The Trampery Fish Island Village has officially opened its doors, offering around 50,000sq ft of space for innovative and sustainable fashion businesses in Hackney Wick and Fish Island.
Spread over 10 buildings along the Hertford Union Canal, its facilities include 42 studios ranging in size from 150sq ft to 2,000sq ft, 21 affordable studios and 28 desks for fashion-tech startups in its co-working space.
There’s also a 1,000sq ft sustainable manufacturing facility, a venue to host catwalks, sample sales and speeches, meeting rooms, seminar rooms, a lounge for members and a cafe and bar with a canalside terrace.
The facility was officially opened this month by deputy mayor for culture and the creative industries Justine Simons on behalf of the Mayor Of London.
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The Trampery Fish Island Village offers spaces suitable for one to two people, right up to studios for seven to 12.
Desk membership at The Trampery Village Hall costs £220 per month with studios available from £363 per month starting at £30 per sq ft.
Justine officially opens The Trampery Dish Island Village
she says
Deputy mayor for culture and the creative industries, Justine Simons, officially opened The Trampery Fish Island Village on behalf of the Mayor Of London.
She said: “This is a really important moment in the creative life of London. We started talking about this in 2016 and here we are.
“This is a city of makers, doers and dreamers – our city runs on creative energy.
“But forging a creative career in London is not easy. You need grit, determination and perseverance.
“It also requires space and this facility is a brilliant example of what we can achieve when we work together to deliver it at affordable rates.”
The Trampery Fish Island Village operates space across 10 buildings in area
he says
For Charles Armstrong, CEO of The Trampery, the launch of its Fish Island Village is a significant milestone in the social enterprise’s history.
He said: “This is the largest project The Trampery has ever delivered. It’s been very complicated, so to reach the launch and to celebrate it with all of our partners and friends, was one of the most exciting days of my life.
“There are two specific things I’m really hoping for from The Trampery Fish Island Village.
“First is that it becomes a new focal point for sustainable fashion in London and that, over the decades, we can help hundreds and hundreds of young labels to advance innovative ideas that reduce waste, improve labour conditions and that make the industry better.
“Secondly, I hope this will be an anchor that will enable the creative community in Hackney Wick and Fish Island to grow.
“I think a lot of people feared that after the Olympics, with the property development that followed it, the creative community would die out.
“The Trampery is really determined that shouldn’t happen, so to provide our largest ever workspace here, supported by the Mayor Of London, the London Legacy Development Corporation and local people, is really important.
“East London has Europe’s greatest concentration of artists and professionals, so I don’t think there is any limit in demand for the kinds of facilities we are providing here.
“Our ambitions aren’t limited to this area and, over the coming years, we’ll be opening facilities more widely, but our soul will always be in east London.”
- Jon Massey is co-founder and editorial director of Wharf Life and writes about a wide range of subjects in Canary Wharf, Docklands and east London - contact via jon.massey@wharf-life.com
Before we begin our walk across the 53 acres that British Land (BL) is regenerating on Rotherhithe peninsula, Roger Madelin indulges in a raspberry croissant at Canada Water Cafe (only £2.70 for those who fancy a treat).
The place is packed. Local residents are meeting, chatting and working at tables. It’s the kind of image developers like to mock up on computers to show the thriving neighbourhoods their schemes will hopefully create.
It’s also cause for Roger to reflect on the fact that BL has a very rare opportunity at Canada Water – a project it describes as a chance to “build London’s first new town centre in 50 years” at the heart of a mature, expectant community.
Carpeted with mostly suburban housing in the first flush of Docklands regeneration, the area is already home to residents, increasingly attracted by its close proximity to both the central London and Canary Wharf, thanks to the Jubilee line, but also to east and south London via the Overground.
Roger tells me it’s within 45 minutes of more places in the capital than anywhere else.
As joint head of Canada Water at BL, there’s a glint in his eye as he talks about the firm’s ambitions for the area.
Having spent 29 years at developer Argent overseeing the projects across the country such as Brindleyplace in Birmingham and the rebirth of King’s Cross in north London, there’s a sense that he couldn’t quite resist this one.
