We’ve submitted a funding bid to Southwark council to host a range of Puppet and Story telling events and workshops (The local business owners in Bermondsey through their Business Improvement District are more than match funding the project, if the council also decide to support the project). What I’ve learned from events in Bermondsey this year is that events that involve lots of workshops in the run up to a final event get collective community buy-in and therefore participation, along with community spirit. The impact is therefore great. Below is an outline of what we are hoping to deliver.
8 x Free public community workshops May – July 2025 in The Blue Market Place
13 x Community Out Reach Workshops May – July 2025:
2 x Seniors story sharing workshops at Appleby Blue
5 x Puppet show development workshops at City of London Academy
1 workshop and performance at Bede Centre for people with Learning Disabilities
Storytelling Workshops at St James Primary School
Storytelling Workshops at Galleywall Primary School
Storytelling Workshops at Boutcher Primary School
Puppet show development workshops at Harris Academy Bermondsey (TBC)
Puppet Making Workshops at Ellen Brown Centre (TBC)
Puppet Making Workshops at OBC Youth Centre (TBC)
Grand Finale Day Event: Bermondsey Spa Gardens, Spa Road, SE1 3EU Sunday 12 July 2026
8 public workshops will be held in the north section of The Blue Market while traders operate as usual in the south. They will be led and curated by artists of various cultural backgrounds. We’ll have African storytelling, Claymation and Japanese Eisa dancer puppets, finger-puppet crafting and more to produce objects for the grand finale. These 8 events will engage local families, building excitement and an audience for the finale event in Spa Gardens. These workshops and demonstrations plan to engage over 1000 participants and spectators over 8 weeks May – July 2025.
13 targeted workshops will be with local schools, care centres and clubs, collecting stories from elders at Appleby Blue, and working with groups from Galleywall Primary, St James’ Primary, City of London Academy Southwark, Boutcher Primary and Bede Centre for people with learning disabilities. We would develop our community connections around Bermondsey Spa by offering workshops to Harris Academy, OBC Youth Club, and Ellen Brown Children’s Centre. These groups will collaborate on writing a script, puppet making, and performing the grand finale. These workshops will aim to engage 200+ participants in hand-on creative activities working closely with professional facilitators to produce a quality show.
The Grand Finale will be held in Spa Gardens, SE1, on Sunday 26th July 2026. Trees for Bermondsey and “Bell’s Cafe” (independent business in the gardens) will also be invited to participate in the festival day and will bring their followers with them. Our site will comprise a covered stage, art tents around the perimeter for drop-in workshops, and food stalls. Infrastructure and safety measures, wheelchair accessible portable toilets, lighting, sound, a green generator, stewards, SIA security, a first aider, waste collection, and risk management protocols will also be included. We would expect 499 attendance at one time and 1000 over the day.
Our main event will take place in nearby Bermondsey Spa, outside the Blue Bermondsey BID (BBB) area, and build relationships with neighbours at Harris Academy, Ellen Brown Children’s Centre, Boutcher Primary, OBC Youth Centre and Bermondsey Spa Cafe. BBB have proposed £12,500 funding and we are looking for match funding of £10,000 from Southwark to unlock our ambitious programme which extends far beyond the BID’s boundaries.