Adam Wilson: nature and art at Stuart Low Trust

Everyone has a story. Living, working, volunteering and creating in Islington, Adam Wilson talks about music, nature and working online with the Stuart Low Trust and Healthy Generations. Interview by Nicola Baird. Photos by Kimi Gill

It’s hard to condense all Adam Wilson’s skills. He’s a Law graduate, photographer, published Haiku poet, birdwatcher, former trustee of London Wildlife Trust, ex-bookseller, grant-maker and more. Having lived a “somewhat raucous life” in Camden Town from age 18 to 32, he moved to the comparative calm of north Islington with wife Sarah, back in 2008. He manages to enjoy life by mixing it up a bit – and also working part-time fundraising for the Stuart Low Trust (SLT), a mental health charity based in Islington.  He also works with Healthy Generations, joining it back in 2009. “Healthy Generations provides health sessions for older residents. Back then it was music concerts and singalongs in day centres and care homes with founder Peter Crockett fronting the band – it’s where I cut my fundraising teeth!”

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“I joined SLT in February 2019,” says Adam, now 50, who originally came to London aged 18 to study Law at UCL. “It’s wonderful working for an organisation that genuinely understands mental health and disability and its many forms. Over 90 per cent of SLT participants identify as living with a disability affecting everyday life and that includes me.”

For Adam, being diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson’s at 45 meant a life rethink. “I couldn’t commute to work anymore, so I thought the ideal job would be in a small, local charity. Soon a role came up at Stuart Low Trust and it is perfect. It’s a very small team. I’ve worked for charities before where there are a lot of administrative people, but this is a lean team that achieves a lot” he says on Zoom from the Holloway living room which has some of his own atmospheric framed nature photos on the wall, and one of his wife, Sarah, with their border terrier, Barney.

During the two years of on-off lockdowns, SLT, which has an office at White Lion Street, N1 and supports isolated people and people with mental health issues in particular during out-of-normal work hours has nailed online delivery. Options on Zoom in February 2022 include singing together, virtual art visits, virtual nature and gardening sessions as well as the chance to explore mindfulness, join yoga classes, listen to a talk or think big thoughts in the Sunday philosophy discussion group.

“We genuinely design everything with participants,” explains Adam. “At the moment there is no face-to-face [Friday night buffet and an activity at St Mary’s community centre off Upper Street was a weekly SLT highlight] but there will be again. We’ve found that going online reaches a huge number of vulnerable residents who are very difficult to engage. We keep in contact with those not online through old-fashioned postal newsletter. We also started making free DVDs (eg, SLT and Chris the Happy Gardener Bringing Nature Inside) for those residents who have hearing or sight impairment – before we had no way of reaching them, so they had no knowledge of, or access to, what we have on offer.”

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Places Adam Wilson loves in Islington

• Gillespie Park – it’s a clever way of giving what people used to think of as derelict railway land over to nature. There’s not that much wild green space in Islington that is this good, both for nature and for our wellbeing. My wildlife highlight: I’ve seen a newt there.
• I can’t really cope with the crowds at football now, but I used to try and go to the Emirates. A former colleague has a platinum season ticket and she’d give us a couple of seats if she couldn’t go. Last game seen: Arsenal v. Stoke City a while back. Football crowds and Finsbury Park station can be a nightmare when you have disabilities as people are never all going in one direction, slowly!
• I like the old Highbury stadium. My mum worked at William Tyndale School in the late 1950s and had a boyfriend who took her to a match. Last time I saw a match there was 1998 v. Dynamo Kiev, I’ve still got the programme! I was offered a flat there when it was converted into housing, but I couldn’t afford it.
• In the nineties I used to go to the charity shops around Angel, bolstering my burgeoning book and music collections. Upper Street was more bohemian at one time, with second-hand record shops and antiques in Camden Passage in the 1990s and Chapel Market every Saturday. Islington has changed a lot, it’s become more and more gentrified, which makes the inequalities even more stark. At one time pre-Covid, Stuart Low Trust was thinking of selling vintage clothing at Chapel Market. I had some previous experience from a bookstall at St Martin-in-the-Fields, but the practicalities stopped me – and it’s a very early start! But Stuart Low Trust’s CEO Hannah Kalmanowitz visits the Angel Canal Festival every September and does a stall there which always goes down well.

