Estimated reading time:9 minutes, 12 seconds
Everyone has an energy story – this is a 2021 Islington Faces project which will see locals asked what puzzles them about trying to change our carbon hungry habits & find and share solutions from people who live locally.
Everyone has an energy story #4.
Just like Covid-19, climate change effects everyone, but not equally. We all know that climate change is making some bits of the world harder to live in but did you know that we’re already seeing people having to move because their homes and livelihoods are being effected by extreme weather changes? You could call them climate refugees. The UN estimates that there are more than 20 million people having to move for this reason each year, see here. Meanwhile the decades of austerity cuts in the UK has left many people in real poverty. So what can we do in Islington? Turns out there is plenty: this interview looks at a community initiative that empowered anyone with spare, unwanted clothing to pass them on to people who needed something warm to wear urgently. Each Energy Story interview is triggered by the questions local people ask Islington Faces about cutting carbon/tackling climate change.
If you find this interview useful please do share – in fact how about sharing it with at least one or two people you know who might find it useful, especially in Islington? Please do send in any questions you have about cutting carbon – in particular for getting around, staying warm/cool and growing food via islingtonfaces@gmail.com
Everyone has an energy story. During the coldest months of 2021 Jay Adeyemi and two friends ran a take-one-leave-one (TOLO) clothes swap rail on Sundays by the gates of Finsbury Park. Hundreds of people donated jackets and jumpers etc and/or were also able to take good quality warm clothing to make the coldest months of winter bearable. Here’s how this community clothes swap operated. Interview by Nicola Baird. Photos by Kimi Gill
Jay Adeyemi set up a TOLO rail in Finsbury Park. (c) Kimi Gill for Islington Faces
Introducing Jay
Jay Adeyemi lives in Tufnell Park in the same house he spent his early years until his family moved away from Islington. “Dad kept a hold of the house and when I moved back to London about five years ago, I was back in the house I was brought up in. But I’ve levelled up to the master bedroom and now rent out two rooms,” he says with a big smile chatting to Islington Faces over Zoom.
Over the past year marketing executive Jay Adeyemi’s had the full pandemic experience. He fell ill with Covid-19 in March 2020, has dealt with the new normal of work from home doing student recruitment for UCL, has fallen out with housemates, found new housemates, had his two tenants get sick with Covid-19 in the second wave (January 2021) and started volunteering for the community by setting up a take-one-leave-one rail (TOLO) on Sundays close to Finsbury Park, near Lidl. It was open from late January – early March 2021.
Q: What made you set up a TOLO rail in Finsbury Park?
Jay, 35, did a Marketing & Advertising degree and is still close friends with people he met at Hull University. “I’ve always been with people who like to give back to the community – or raise money, by running the Hackney Half (I cheer them on!). In December we organised Christmas hampers and used all our links to get people to donate up to £30 each and then all the money was split between the Trussell Trust (food bank) and Under One Sky (supporting people who are homeless) raising about £3,500.”
“My friend from university, Saf Suleyman, set up the TOLO rail in Peckham at the start of February after being inspired by the original Take-One-Leave-One in Exmouth Market, EC1. He was talking about it a lot and it piqued my interest. Because it was lockdown I knew I couldn’t support him, but it’s an outside space so on his second week I went to visit him and was totally blown away by the operation, how much need there was and how much people benefitted. People were coming in just T shirts and walking away with a jumper, jacket and hat.”
Saf wanted to set up TOLO rails all over London, and thought the concept would work well in north London. “I thought Finsbury Park could fit a TOLO, so said ‘why don’t I do it’? He then dropped off a TOLO banner, clothes, PPE and I managed to get some of my friends to donate a couple of rails. We started a week after, and it just blew up. We were getting a name in the community and saw week-on-week it was busier. It was just really nice to meet different people and see people supporting people who were in need.”
Inspired by a friend in Peckham, Jay Adeyemi set up a TOLO rail in Finsbury Park. (c) Kimi Gill for Islington Faces
Places Jay likes in Islington
- I like walking – my favourite route is the Parkland Walk up from Finsbury Park. I like the clocktower in Cally Park too. https://callypark.london/
- Bread by Bike on 30 Brecknock Road do really nice sourdough and bougie coffee – I’ll have a chai latte with oat milk.