“BL noticed I was leaving Argent and asked if I wanted to come and run Canada Water,” he said.
“At first I was sceptical, I didn’t want to do a residential development, which is what I thought it would be.
“But then I came down here and realised it would be an opportunity to build a new town centre – what an extraordinary privilege.
“Then you get to ask what that is and I think it’s about health, environment and sustainability.
“Everyone in the world should regard urban places as very important and I think both Canada Water and Canary Wharf can be exemplars for how to reposition areas as urban centres.”
British Land’s joint head of Canada Water, Roger Madelin
While Canary Wharf continues its transition from pure business district to a place that’s home to companies, residential housing and a potent blend of leisure and hospitality attractions, Canada Water is still in the first chapter of its journey.
Concrete cores are rising on the first of its new buildings, which will include a new leisure centre for the area and social housing on the site’s eastern periphery.
But these first structures are very much the vanguard in what will be a transformation of a plot that includes the whole of Surrey Quays Shopping Centre, the old Harmsworth Quay Printworks and connects Southwark Park with Greenland Dock and Russia Dock Woodland.
“With the planning permission we have, we can create a new urban centre,” said Roger.
“We have the ability to flex from 3million sq ft of commercial space to 4million – likewise we can build a minimum of 2,000 homes or a maximum of just under 4,000.
“Similarly, we can build up to 1million sq ft of retail and leisure space – we may not do that, but it will be a substantial amount. With the current shopping centre and leisure park, the area has about 350,000sq ft.
“As an overview, we’ll have about 35 new buildings, 20 acres of new public space and a 3.5-acre park.
“Many of our buildings will be five storeys high to protect the view of St Paul’s from Greenwich, so this will be on a human scale and I think that will attract people.
“The development I was involved with at King’s Cross has more people going there at weekends than to work during the week.
“There are dozens of places around London that are teeming with people on Saturday and Sunday.
“It’s great for people that live in them, but we also want people living outside to come here and enjoy themselves.”
British Land intends to preserve The Printworks building as a cultural venue
That attitude has doubtless been bolstered by the success of event and music venue Printworks, which has seen Harmsworth Quays’ immense press halls regularly fill with revellers enjoying some of the very best electronic music in London.
While originally conceived as a temporary use for the vast building in partnership with Broadwick Live, the plan is now to preserve the venue as part of the overall scheme, enclosing and enlarging the existing building and creating a park next to it.
“I credit my wife entirely for the decision to explore retaining the whole building,” said Roger.
“She and I walked round here in the summer of 2015 and she immediately saw the amazing opportunity it presented and asked what we were going to do with it.
“I said the assumption was that we would knock it down because it looked a bit harsh but she said we shouldn’t because nothing like it would get built again.
“Today, of course, you’d start with that assumption because of all the embodied carbon in the building.
“That was a little in my mind at the time, but not as much as today, when the view is where possible you don’t touch existing buildings.
“So, after three years of investigations – drilling, digging and studying – we’re pretty confident it was built a lot better than we even hoped, so we have applied for planning permission to keep it and extend it.
“If that’s successful, we’ll aim to be opening it by the end of 2025 – an amazing cultural venue to complement the others in the city.
“We already know the acoustics are extraordinary, whether it’s an electronic music event or a BBC Prom, both of which have been hosted there.”
Another artist’s impression of how The Printworks could look
This article is, naturally, far too short to do justice to the extent and depth of BL’s Canada Water project.
Even a brief walk to its borders reveals the sheer scale of the project, with plans for a new pedestrian bridge across Canada Water itself, which will also include work to boost wetland habitats and see the water level pumped up.
Already there’s been space made for charitable endeavours, work to help boost startups and a facelift for Surrey Quays Shopping Centre itself, including wallball courts and a new climbing wall.
Then there’s investment in a modular building for TEDI-London – a new higher education enterprise co-funded by King’s College London, Arizona State University and UNSW Sydney and focused on engineering – that was erected in only six weeks.
