168007?aff=oddtdtcreator&_gl=1%2Ak3wby0%2A_up%2AMQ..%2A_ga%2AOTYxMTM0ODA1LjE2OTk4OTcwMjQ.%2A_ga_TQVES5V6SH%2AMTY5OTg5NzAyMy4xLjEuMTY5OTg5NzQ1Ny4wLjAuMA..

24/10/2023

Our in-house artist Rachel has lined up a bunch more mindful art sessions for aspiring artists or anyone who wants a gentle creative start to the week. Sessions run every Monday morning from 9.30. Booking is open now on Eventbrite, £10 if you book ahead. Email [email protected] for more info.

23/10/2023

Gentle creative classes every Monday morning. Booking open.

12/10/2023

Earlier this week we were back in the East End of London for a private tour with a lovely visitor from the Netherlands. This is our original SharedCity tour and it's always lovely to do!

This lil corner of the city has been shaped by 400 years of immigrants, from the French Huguenot silk weavers who were booted out of France in the 1680s (and brought the word refugee to the English language), to the Bangladeshi community today who have made the area home (and transformed London's food scene) over the last half century. It's a tiny microcosm of the world, and of our many layered city.

In spite of the creeping offices and fancy restaurants, the warrens of narrow streets and mix of shops, market stalls and buildings continue to fascinate us...as well as the people who come on our tours :-)

This picture is outside No.4 Princelet Street, which is currently hosting a exhibition by the . The house was originally built in 1723 and was home to one of the founders of the Truman Brewery, Benjamin Truman. It has been through many hands since, from occupancy by Huguenot silk weavers, who set up weaving workshops in the attic, to Russian/Polish Jewish migrants (you can see a traditional mazzuzah on the doorposts on the first floor still) in the late nineteenth century.

In a fun twist of history, the house is now owned once again by the Truman Brewery who bought it in 2016 for a more than £4 million.

The house has been kept in its original condition, and hasn't been occupied for half a century at least. It feels like its creaking wooden stairs have many stories to tell.

❤️

11/10/2023

We loved our first mindful drawing session with SharedCity director Rachel Lum in Roundwood Park Roundwood Park Cafe in . Mindful drawing is a great way to find stillness, connect with the environment and be creative, without judgement. SharedCity is all about exploring -both inside and out! Look out for more sessions coming soon.

28/09/2023

Rachel from is hosting a free mindful drawing workshop at the lovely cafe in Roundwood Park. Scan the QR code to book.

31/08/2023

Free World Events In London This Month - https://mailchi.mp/3bb948cdbbc9/sharedcityupdate-9394103

17/08/2023

The SharedCity team spent a week of the summer holidays at the in South Kilburn exploring local heritage and working with the most amazing families to make a film.

With the help of our film director, Ives, we turned the OK club into a fancy TV studio and captured the children interviewing each other, their parents and older visitors who have lived in the area for decades.

The children and their parents were taken on history tour of the area by Irina, a professional blue badge guide, and later in the week by the children who live in the area took us to see their changing play spaces, their homes, and the extraordinary views from the tenth floor of the block one of them lived in.

The final film will be ready in the autumn, and will be an incredible historic record of this particular time in Kilburn - as we watched older buildings being torn down and new buildings going up.

Historically this part of Kilburn has attracted people from all over the world seeking to build new lives in London and it was really interesting to hear what it has meant to everyone who volunteered to be interviewed.

With thanks to the National Lottery for supporting this project.

14/08/2023

Our co-founder Deborah is on the Food Chain this week giving insights into London's Little Italy. This photo was taken on the day the programme was recorded at Terroni's in Clerkenwell.

It is a wonderful listen on BBC Sounds - taking in a whirlwind tour of the Italian diaspora - and its food - from London to Argentina to New York - and back to Italy again.

If you love and (and who doesn't?) do tune in.

Search up The Food Chain on or click on this link https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct4v72

27/07/2023

What a lovely week exploring local history with older & younger members of the South Kilburn community. Made possible with the support of ❤️

14/07/2023

🤩Join us for a week of Lottery-funded workshops exploring history using multimedia tools.🤩

- Find out more about local buildings and places
- Tell your family story
- Create a personalised history trail
- Materials and equipment provided

🍕🥛Free lunch🍕🥛

For more information and to book:

A summer holiday workshop exploring our local history & heritage from around the world