- I love the beer garden at the Faltering Fullback, 19 Perth Road, N4 but you have to get there at 10am in the morning to sit there. I’ve made it about three times! I’ll probably order a Beavertown Neck Oil (IPA). Top tip: since pubs reopened in April 2020 there are tables in the school playground and outside at the Faltering Fullback.
Jay Adeyemi set up a TOLO rail in Finsbury Park during the coldest winter months where people dropped off warm clothing and other people took what they needed. (c) Kimi Gill for Islington Faces
Q How much time did it take running the TOLO?
“It didn’t take a lot of work. There was a bit of social media throughout the week and then on the Sunday being there from 11am and ensuing the PPE was always right. Setting up in the pandemic at Finsbury Park we were always vigilant of PPE, social distancing, wore face masks and sanitising – every time someone tried on a jacket and also every 10-15 minutes we used disinfectant spray on the rail.”
While Jay was busy with Finsbury Park, TOLO were appearing around the country. “Saf put loads of social media behind it, so the TOLO grew from one rail to 30 in the space of seven or eight weeks in Bristol, Edinburgh, Cheltenham, Warwick, Newcastle and many over London, including three across Islington at Highbury & Islington; Finsbury Park and Angel.”
The plan was to stop around March, operating only during the really cold winter months. But Jay explains that there’s flexibility for each TOLO. “Even though it’s a group thing, you manage your own rail, so can extend it for as long as you want. At Finsbury Park we did seven TOLO – I ran it with two friends, who also live locally, Lizzy Dale and Ella Somales-Little.”
Jay Adeyemi plans to run a TOLO rail in Finsbury Park again, but not until the winter. (c) Kimi Gill for Islington Faces
Q: How busy was the TOLO at Finsbury Park?
“People in Finsbury Park were very receptive. After 3rd or 4th week we had 10-15 people waiting for us when we turned up. In the first week I came with 2 bags, by the end I came back home with 5 bags of donations for the. Next week. Most Sundays I’d take three or four big IKEA bags to the rail, and then get a turnaround of coats and jumpers. In the last week (14 March) I just finished with 2 bags, so it was really good clothes recycling. We’ve been left with mainly female items which I’ll pass to Care4Calais. Every week we’d do a ‘Male items needed’ post, and sometimes we’d have to turn away female clothing. There was too much, I didn’t know what to do with it!” https://care4calais.org/
“In my first week I set up my rail outside the Arsenal shop because it’s really visible. Unfortunately, I had to move because the space is owned by TfL, but passers-by were really nice – they read our banner, asked what it was about and later in the day might come back with clothes. One woman donated 15 really nice handmade scarves so we were able to tell the story when we gave them out. We managed to link up with Arsenal-in-the-Community who gave 300-400 pairs of extra warm gloves, that normally go to the stewards for football matches. I ran down to the Emirates then shared the gloves out with TOLO Peckham. A couple of weeks later we were filmed by BBC London News and connected up with nearby St John’s food kitchen on Sunday (open 12 noon – 2pm). My favourite moment was when we were given 15-20 three-quarter length, really warm branded Arsenal jackets. It was crazy in an Arsenal-mad place: those coats were gone in 30 minutes and everyone in the community came to see the coats. Some people took one and then came back to donate several jackets or more items of clothing which I found quite nice. Karma works in mysterious ways.”
Q: What did you learn from running the TOLO?
“The whole point of the rail was to have no judgement. You can’t see what people’s vulnerabilities are when they come up to you. We knew there’d be people who just needed warm clothing… In my third week someone contacted me who was a refugee and 28 weeks pregnant. She’d come from Portugal and didn’t have any warm clothing. She found me on Facebook and as she was quarantining in a hotel, I took her some jumpers, large jackets, hats and sanitary stuff – the TOLO rail managed to help someone in way we hadn’t expected.
@finsburyparktolo
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Do you have any questions about deep retrofit that you’d like answered? Or what about other questions that you are finding as you think about how to decarbonise your life or tackle climate change, eg, about travel, food, energy use? Send us a message via islingtonfaces@gmail.com
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 islingtonfaces@gmail.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 to Jake for suggesting Jay. And thanks for stopping by. Nicola