While some of these are temporary benefits, they significantly add to the buzz of the area and provide a flavour of BL’s direction of travel as the wider project continues to unfold.
“If we could do something here with applied engineering higher education, that would excite me,” said Roger.
“How we deal with the world always involves engineers sorting stuff out and I think, in the UK, the sector has had a bad rap in the past.
“The other things I think are crucial is what we do with the new high street, which will be along Deal Porters Way – what it means to build a space like that now and how we create the public spaces and routes to the amazing parks, docks and woods that are already here.
“We want to make it so that if you have nothing on your agenda for the weekend and you want to stay in London, then you’ll just go to Canada Water and all the amazing stuff that’s there.
“King’s Cross is great – I think this will be bigger, better and greener from a public space point of view.”
An artist’s impression of the first phase from Canada Water station
- Jon Massey is co-founder and editorial director of Wharf Life and writes about a wide range of subjects in Canary Wharf, Docklands and east London - contact via jon.massey@wharf-life.com
All in all, 2023 is shaping up to be a big year for Chris Ezekiel and Creative Virtual – the company he founded on the Isle Of Dogs in November 2003. In 12 months time, he and his colleagues will be celebrating its 20th birthday.
But before that happens, there’s the small matter of becoming a father for the second time and – business-wise – the firm is set for a major release of its V-Person software, named Gluon.
The software is the platform that has allowed Creative Virtual to grow into a global concern, from its base next to Canary Wharf at Cannon Workshops.
From there, housed in the honey brick of the Grade II listed former cooperage beside West India Quay, Chris and his team compete with the likes of Microsoft, IBM and Google in the field of conversational artificial intelligence (AI).
Together, they have built a business with global reach, servicing clients across the world including the likes of HSBC and Lloyds Banking Group – one of the firm’s first clients and still a customer today.
In 2022, Creative Virtual has operations in the UK, the US, Europe, Australia, Singapore and in India. It’s a Docklands business trading with the world.
“We’re still independent, which is a bit unusual for a tech company in the fast-paced world of AI,” said Chris.
“I always started it for the long-term, and over the years we’ve had quite a few offers to purchase the company, which I continue to refuse.
“I’m just enjoying it and we’re competing in that area we’re operating in – conversational AI is all the rage now.
“For me, it’s about working with incredible people who are passionate about innovation, creativity and technology – some things are more important than money.
“We don’t have investors so what we do isn’t linked to their short term goals.
“While Elon Musk has recently bought Twitter, I reflected the other day that he could not buy Creative Virtual. It’s great to have that independence.”
The company’s position comes through its success developing and implementing chatbots for clients.
These might be used by a firm’s customers, employees or its customer services personnel as a resource to assist clients.
Gluons hold quarks together at a subatomic level so they can become atoms and ultimately everything in the universe
With almost 20 years in business and numerous accolades – among them a Queen’s Award For Enterprise in 2017 – Chris said the company continued to prioritise innovation, investing its profits to grow.
“It was always the dream to become a global company,” he said. “But you don’t often get a chance to step back and consider what you’ve built.
“We pride ourselves on having a really quirky, passionate team – a really eclectic mix of individuals. It also allows us to be adaptable and to work in markets all around the world.
“Travelling to these different locations really brings it home and having the fantastic customers we do really helps.
“Being able to explore creativity and innovation with those companies and partners has been amazing over the years. It’s what keeps us going.”
That ongoing drive has resulted in Gluon, which Chris said would be the foundation of Creative Virtual’s work for many years to come.
It’s aptly named after an elementary particle that holds quarks together to form subatomic particles such as protons and neutrons – the basis for atoms and ultimately everything in the universe.
It’s also a reflection of the Creative Virtual founder and CEO’s love of physics.
“I have a picture of Richard Feynman above my desk with his quote that you should not fool yourself and that you’re also the easiest person to fool,” said Chris.
“That’s something I always focus on because it’s really important to keep things in perspective, to keep them real.
“With Gluon we’re very excited because, while we do small software releases every month or so and major ones roughly every 12 months, this is the kind that only comes along once every four years.”
