Coming up in February

 

Embracing change, an Olympic Park walk and a gallery coffee – coming up in February

Our monthly walk: Saturday 14th February, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

Meet at 11.00 am in the booking hall at the Westfield side of Stratford station.

As it’s February and likely to be be chilly… we thought we could visit Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park; with the chance to meander at will but with lots of cafés and places to warm up. If you have a favourite walking route in the park please bring it along, or browse the walks on the park's website. Look out for the EEWI walks WhatsApp on the day for any changes or to see who else is joining.

Our February talk: Thursday 19th February 7pm for 7.30, Virginia Orr, until recently Exhibition Coordinator at St Margaret's House, on change and how we can embrace it at any time of life

At our usual venue: St Margaret’s House, 21 Old Ford Road, London E2 9PL, entrance via the gate to the left. (If you’re joining us for the first time, feel free to email us and someone will meet you at the entrance on Old Ford Road.)

As she approached 60, Virginia decided to upend her career and find a new direction as a life and business coach, curator and artist, a direction that has, simply, changed her life.

Photograph top right by Virginia Orr

Our monthly coffee and catch-up: Friday 27th February, meet between 10.30 and 11.00 am at the Gallery Cafe, St Margaret’s House

The Gallery Café offers vegan food, locally-ground coffees and sweet treats. It has a rolling programme of exhibitions and for warmer months, an award-winning garden. 

WI Learning Hub relaunches 

The WI online learning hub has undergone a complete transformation. The new and vastly updated resource VIA will launch on Monday 9th February.

Our president, Sally, hopes to be able to arrange a session sometime in March for any members who would like to give it a try but would like a bit of support initially.

Our January coffee morning

Lively chat at the Young V&A – our January coffee morning

January saw us returning to an East End WI favourite for our January coffee morning – a good turnout to visit the Young V&A, formerly the Museum of Childhood. Some of us will be back for its Inside Aardman: Wallace & Gromit and Friends exhibition...

Fancy joining us for coffee? Look out for our next coming up blogpost.

Pictures by Alison

Our January talk

 

100% volunteer; 100% professional – our January talk, from London Search and Rescue

London is a huge city of roughly 35,000 acres, with one of the greenest and densest city centres. London Search and Rescue goes out looking for vulnerable people.

Staffed by volunteers, London Search and Rescue is part of Lowland Rescue, started in Northern Ireland. Here in London, it works through the Metropolitan Police, often in collaboration with other services. Based in Hayes, it has operational bases in fire stations across the capital.

The 140 volunteers are people who work full time, have flexible jobs, NHS people, retired police and military service people, in operational, trustee and support roles. By 2027 the ambition is to have 500 volunteers.

Training takes 10 days over five weekends, in Kent and various relevant sites across London. Knowledge and skills are renewed regularly. 

Each team has a minimum of four people, usually five, with team leader, a medic and radio operator. 

Dog handlers might have ground-scent or air-scent dogs, they sometimes train together and on operations, they need someone to be dog assist – because the dog needs a break for playtime. Or sometimes, police will bring their dogs.

The bike team has electric bikes.

Paddlecraft work in rivers, canals and lakes but not the Thames, which has its own patrols, apart from a particular section.

The drone team has to have permission to operate. With heat-sensitive cameras, it is useful in areas that are hard to get at, for instance bramble.

London Search and Rescue can get to places that are tricky for an ambulance and keep people alive for long enough for help to get there. The search technicians' job is to be compassionate – there's an escalation process for specialist help and support when a search is upsetting.

For navigation, teams use What3Words, grid references and maps on phones but a compass is still essential. 

As well as searches, London Search and rescue also helps at big events such as the Lady Mayor's Parade and provides a presence along the river.

London Search and Rescue is funded entirely by charitable donations. Though it's volunteer run and crewed, there are training, kit, equipment, vehicle and operational costs that all have to be fundraised for.

Questions included how diverse the volunteer cohort is – very diverse, we were told and people can take their experience into their communities.