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Connecting nature and art
Putting Adam’s old contact-book to good use,  SLT is forging partnerships to help local residents find interesting things to do together that make them – and our environment – better. “We’ve secured seven new partnerships to provide socially therapeutic activities, with organisations including London Wildlife Trust, Mildmay Community Gardens and National Youth Theatre.  “A lot of vulnerable people want to engage with nature and arts and many groups offering access to nature and arts want to engage people with mental health issues, but sometimes that is not easy. There is distrust of some national organisations and people. At Stuart Low Trust it is different, our need is designed by talking with participants who are all local. We have a lot of regular people and consistency is important. We don’t yet fully understand why art and nature improve wellbeing, but working with participants engaging with nature or making art in response to what they’ve seen, for example a tour of  Camley Street Nature Reserve, species ID and a butterfly survey or litter picking, builds self-confidence and somehow gives a sense of fulfilment, while facilitating meaningful social connections.”

Even more importantly, activities set up by SLT combat the despair and isolation which underpin the high suicide rate in Islington – the original reason the charity was set up. See this interview with Hannah Kalmanowitz here.

Like many people interviewed for Islington Faces Adam has a wealth of skills. He’s a keen photographer, life-long nature and wildlife enthusiast but also a skilled musician, composer and songwriter. See the links below to enjoy his music.

In some ways Adam is amused by his life story, calling it a: “Chequered career – as I trained as a lawyer, but it wasn’t for me. Then I was a drummer in two bands – a country-noire outfit and the other art rock (think Pink Floyd meets R.E.M. at XTC’s house), both very obscure. I often played in both bands on the same bill, regularly at the legendary Hope & Anchor on Upper Street, taking the stage once occupied by the likes of Ian Dury, Blondie, U2 and local boys Madness. I remember playing there exactly 20 years after Suggs made his debut as frontman.”

“I was also a secondhand bookseller for five years at Skoob Books in Sicilian Avenue, Holborn. We also published books about black magic, esoterica, bizarre poetry and as well as new writing in English from the Asia-Pacific region, and the publishing office was in Lorraine Road by the Harvist Estate, Hornsey Road. My flatmate managed the shop and he got me doing an afternoon a week to keep me out of trouble and then two days paying royalties, writing copy and dealing  with authors. It was very hand-to-mouth and then the internet started to take over and big US chains like Borders opening at the Angel Centre N1, and this really changed things.” In fact, Skoob Books is still a great place to find secondhand treasure with two shops doing brisk trade at the Brunswick Centre near Russell Square tube.

Besides music, another constant has been Adam’s passion for birds and wildlife and he finds he can get his bird fix even in super central urban London. In fact, it’s led to a string of fulfilling volunteer roles.

“I grew up in Hertfordshire and used to see Camley Street Natural Park from the train with my dad when we came into King’s Cross in the 1980s. I became a volunteer there in 2009, doing hands-on conservation work for London Wildlife Trust (LWT manage the site) and then became a trustee until 2015. It’s really satisfying that I have been instrumental in bringing SLT participants to the park through a partnership with SLT.

There are so many species in this former hinterland between the station and the intensive high rise development. I’ve seen kingfishers, cormorants, orange tip butterflies and common blue butterflies.” The only creatures Adam isn’t so fond of are invasive species that will eat anything, like the goldfish at Gillespie Park and the famous red-eared terrapin at Camley Street. “It would sit on a log in the pond but disappear when we’d wade out to try and catch it,” he says laughing, perhaps thinking of an idea for a future song?

Thank you so much to Adam for his breadth of creativity and practicality in all that he’s done for Londoners, and especially for biodiversity and mental health support.

• Insta: @adamwilson7340
• adamwilson.picfair.com/
• https://www.zuberecords.com/adam-wilson/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpOA1Utr1qg
• https://open.spotify.com/artist/2ZhfyBAIVkqQgFE6MriarF
• https://open.spotify.com/album/6U4P3JTzt11rBgmitRbk2i
• Stuart Low Trust info at https://www.slt.org.uk/
• London Wildlife Trust   https://www.wildlondon.org.uk

Over to you
Also if you’d like to nominate someone to be interviewed who grew up, lives or works in Islington, or suggest yourself, please let me know, via islingtonfaces@gmail.com Thank you to Hannah for suggesting this interviewee. If you enjoyed this post you might like to look at the A-Z  index, or search by interviewee’s roles or Meet Islingtonians to find friends, neighbours and inspiration. Thanks for stopping by. Nicola