Gluon as software bears some similarities to gluon particles in that they both connect elements to create something of greater complexity and function.
Gluon is designed to work within the composable enterprise system
“First of all, the new software allows us to integrate our system with lots of other systems at a large enterprise,” said Chris.
“That might include CRM systems and data management systems, for example.
“There’s a lot of buzz around AI and we’ve seen chatbots that use machine learning as a black box without any control over the responses the system is giving.
“We’ve always taken a different path, combining AI with humans overseeing the system, and Gluon will make that easier.
“The way we’re combining those two elements is unique in the industry and Gluon makes it super easy for organisations to use.
“The way it’s configured and the reports that come out of it make it really efficient and also controllable.
“There’s also a lot of interest in something called the ‘Composable Enterprise’ which is all about plugging systems together.
“Gluon fits perfectly into that to become a key piece of the jigsaw.
“We intend to launch in the early part of next year. We already have a test version available and have done 50 demonstrations so far.
“The feedback has been incredible. We sell direct to customers, but we also work through some partners in the world and everybody’s been unanimous in their positive responses.
“It’s a great way to develop, because the feedback is very specific.
“Taking our time is very important, because we’ve been able to listen to what people are saying while we are developing the software.
“We can be more flexible with our customers because we don’t have pressure from investors.
“It’s funny for me on a personal level, because people wondered whether having a 16-month-old now and another on the way in February would change my view about the company and whether it would be time to sell – but it hasn’t one little bit.
“I am often asked how difficult it is to separate the business from my personal life, but my view is that you should give up doing that because it stresses you out.
“If you’re an entrepreneur, you’ve got to build it into your life – it is your life and you have to find a way to do that.
“Having a supportive group of people around you, both inside work and outside, and having some hobbies and interests is essential. I snowboard and watch West Ham to relax.
“But at the end of the day business is business, you shouldn’t take it too seriously.
“That might sound odd from someone who has to pay all the bills and make sure the people who work for me can pay their bills – but knowing there are more important things in the world keeps me level-headed.
“It’s a balance and as long as you can say overall you’re happy with that balance, then you’re in a good place.
- Jon Massey is co-founder and editorial director of Wharf Life and writes about a wide range of subjects in Canary Wharf, Docklands and east London - contact via jon.massey@wharf-life.com
My interview with actor, playwright, author and star of this year’s Greenwich Theatre panto, Anthony Spargo, begins with farce.
I dial the number I think I’ve been given. There’s no reply. Eventually following an answerphone message a woman answers.
“Is this Anthony?” No, it’s Jane. I suppress an urge to shout “Oh no it isn’t”, and accept I’ve got the number wrong.
Time is short, I’m on a deadline.
Flustered, I check my handwriting and discover a four should be a nine. I can’t get through on this number either.
Then my phone rings. It’s Jane. Oh yes it is! She’s confused and baffled by the number of missed calls and we exchange embarrassed pleasantries.
Meanwhile, my phone fields another call.
This time it is Anthony, now available and ready to chat.
I hardly know who’s who and certainly not whether my contact with Jane is behind me or if there’s more to come.
Fortunately this all turns out to be excellent preparation for an interview about a show that’s full of top notch deception and cunning.
“One of the central themes in Robin Hood is disguise,” said Anthony, not Jane.
“Pretty much everyone is pretending to be someone who they’re not at some point.
“Robin gets to wear three or four disguises over the course of the panto.
“You can imagine the over-the-top, ridiculous costumes we have, including for some of the band – but we don’t want to reveal too much at this stage.”
A veteran panto villain – having spent 11 years on the Greenwich stage soaking up the boos and hisses of exercised audiences – Anthony has taken on a bigger role in 2022.
This is the first year he’s both written and appeared in the theatre’s festive production – taking on the mantle from Andrew Pollard who has left the team after a celebrated 15-year run as writer and dame.
While Anthony said he would undoubtedly miss acting opposite his old friend, audiences could expect the new show to be a descendant of their decade-long collaboration.
