Islington Council
81 GoodGymers have supported Islington Council with 18 tasks.
Top supporters
Upcoming sessions
Monday 20th January 2025 6:45pm - 8:30pm
Previous sessions
Going Tree Total in January
Monday 6th January
Written by Simon Fitzmaurice
We were thrilled to have 9 keen Goodgymmers joining the GG Islington crew for our first group run session of 2025. Area Activator Simon joined runners Louise, Caitlin, Emily and Bianca for a lovely 1.5 mile run (on quiet streets due to the cold weather) down to Barnard Park.
Upon our arrival, we caught up with the rest of our team at the Barnard Park Adventure Playground (a fun former Goodgym Islington task circa 2022!), and split into 3 groups to scout out discarded Xmas trees within the immediate borough. The official Islington drop off point had been recently cleared, so our plan was to try and fill it again within30 minutes!
Between our three crews, we successfully picked up 20+ trees - super impressive work all round! 6 of our runners then joined us on the route back to the Arsenal Community Hub (passing Paradise Park and the Hornsey Model Bakery) to top off an excellent evening out.
GOODGYM ISLINGTON NEWS
SESSIONS IN JANUARY
Group Session- Christmas Tree Pick-ups, 6.45pm, Arsenal Community Hub, Monday 6th January
Community Mission- Caxton House Painting and Sanding (Indoors!) 7.15pm, Caxton House Community Centre, Monday 13th January
Group Run- TBC 6.45pm, Arsenal Community Hub, Monday 20th January
Link TBC
Community Mission- Thornhill Square Gardens 7.15pm, Thornhill Square Gardens Monday 27th January
—-------------------------------------
Achilles International VI Guide Running Sessions
Every Thursday, 6pm, Various London locations
On Thursday evenings, the all abilities sports charity Achilles International holds a group run session at a London location.
Here is a list of our upcoming events and sign up pages. Runners, supporters and guides of all abilities and experiences welcome!
Stratford Olympic Park Thursday 9th January https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/come-and-guide-run-with-achilles-international-olympic-park-stratford-route-831bc57f-3d39-4d8e-bfa0-5a7f13b206eb
Paddington Rec Track Thursday 16th January https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/come-and-guide-run-with-achilles-international-paddington-rec-track-2b0290a9-fb52-480c-a6c0-b45ba8c2c4a4
Emirates Stadium Thursday 23rd January https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/come-and-guide-run-with-achilles-international-emirates-stadium-4ed31405-80ce-454b-9765-45aed49cde03
Paddington Rec Track Thursday 30th January https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/come-and-guide-run-with-achilles-international-paddington-rec-track-db3e1e87-d1e9-4d55-8f34-fd86e1b9101a
JENKI Matcha with ON Running Spitalfields Group (January)
Saturday 11th January, 8.45am, ON Running Spitalfields
Every 1st Saturday morning of the month, ON Running Spitalfields and JENKI Matcha Café on Brushfield Street will be hosting a 5km social paced group run through East London and by St Katherine's Dock.
Meeting at ON Running Spitalfields store at 8.45am (Bag drop, community shoe try ones, run register, chat and catch up!)
Matcha and hot drinks on offer at special run club discount!
https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/on-running-spitalfields-x-jenki-morning-matcha-miles
—--------------------------------------
Track and Towpath Social Running Sessions
Every Wednesday (fortnightly), 7.30am, Mile End Athletics Track
If you are looking for accessible training sessions that can be included in your schedule, then come and join Area Activator Simon for his fortnightly runs.
Track training is always more fun with others, and these are designed to be sociable and open to all!
Structured training sessions, followed by refreshments at The Yurt Café, Limehouse!
Wednesday 8th January
https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/track-towpath-morning-social-track-session-mile-end
Wednesday 22nd January
—-------------------------------------
Elizabeth House Food Hub- Lunchtime Sweep Up Task!
Tuesday 7th and 14th January, 12.45 - 1.15pm, Elizabeth House
On Tuesday afternoons, during term time, the team at Elizabeth House Food Hub have requested for an extra pair of hands to help with cleaning and tidying up their donation centre.
Expect some satisfying sweeping and surface cleaning to assist this busy team!
Thursday 7th January
Thursday 14th January
Compton Terrace Gardens- Volunteer Session
Saturday 11th January, 10am - 1pm, Union Chapel, Islington
A smashing community mission for those partaking in Highbury Fields or Finsbury parkrun on a Saturday morning!
A friendly gardening group started to look after the park about 10 years ago. We are always looking for more help - with planting, mulching, pruning, and all the other things a garden needs.
Everyone welcome, no special skills needed! Lots of fresh air and a nice chance to meet local people. We meet once a month on a Saturday morning near the shed in the middle of the Gardens.