How do people get to a search at night? For volunteers who don't drive, lifts – including from other volunteers who spot them on the way to a callout.

Is there an age limit, we asked? Well, for search 65 because of insurance but there are support roles available.

We were talked through the kit: jacket, high vis jacket, load-bearing vest, lights, spare batteries, notebooks, map, basic medical kit and water. We even discussed the colour of uniforms because of human reaction to colours associated with particular services.

A huge East End WI thank you to search technicians Mairead, Dominic and Leonard from London Search and Rescue. Find out more here. 

Monthly coffee and catch-up – Young V&A

Friday 23rd January, meet between 10.30 and 11.00

A return to an old favourite, the café at the former Museum of Childhood. Nearest tube Bethnal Green or buses along Cambridge Heath Road.

Pictures by Lydia

Our January walk

Cold weather and hot coffee – our January walk

January's walk was to explore the lodges of Victoria Park. Christine writes: "We 'bagged' one of the lodges, but the cold weather and lure of hot coffee saw us heading for the Blu Ivy cafe, where kind customers and staff made way for our burgeoning group."

Fancy joining us for a walk? Look out for our next coming up blogpost for details of the next walk.

Pictures by Christine

Coming up in January 2026

Search and rescue, park lodges and coffee at the Young V&A – coming up in January 2026 

Our monthly walk – Victoria Park lodges and buildings

Saturday 10th January, 11.00. Meet at Grove Road entrance to Victoria Park

We'll be exploring Victoria Park via some history of its buildings covered this month on Tower Hamlets Slice.

Our monthly meeting – London Search and Rescue 

Thursday 15th January, 7pm for 7.30

At our usual venue: St Margaret’s House, 21 Old Ford Road, London E2 9PL, entrance via the gate to the left. (If you’re joining us for the first time, feel free to email us and someone will meet you at the entrance on Old Ford Road.)

This month we welcome volunteers from London Search and Rescue. It website tells us: 'London Search and Rescue supports the emergency services in the search for vulnerable missing people across London. We are volunteer-led, self-funded, and operate 24/7, in all weathers. We combine specialist training with compassion to help bring people home. From search technicians to support volunteers, we are united by a shared purpose: to serve our communities when it matters most.'                  

Monthly coffee and catch-up – Young V&A

Friday 23rd January, meet between 10.30 and 11.00

A return to an old favourite, the café at the former Museum of Childhood. The museum is relatively easy to access for all our members: nearest tube Bethnal Green or buses along Cambridge Heath Road.

Sketch by Lydia Thornley

Our December meeting

 

Suffolk Puffs and pastries – our Christmas celebration

In an evening of making, snacking and chat, our Christmas meeting was a sociable workshop led by our very own Elizabeth.

Suffolk Puffs were originally a rural way of using up cloth scraps: gathered circles of fabric stuffed with wool and stitched together to make warm quilts. 

Ours were stuffed with French lavender and to package them as gifts, we learned a clever technique of making boxes from squares of paper. Everyone went home with lavender, paper, cloth – and pastries.

A big thank-you to Elizabeth for a joyful evening's making and to everyone who baked and brought refreshments.

Pictures by Lydia and Alison

There is no coffee morning this December, as the normal timing falls on Boxing Day; look out for our next coming up blogpost for details of our January coffee morning.

Wishing our members, friends and community a wonderful festive season, whether you're celebrating or hibernating, in a house-full or flying solo.

Our December walk

 

Bells and whistles – Morris dancing and costume for our December walk

"Good weather, a walk, a good exhibition and good company"... On a sparkling Saturday morning, our walkers met at Hay's Galleria near London Bridge to see some Morris dancing – we had learned about women's Morris dancing and tried a few steps at our AGM in May. Next, a wander (half of our group via a route which, it was felt, got the medal for number of steps) then, inspired by our November talk by theatrical costumier Laura Holland, to the Fashion and Textile Museum to see Costume Couture: Sixty Years of Cosprop. 

Fancy joining us for a walk? Look out for the next coming up blogpost.

Pictures by Alison and Christine