“It’s the same but different,” said Anthony.
“My main influence is, of course, 10 years of Greenwich pantos and I’ll miss Andy on stage.
“We remain really good friends and have a great chemistry – it’s rare to find someone you can bounce off – but he’d done 15 years here and that’s a long time.
“Writing and producing a panto really lasts a whole year. I started writing this one in March and had a draft by July – nice and early so the theatre could get on with designing and building the set and all the rest of it.
“Now the theatre’s artistic director, James Haddrell, is already talking to me about what we’re going to do next year and we haven’t even started the 2022 run yet.”
Martin Johnson will also return to Greenwich as Friar Tuck
Anthony is set to play the dastardly Sheriff Of Nottingham alongside David Breeds as Robin and Amy Bastani as Maid Marian.
Martin Johnson will return to panto in Greenwich as Friar Tuck, while long-serving musical director Steve Marwick is also back to handle the songs.
Dame duties will be the responsibility of Phil Sealey.
“I’ve worked with Phil in the past and he’s also damed before, up and down the country,” said Anthony.
“He’s great – I think audiences will take to him because he’s such a warm person. He’s larger than life and he’s going to be amazing.
“We have a fantastic cast this year, we’re getting on like a house on fire. There are some great singers and we’re really gelling.
“As for the show itself, it’s quite anarchic.
“What I’ve always liked about the pantos here is that they build and build until the climax at the end, which is often utterly ridiculous, overblown and as silly as panto should be.
“There’s a little bit of everything. Some comedy, some music, puppetry and a bit of magic. We’ve gone for a late medieval, ‘hey nonny-nonny’ vibe.
“Personally I love playing the villain. It’s the best part, you can get away with murder.
“I’ve always played my villains slightly unhinged, which allows you to have fun with the part and muck about – there’s a lot of eyebrow acting.”
Having discovered acting at school as a teenager before going to drama school, Anthony developed his writing in tandem, starting with sketches and skits and going on to take shows to Edinburgh and write more immersive pieces for Les Enfants Terribles.
With politics and current affairs fluid, the exact content of the show will remain in development until the curtain goes up, but its universal themes of greed, taxes and money – as well as people coming together to help each other – are already set in stone.
“Dare I say it, I think I enjoy the writing more than the acting these days,” said Anthony. “There’s something really special and exciting about creating a show from scratch.
“But when the audience is clapping and laughing it feels fantastic to be on stage. It’s a feeling like no other.
“There’s great warmth and joy when you’ve been able to make something that people are able to lose themselves in.
“People can come to the theatre, forget about what’s happening in the wider world, let go and have fun for a couple of hours.
“For me, the louder they boo, the better I’m doing my job. I’m really looking forward to it – I can’t wait to get going – and all we need now is the audience, the final cast member, to do that.”
Robin Hood runs at Greenwich Theatre from November 24 until January 8 with plenty of matinees and evening performances scheduled. Tickets cost £31.
- Jon Massey is co-founder and editorial director of Wharf Life and writes about a wide range of subjects in Canary Wharf, Docklands and east London - contact via jon.massey@wharf-life.com
There’s something of the showman about founder JJ Goodman and almost the first thing he does when I turn up for our interview is to energetically swing each pendant by its metal shade out into the bar above the heads of customers.
“We had similar lights at Covent Garden and one night we swung them and the place went off,” he said. “It’s been a thing ever since.”
That’s why you’ll see staff throwing the light fittings around at the Canary Wharf branch. While the company JJ founded is now part of emerging hospitality giant Nightcap PLC – which also owns The Adventure Bar Group and Barrio Familia – this simple anarchic act is a reminder that there’s personality woven through the links of the chain.
Bartenders get to pick the music and each branch gets a bespoke interior, the Wharf’s being heavy on stained glass, graffiti and low lighting.
The drinks it serves combine theatre with precision – a mixture aimed at pleasing both serious drinkers and those up for a heady party.
Old favourites – Mojitos and Espresso Martinis, for example – cost £9.75, while more complex creations are about £13.