—--------------------------------------
Friends of Canonbury Square- Volunteer Morning (January)
Saturday 18th January, 10am - midday, Canonbury Square Gardens
The Friends of Canonbury Square Gardens host an open community gardening session on the 3rd Saturday morning of every month.
Usual tasks would include bulb planting, trimming, laying compost, maintaining flower beds and litter picking.
Crouch End Open Space (CREOS) Volunteering Day
Sunday 19th January, 11am - 1pm, Hanley Tennis Club Car Park, Greenways
Our monthly trip to CREOS this year for a woodland regeneration- loads of smashing forest path building has been planned! https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/crouch-end-open-space-creos-volunteering-day-january
—--------------------------------------
Penn Road Gardens - November Volunteer Day
Sunday 26th January, 10am - midday, Penn Road Gardens
Every last Sunday of the month, the residents of Penn Road invite keen volunteers to help with maintaining this lovely community spot just off Holloway Road. https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/penn-road-gardens-open-morning-january-c1c2ace2-9aba-45d4-9609-8a038f2aa101
Met League Cross Country Series- Goodgym Race Team
Various locations, October 2024 - February 2025
Met League Cross Country is a set of five 7-8km races organised by London race clubs. They are held in parks and forests around London with the routes including a mixture of grass, gravel and a fair bit of mud (it is XC after all!)
Sign up to the Goodgym Race Team for £15, and enter ALL 5 RACES for the bargain price of £20!
Newbies encouraged and welcomed- the most fun you can have running over the Winter months!
Fixtures
11th January Welwyn Garden City https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/london-met-league-cross-country-stanborough-park
8th February Trent Park https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/london-met-league-cross-country-trent-park
Goodgym Islington take to the streets!
Monday 30th December 2024
Written by Simon Fitzmaurice
On a spare Monday evening in the "Crimbo Limbo" between Christmas and New Year (thanks for the suggested name, Caitlin!), 4 Goodgym Islington regulars made the most out of an evening off. Area Activator Simon spent the afternoon creating a "Street- O" map for a street orienteering challenge for anyone to try.
Our crew (Kim, Paul and Louise) were given 45 minutes to run from the Arsenal Community Hub, and around the Islington borough, attempting to visit as many listed spots as possible within the time limit. To prove that they had successfully visited the areas, they were given a location specific question to answer, before moving on to the next area.
For example:
What is the price of a portion of "Cheese and Chips" at the Gunners Bar?
To add an extra element of jeopardy to the proceedings, there was a time penalty of 1 point per 10 seconds delay after 45 minutes total time. Every question scored 10 points each, with greater more point scoring opportunities available for those who took the risk to run further away from the Arsenal Community Hub. Time management was the name of the game!
Very impressive results (and fun looking Strava maps) from everyone involved. Great opportunity to tally up the results at the Cock Tavern in Highbury and Islington too!
If anyone would like to try this Street Orienteering course, you are welcome to download the map and clues here:
So FIR So Good
Monday 8th January 2024
Written by Simon Fitzmaurice
On an absolutely Baltic evening (2 degrees and threatening to snow!), 5 intrepid Goodgymmers met at the Arsenal Community Hub for Goodgym Islington's annual Christmas tree pick-up task! We began with a dynamic warm up on the Emirates Stadium slopes (much appreciated considering the weather!) before heading towards Whistler Street, and onwards towards Highbury Fields. Area Activator Simon even found a tree on route, and scaled a solid ascent and descent before dropping it off at the designated Islington council drop point outside the Highbury Leisure Centre.
Perhaps he was training for our next Goodgym Race Team: Met League Cross Country Fixture in Welwyn Garden City on Saturday 13th January?
Upon our arrival, we split up into two groups- team 1 (Alison and Byron) headed to the North of the park, while team 2 (Paul and Adam) ran South, on the search of discarded Christmas trees. Within 20 minutes, we were able to drop off 5 trees from the surrounding area, ready to be recycled!
For the last part of our session, we decided to run to Paradise Park, by Freightliner's Farm to try a new area for Xmas tree pick-ups. This proved to be a great idea, as we found a Massive Christmas Tree in a church yard on route, and proceeded in directing this tree down McKenzie Road! Great job team! 4 more trees were discovered while we were making our way over, bringing our number to 10 recycled Xmas Trees on a very cold Monday evening. Wonderful work all!
Goodgym Islington News
St Mungo's Hilldrop House Group Run
Monday 15th January, 6.45pm, Emirates Stadium
Our next group run will be a return trip to St Mungo's Hilldrop House to continue our fine gardening help around the resident entrance for this important homelessness response centre.
https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/group-run-st-mungo-s-hilldrop-house-2
ON Running and JENKI run club- Thursday morning matcha runs!
Every Thursday, 7am, ON Running Spitalfields, Brushfield Street
Area Activator Simon has set up a series of morning runs, hosted every Thursday morning at the new ON Running store in Spitalfields market.
