Forest Hill Fashion Week - 24-27 September 2015

Forest Hill Fashion Week showcases local talent in a festival of fashion, design and craft. It is a family-friendly, inclusive, community festival with something to offer for people of all ages; and celebrates South East London’s wonderful creative buzz. Founded in 2013 by South East London local Louise Brooks, this traditionally bi-annual event builds on the momentum created by the SEE3 Portas Pilot investment to regenerate local high streets in the area.

Featuring established and up-and-coming designers, the fashion week is organised by a group of volunteers with local shops, cafés, bars, other venues and community interest groups all joining forces to fund and host an exciting line-up of fashion-themed events — illustrating Forest Hill’s community spirit, creativity, love of sharing and commitment to high street regeneration.
The 2015 theme is ‘Creativity, Community and Culture’ — three things that definitely make Forest Hill such a vibrant and unique part of London. This year’s FHFW will focus on the community cohesion that exists in Forest Hill. There are several themed events planned for the week to involve the whole community. The catwalk event will close with a very special show from ‘Pavement to Catwalk’, an inspiring organisation dedicated to involving people with mental health problems, addiction issues and disabilities in creative projects using fashion and design. The Pavement2catwalk section of the show will focus on homelessness, addiction disability, mental health and also the elderly.

FHFW 2015 is coordinated by Pauline Wright, who runs Forest Hill’s iconic Sugar Mountain sweet and ice cream shop; Donald Waugh, a noted actor, singer/dancer who founded the social enterprise Pavement2catwalk; and Emma Drysdale, who runs locally-based Gems Performing Arts, offering classes in dance, acting and signing for ages 3-16.

Pauline told us that, initially, only £1,500 in funding was available from SEE3 to put the event together. “I knew there wouldn’t be much funding when I decided to take the event on, but I could never have made it possible without my friends Donald and Emma, and my customers getting behind me to make FHFW possible this year. Many of my local customers are lending equipment and another customer is printing flyers — advertising the events — for free. Just by chatting to my customers, many offered to help — which shows amazing community spirit in Forest Hill.”






 FOREST HILL FASHION WEEK EVENTS

• Thu 24th, 3pm: Pavement2catwalk workshop
• Fri 25th, 4.30pm: Kids’ fashionable face painting workshop
• Fri 25th, 4.30pm: Kids’ fashion cupcake decorating workshop
• Fri 25th, 6.30pm: Youth performance workshop
• Fri 25th, 8pm: Drop Dead Gorgeous salsa night
• Sat 26th, 12pm: Kids’ balloon modeling workshop
• Sat 26th, 12pm: Crepe Records catwalk warm-up show
• Sat 26th, 2pm: Main catwalk show
• Sat 26th, 8pm: Catwalk after party
• Sun 27th, 2.30pm: Mad Hatters Tea Party. Look out for a flashmob!
• Sun 27th, 4.30pm: Kids’ catwalk show

 Up-to-date details of all events, including ‘Warm up’ events between 19th-20th September, can be found at fhfw.co.uk

"Outstanding" for a third year in a row

For the third year in a row the Forest Hill Society's work on planting and maintaining flowers around the town centre has been recognised as 'Outstanding', the top category in London In Bloom awards.

This is not just about pretty flowers around the station and town centre, but our work with the local traders on the Edible High Road, the launch of the Edible High Road where we gave away hundreds of edible plants started by The Horniman, working with local schools to remove litter, and our work at engaging with members and the wider community to make Forest Hill a greener and more pleasant place, despite the South Circular running through the middle.

On behalf of the Forest Hill Society I would like to thank all the volunteers who help to keep all the plants watered and looking their best.

Autumn Tidy Up - 19th September

The Forest Hill Society are organising an Autumn tidy up of the planting at Forest Hill station on Saturday 19th September, meeting in the station forecourt at 2.30 pm. 

No previous gardening experience is necessary, but it would be useful to bring, if possible, any of the following:  secateurs, shears, gloves, trowel, a spare plastic bag.  As we will be working mainly in the car park with proximity to passing traffic this event is not suitable for small children.

New Women's Institute for Forest Hill

V22 Louise House: Community Consultation

Thursday 3 September 2015, 4.30–7pm V22 Louise House

 

V22 LOUISE HOUSE
V22 Foundation is delighted to invite you to an open discussion session for proposed renovations at Louise House, Forest Hill. Louise House is a Grade II listed building. Originally a Victorian Girls' Industrial Home, it now houses fifteen artists’ studios in the main building and we are planning a range of initiatives for the garden and rear of the property.


V22 Foundation has received funding from the Mayor of London’s High Street Fund and Arts Council England Small Capital funding in 2015/16 for the redevelopment of the property. With this funding we are able to:
- renovate the rear building as an exhibition space, community studio, café and events space and provide a community garden;
- redesign and build the front garden to form a single space in combination with the Forest Hill Library and Pools.
All of these ideas have come about through our discussions with the local community and we now want to invite all interested parties, from Forest Hill, and our V22 art audiences, and further afield to join us in finalising the plans.

For further information see V22 website.

Portas Pilot/SEE3 Town Team Meeting

Portas Pilot/SEE3 Town Team Meeting

Thursday 3rd September, 7-8.30pm Forest Hill Pools


The Portas Pilot/SEE3 Town Team meets once a quarter in the community room at Forest Hill Pools, Dartmouth Road. Meetings are open to all – from local residents who love their locality to budding entrepreneurs, local traders and aspiring market stall-holders. Particularly welcome are those with experience in bid-writing, who can help forge SEE3’s next stage of development. One of the main agenda items on September 3rd will be the presentation of the latest designs for the frontage of Louise House and Forest Hill Pools. Come along and join in!

Lark in the Park

Fun and games in Mayow Park on Saturday 18th July

Dartmouth Road Consultation Feedback

 Following the publication of the consultation document by Lewisham Council regarding improvements to Dartmouth Road, the Forest Hill Society has responded with some of our concerns and priorities around the scheme.

• Welcome more parking and longer parking times
• Welcome more / better positioned bus stops serving the town centre
• Welcome opportunity to reduce street clutter
• Wish to see double yellow lines for the north section of Dartmouth Road, and improved parking enforcement
• Concern over pedestrian priority crossings with unclear enforcement measures
• Would like to see improvements for cyclists around Forest Hill

The full text of the response can be read here.

Festival in the Forest - Sunday 5th July

Climate Change: a wake-up call

The Forest Hill Society

Invite you to a talk by local author Dr David Cotton

Climate Change: a wake-up call

Wednesday 17th June at 7:30pm

 
Upstairs at The Hob pub, opposite Forest Hill Station

Dr Cotton has spent the last eight years researching these really important questions:

• Why do we have a Climate and how has it changed?
• What role has human race played in these changes?
• What will happen if we continue burning fossil fuels?
• Will we be able to produce enough renewable energy in the future?