These include the likes of the Truffletini – a blend of rum, coffee liqueur, tonka bean syrup and espresso with a chocolate truffle sat on the side of the glass.
It’s a menu that in many ways encompasses JJ’s history as a bartender.
The interior of the Canary Wharf branch – image Matt Grayson
“I’ve been a barman since I was about 16 in my old home town of Worcester,” he said. “I made my first cocktails when I was 17 – it was a Grasshopper.
“There was a shitty little manual on the back of the bar where I worked so I decided to learn to make a few drinks.
“If someone wanted something interesting, I’d make a drink full of sugar and covered in umbrellas and that was good fun.
“Then I got into the Flair world – spinning bottles, all of that. I started entering and winning competitions.”
But JJ was serious too. Moving to London he immersed himself in the bar industry, going on to win the Cocktail World Cup in 2008.
That was the same year he and business partner James Hopkins featured on and won BBC’s The Restaurant and opened the Covent Garden Cocktail Club.
The TV show connected the pair to chef Raymond Blanc and Dragon’s Den investor Sarah Willingham, who became the founder and CEO of Nightcap in 2021 – now The Cocktail Club’s parent company.
“We’ve got 18 branches now alongside the other brands and I think we’ve stumbled on a really nice home for ourselves at Canary Wharf,” said JJ.
“In due course we’d love to bring the rest of Nightcap’s crew to the party.
Finished drinks at the Cabot Square venue – image Matt Grayson
“The area has evolved so much and so quickly in the last couple of years. In terms of hospitality, you now have the top operators in the country and arguably Europe, here.
“We’ve found a brilliantly engaged audience, and if you’re really passionate about what you do, you want to be in the mix, shoulder to shoulder with the best guys out there.
“I’m excited for everyone in Canary Wharf to come, check us out and let their hair down.
“There’s a lot of madness going on in the world, and I promise we’re a fabulous little escape for them, as many times a week as they fancy it.
“We stand out from everybody else on the high street – there are plenty of places where you can go and have a quiet drink with your mates or that after-work catch-up with someone you haven’t seen for a time. We’re never going to compete with that.
“When you create a space with such high energy and fuel it with enough booze, you’re going to make new memories. People will leave their inhibitions at the door.
“So I feel like you should be able to come in here in whatever you want to wear, with whoever you want to come in with.
“We’ve got a really broad demographic as well – it’s a place where you can have a giggle, have some fun, and that’s encouraged by our staff.”
It’s also encouraged by the menu which starts with familiar drinks and delivers a twist.
“We wrote it post-lockdown,” said JJ.
“We looked at our top six classic best-selling cocktails, including the Old Fashioned and the Martini, and we chose to take each of those on a journey.
“So, we’ve got the house classic, then we’ve got the top shelf, where we experiment with more premium brands, and then we’ve got the theatre section, which we championed in the years before Instagram.
“If you love a Mojito, you can go on a journey of discovery, with fabulous variations on something that you know and love and trust.
A bartender creates a drink at The Cocktail Club – image Matt Grayson
“I think trust is really important when you’re charging people £10-£14 a drink – you really have to deliver something great.
“So what we chose to do is present the menu in such a way that people can feel comfortable travelling through a few variations on something they already love.”
Like every business, The Cocktail Club faces staffing pressures and is addressing that through education.
“We launched the Nightcap Bar Academy this year at a facility in Camden with another one on the way in Shoreditch,” said JJ.
“The idea is that we can take people with limited experience and show them the way we like to work.
“Lots of young people have missed out on being exposed to nightlife due to the pandemic and I really feel for them.
“What we can do is educate them on the style of service we give so they can see a career in this industry.
“Being behind the bar is my happy place and I really miss it loads.
“But we strive for very high standards and I’m a bit rusty so I wouldn’t want to embarrass myself, although I’d love it.”
That said, JJ can’t suppress his anarchic edge completely, slapping lampshades and ordering shots for everyone behind the bar, all the while keeping a careful eye on the quality of the drinks going out.
This is carefully choreographed wildness and it’s great.
