Celebrating age in Pelham Square

Event for older people Monday 20th October 2008

By Jackie Fuller, Secretary to Friends of Pelham Square

Sunday 19th October 2008 was a lovely sunny autumn Sunday. Two days later it was a lovely sunny autumn Tuesday. But in between was the day of our Pelham Square event for older people, Monday, 20th October, which dawned dull, cold, very blustery and threatening rain!

Preparations

However, in true British spirit we carried on with our plans. Bunting and flags were hung round the Square, the hired tables and chairs arrived and were set out, 9 gazebos were erected, and the games were put out. A few hardy people arrived dead on 2pm, the official start time, and were served a cup of tea - they certainly needed it! Some more came along later on but understandably not the 70-100 we had catered for.

A choice of activities

Although different parts of the Square had been earmarked for each of the different activities: Tai Chi (led by Adele), gentle exercises (led by Eugene and his team from Ocean's Gym), healthy eating cookery demonstratins (by Jocelyn), live music (Stuart and then later on Mikhail and friend), boccia, scrabble and cards etc, those who braved the elements to attend this event mostly just wanted to huddle together in the tea tent to keep warm and to enjoy the delicious home-made cakes, beautifully served by Nicola in little bamboo baskets and in very generous portions, along with freshly made tea in proper china cups and saucers.

Later on a few people were persuaded to emerge and have a go at the Tai Chi and exercises despite the cold. After all it wasn't actually raining - yet. But sadly the cookery demonstrations never really got off the ground because the strong wind kept blowing the gas flames out!

Just at 4.30pm when the event was due to end it started to rain, so perhaps we were lucky that it hadn't started earlier.

Some thanks

Thanks to our local PCSOs who kept an eye on the Square for us all afternoon, to the City Parks team who cleaned up the garden in the morning before we started to set up, to the Rangers who brought and erected the bunting, to Infinity Foodswho donated a large bag of prizes for the games, to Lucy who helped with all the arrangements both in advance and on the day and without whom the event couldn't have happened at all, to her friends who helped us erect and take down all the gazebos and other equipment, and last but not least to Celebrating Age 2008 for their grant to cover all the costs.

Purpose of the event

The idea of this initiative was to encourage use of the Square by different sections of the public and not just by those who abuse it with anti-social behaviour. The event was open to any older people who wished to come along (not just residents of Pelham Square).

[Most of the above text was previously published in the 'North Laine Runner', No 195, Nov/Dec 2008; all photos taken by Henry Bruce]