Prepping for the Restore Nature Now rally at Islington Climate Centre

Everyone has a story. Behind the scenes at Islington Climate Centre during a busy half term getting ready for the Restore Nature Now rally with Bridget, Anna, Marcus and Emmanuel. Interview by Nicola Baird

Bridget Turgoose, the Creative Coordinator for XR UK is surrounded by half-completed worms but still fretting over missing materials needed for her next half term art session at the Islington Climate Centre in Angel Central. She’s already had a busy morning helping young visitors and their carers convert air duct piping and women’s tights into rather realistic – but three metre long – worms. Finished, these beasties look like a biology project with their snub-shaped head, cone-shaped tail, pinkish-thin body and realistic clitellum (that band in the middle where the worm’s eggs are stored).

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Bridget, who lives in Newington Green, has helped created thousands of flags and banners over the past few years for XR – she reckons it could be 20,000 flags and two miles of banners.

Rally time
Her new challenge is to create realistic-looking, portable images of the natural world to join the Restore Nature Now rally on 22 June. At this march and rally Extinction Rebellion (better known as XR) is joining with around 100 organisations including the big environment and nature NGOs like Friends of the Earth, RSPB, the Wildlife Trusts and the National Trust. TV presenter and wildlife campaigner Chris Packham is also a key part of this event. The aim of this big march through central London towards Westminster is to make clear that “the General Election (now on July 4) must be a turning point for nature before it is too late.”

Not only is Bridget helping at Islington Climate Centre, she’s also been working with XR volunteers to help people express their love of nature as they march. “It will be beautiful,” she says. “There will be a moving meadow in the land section with dormice and wildflowers. The water section has got waterways, including the sea and we’ve been making creatures of the deep.”

The challenge is to make the animals look real as, “the brief from Chris Packham is don’t go for cartoonish or anthropomorphism in the design,” says Bridget.

Marcus Duran chats to Islington Faces while his five-year-old, Emmanuel, tackles basic worm construction. “We’ve already made a flag with six big creatures,” says Marcus. There’s then some debate between the pair about which these were, but eventually they unroll their flag and see it freshly printed with an octopus, bird (thrush), squirrel, hare, snail and bat.

“We heard about the march from my wife and we’re thinking of going, so came here during half term,” says Marcus as Emmanuel uses the last of the bubble wrap to proudly create his worm’s head. Nature is so important: it provides a sense of connectedness and wellbeing and puts us in our place. It’s a reminder that we are bigger than our selfish selves. Living in big cities we’ve become very alienated from nature.”

Nature places in Islington that Marcus and Emmanuel love

Maybe you feel nature depleted too? If so here are some ideas about where to enjoy green and blue space around Islington whatever the weather.

1. The New River. A lot of people don’t know that it exists. It’s really beautiful. Recently Islington council has led on rewilding and regenerating it. You can tell that therie is much more thought in it as a habitat. We’ve seen recently frogs, turtles and foxes as well as lots of birds. Here’s info about what the work involved.
2. Islington Ecology Centre. We like walking there and around Gillespie Park. Nearest tube is Arsenal.
3. Parkland Walk. You can cycle such a long distance without contact with any roads. I love the secrecy of it. It’s a lovely place to introduce people to.
4. Islington Climate Centre in Angel Central. I love the way it’s often busy with children making art.
5. At Highbury Fields we usually go to the children’s playground, but the trees are stunning.
6. I also really like Regent’s Canal and love to walk and cycle along it.
7. Residents are lucky to have an allotment on the Marquess Estate and that’s been a good way for me to meet people. There’s a real social aspect to that allotment. Some people are good at growing, but most people are just enjoying the lovely space.

Connecting to nature
“For all my cycling and walking I do sometimes feel nature depleted. I used to work near Springfield Park and that’s a nature fix. But I live near Essex Road and it’s very intense. I find it tiring especially when there’s a heavy rain or it’s very hot – the urban infrastructure feels depleting,” adds Marcus.

There are many reasons for the way Marcus is feeling. As XR points out “The UK is ranked as one of the worst countries in the world for nature loss, with 1 in 6 wildlife species at risk of extinction in Great Britain. UK policies have also been rated as inadequate to the scale of the nature and climate crisis. In its annual progress report, the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) said that ‘the UK is ‘largely off track to meet its environmental ambitions, and must speed up and scale up its efforts in order to achieve them’. And the Committee on Climate Change  has analysed UK action as insufficient to meet emission reduction targets, and reported that the UK is no longer seen as a climate leader.”

Joining the Restore Nature Now rally will help policymakers see how many people really care about nature being destroyed on our watch.

Details

• Meet at Islington Climate Centre at 10.30am on Saturday 22 June to go with a group.
• Or look for the ICC lime green banner, bordered by patchwork and emblazoned with print-block animals when you make your own way to Hyde Park Corner. Ideally arrive here before 12 noon.
• As XR has made clear this is a legal and family-friendly march, see press release from 24 April 2024. https://extinctionrebellion.uk/2024/04/24/extinction-rebellion-unites-with-wildlife-and-climate-campaigners-for-biggest-march-to-save-natural-world/
• More info about the Restore Nature Now rally on this website.
• There are lots of events at Islington Climate Centre including sessions with Shade the UK talking about 40 degree heat stories.
• Book a free ticket for The Last Laugh show about the climate and ecological crises by comedian-ecologist Tom Wakeford on Sunday 16 June, 7pm at Islington Climate Centre. Eventbrite link here.

Over to you
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 nicolabaird dot green at gmail dot com. 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