One of The Cocktail Club’s infamous swinging lampshades – image Matt Grayson
- Jon Massey is co-founder and editorial director of Wharf Life and writes about a wide range of subjects in Canary Wharf, Docklands and east London - contact via jon.massey@wharf-life.com
After nine years of running markets across London that championed food startups – including the popular West India Quay spot – the business decided it needed to do more.
So it set up a not-for-profit social enterprise arm and hired Gavin Dunn, founder of pizza company Wandercrust and graduate of its own Inkerbator programme, to run it.
“I’ve always been really passionate about the ethos of Kerb – of breathing life and vitality into otherwise quiet areas of London and supporting a really diverse ecosystem of great foods from around the world,” said the 49-year-old, who is managing director of the company Kerb Social Enterprise.
“When I saw the job on LinkedIn, I felt pretty well placed to apply.”
Kerb already knew Gavin had experience with street food and his own consultancy in business development and HR, but its managers were impressed to find out he also had an extensive background with social enterprises and charities.
Gavin said it meant his experience perfectly matched the extremely niche role.
“There’s not that many food-based social enterprises so, not to blow my own trumpet, but I knew as soon as I saw the role it was quite nailed-on for me,” he said.
The first step in creating the new company ecosystem was “engaging” and, over the last 12 months, Gavin has worked to find more charity partners across four areas – youth unemployment, ex-offenders, refugee support and homelessness.
The aim is to discover hidden talent among the most disadvantaged communities in London to join its programmes and help diversify the street food scene.
“That early stage of the ecosystem is really important to me,” said Gavin.
“I went through the Inkerbator programme but was absolutely fortunate enough to have been able to afford my own pizza truck.
“I had a certain level of privilege to be able to set up Wandercrust while running my consultancy.
“I’m well aware that early stage presents such a barrier to individuals in being able to pursue their dream of running their own food businesses.
“We’re reaching out to these charities to see how we can remove those barriers, work with them and offer support to get them onto our Inkerbator programme and trading at our markets.
Meatstop founder Benjamin Page began barbecuing aged 11. He now serves burgers, made from the finest ingredients and graduated from Kerb’s Inkerbator in October
“That’s where we are really plugged in to parts of London that we otherwise would have overlooked in the past.”
The new era, which dawned as Kerb began celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2022, relies heavily on its West India Quay market.
It restarted in March and is now where all Inkerbators must cut their teeth every Wednesday from 11.30am to 2.30pm.
Full Kerb members trade at the site every Thursday from 11.30am to 2.30pm.
So far this year it has produced 23 graduates, including The Yeast Brothers, who have now opened their own restaurant in Deptford.
The last cohort graduated in October, so the Wednesday market is paused for now, but will return in 2023 with a fresh set of traders for Wharfers to try.
“We take a lot of time and care to make sure the businesses that come through the programme have the best experience possible and we can rely on West India Quay for that,” said Gavin.
“Canary Wharf is the home of London’s markets, and street food markets are the original business incubators, where people shared ideas and practices.
“It’s really nice to have brought it back to Canary Wharf this year and long may it last.
“We choose to do it there because of the crowd. The customers love it and recognise its value and you can feel it at an Inkerbator market.”
The Woolwich resident still remembers the buzz of trading there for the first time in 2016 with Wandercrust, which now trades in Greenwich.
“There’s nothing like it really,” said Gavin. “It’s excitement but you are anxious and you can still feel that at Inkerbator markets now.
“It means I know exactly how new businesses owners coming on to the programme feel.”
He also knows first hand the world of opportunities the programme can open up.
“One of the main benefits I found at Inkerbator was just this development of a network of like-minded creative, food-loving small businesses. It enables that collective spirit,” he said.
“It feels incredible for me to now be responsible for it and help rebuild it after the pandemic.”
Sadish Gurung, left, and Subash Gurung, both worked in IT before launching Nepalese food business Filili which serves up Momo bite-size dumplings, below. They graduated in October
Kerb, which also runs markets across London and a successful event catering arm with food service group Compass, shut down most of its activities over 2020 and 2021.