A social 5km before work, with the option to take out a pair of ON Running shoes for a test spin. Followed by complimentary matcha and hot drinks provided by the team at JENKI, Brushfield Street.
First run on Thursday 11th January:
GoodGym London - January Social- Market Halls Canary Wharf
Friday 12th January, 6.30pm, Market Halls Canary Wharf
Our next all boroughs social will be held at the awesome Market Halls London venue next to the new Elizabeth Line station in Canary Wharf. Excellent food, plenty of refreshments and good times!
https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/goodgym-london-january-social
Run Tour of Islington Parks #2- ON Running Group Run
Tuesday 16th January, 6pm, ON Running Spitalfields, Brushfield Street
Did you know that the borough of Islington contains 121 listed green spaces according to The Green Classroom?
To celebrate a great year with Goodgym Islington, Area Activator Simon will be planning a social run to visit as many of these as possible within 45 - 60 minutes! We are planning to continue this project over the month of January, to see if we can visit every Islington green space during Goodgym runs.
Post Group Run Social- Happy January!
Monday 29th January, 8.45pm, Memsaab Islington
Following our final group run of the January Challenge, and Frannie from Octopus Community Network's last Goodgym task, we are planning on visiting Memsaab Indian restaurant for delicious curry and refreshments!
https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/post-group-run-social-memsaab-islington-happy-january
Time to tackle that town trash
Thursday 18th May 2023
Written by Redbridge runner
Once again I went to perform a litterpick in my local area. This time, and given the relatively warm weather, there was a lot more to pick up! The weather seems to bring out the best and worst in people. I had a major haul this time and filled three plastic bags full of litter. Usual culprits were cigarette butts...I thought litterbugs had moved on to tossing their e-cigs 🤔 One spot where people hide their rubbish is behind the telephone cabinets, so I used my litterpicker to reach these. I spent a good hour clearing my local streets and deposited rubbish in the nearby large bins. A nice job to do while listening to a podcast and taking your mind off a work day.
A Perfect Monday Evening Pick-me-up
Monday 6th March 2023
Written by Simon Fitzmaurice
5 Goodgymmers joined Area Activator Simon for our slightly drizzly Monday evening group run session yesterday evening (Alex and Paul ran over, and Benedict and Zoe arrived on bikes). Great to have Benedict back after a few months away in Mexico! We performed a warm-up together on the Emirates Stadium slopes (involving dips, lunges, springs and twists), and run together towards the Hilldrop Estate, Camden Road.
Plogging
Plogging is a combination of jogging with picking up litter (merging the Swedish verbs plocka upp (pick up) and jogga (jog) gives the new Swedish verb plogga, from which the word plogging derives).[1] It started as an organized activity in Sweden around 2016 and spread to other countries in 2018, following increased concern about plastic pollution. As a workout, it provides variation in body movements by adding bending, squatting and stretching to the main action of running, hiking, or walking.
"Plogging Wikipedia entry"
Our task this evening was one that AA Simon had planned for quite a while- a guerrilla litter pick on the roadside between the Camden and Islington boroughs. This particular spot, located near Hilldrop House outreach, the former Holloway Road prison site and The Cat and Mouse Library (named after the "Cat and Mouse Act to prevent force feeding of hunger strike protesters within the suffragette movement), has become a windblock for litter and refuse from the connecting neighborhoods. A lot of the roadside is lined with hedgerows as well, habitats for the wildlife around North London.
Luckily, we had some excellent folding litter pickers, sturdy gloves and refuse bags to hand and committed to 35 minutes of picking along the roadside. 6 large bags were collected within a short time, and we were so happy to take a lot of this debris from the streets!
Upon our return to the Emirates Stadium, we hosted our monthly Arsenal Stadium Time Trial, a personal challenge to run around the 700m loop of the stadium concourse as fast as possible. The rain had stopped just early enough to make the conditions perfect for speedy running. Excellent work everyone!
Crouch Hill Christmas!
Sunday 15th January 2023
Written by Simon Fitzmaurice
Upon our arrival at Thornby's Coffee Stand in Elthorne Park, Simon, Alison and Louise met with Audrey and Sam (and a lovely friendly puppy dog called "Swan" who was interested in what we were up to) and we eventually found the well hidden Islington Council official Christmas Tree Drop Off point.
Our intention for the morning was to pick up as many trees as possible from the area surrounding Sussex Way, Crouch Hill and Archway- generally areas on a slope, where access to these Christmas Tree drop points are difficult for residents, and where some of the estates are hard to access by council refuse vehicles. All collected Christmas Trees will be chipped and re-purposed for community garden projects in the borough.
Our team spent 50 minutes to scour the area, and retrieved 10 trees from awkward areas, successfully filling up the drop off point. Great work everyone!
Loading...