During that time it received 750 applications for Inkerbator.
Its team research and chat to each one, but also scout and approach businesses to invite, to ensure they are finding the best.
Those offered a place go through the coaching stage of the ecosystem, followed by six weeks of trading at West India Quay.
Once the incubating stage is complete and traders have graduated into full members, the accelerating stage kicks in.
Many go on to trade at the Thursday market at West India Quay and Kerb also offers regular networking events to its 100-plus members, some of whom have been with the business since its inception.
“It can be a lonely place, being a food business owner,” said Gavin. “So being part of a collective really helps to get everyone’s creative juices flowing.”
Becoming a social enterprise was a big change but Kerb was already working with charities such as Food Behind Bars to find potential members.
“We’ve worked with a guy called Marcus who had the idea of setting up a Caribbean pie and mash business,” said Gavin.
“I first met him in Brixton prison and now he’s working with us to gain work experience to help get him work in hospitality, but also to hopefully one day get onto our Inkerbator programme to set up his own street food business.”
One of the most popular traders at the Quay is Oshpaz, which was set up by Uzbekistan refugee Muzaffar Sadykov after he was referred by TERN and completed Kerb’s Inkerbator programme in February 2019.
Transforming into a social enterprise means the company now has more money to invest in its work with these charities as there are no shareholders or dividends.
“If you buy a bowl of plov from Muzaffa, not only will the the money go straight to him, but any pitch fee he pays Kerb is reinvested back into supporting early stage food businesses to help them grow through the Inkerbator,” said Gavin.
Kerb partnered with both charities and new partner homeless charity The Connection at St Martin In The Fields, to launch its first big move for the new social enterprise in the summer.
It partnered with McCain for initiative Streets Ahead offering free workshops to 100 less advantaged people.
“We’re already seeing individuals that The Connection has worked with referred to us and we’re supporting them either into work or talking about how they would go about setting up their own food businesses,” said Gavin.
Jan Manrique from RiceON.LDN serves Korean bulgogi and graduated from the Inkerbator in March
“We’re always looking for new partners and more support and we would like to do a lot more because there’s so much food talent out there and individuals that would love the opportunity to do it.
“But there are still a lot of barriers in the way, which we’re working really hard to remove.”
Gavin said next year was going to be a big one for Kerb.
“There’s loads of things in the pipeline that we’re excited about,” he said.
“Not least, working with all of the charities I’ve mentioned and removing those barriers to entry into food entrepreneurship for individuals who are just leaving prison or have refugee status.
“It really does feel as though we’re in a unique position – we’ve got so much to offer.”
He added: “I’m passionate about supporting small, independent businesses and have yet to come across a business that is better at doing that than Kerb.
“It’s a privilege to be able to be the person doing this for Kerb.
“It’s had such success over the first 10 years and I’m determined to make the next 10 years equally as successful and ground breaking.”
He hopes West India Quay will continue to embrace its new traders as they diversify and hopefully extend the number of days they trade there next year.
“We’ve had such amazing support from the customer base,” said Gavin.
“It hasn’t been as busy this year because with hybrid working not everyone’s in the office all the time.
“But what we have seen is real support from people who want to make sure that we remain there.
“People tell us they plan their days in the office around market day and some people come over and order 30 different meals to take back and make it into an office event.
“Kerb’s remit has always been to breathe life into spaces, to bring some colour, diversity and flavour to an area that might otherwise be less vibrant.
“I really think we’ve done that at West India Quay but also in the wider Canary Wharf area. You see so many more small food businesses there now and I like to think Kerb played a small part.”
Photographer Lorenzo Garrido never leaves his Greenwich home without a camera. He has thousands, perhaps millions, of photographs to show for it.
Most – from his childhood holidays right through to the eerie days of empty lockdown streets – sit undeveloped and unseen.
They have taken a back seat to his career, which has seen him photograph the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and shoot campaigns for brands such as USC.
But while he is yet to fully showcase his collection to the world, he is about to start sharing the expertise he has gleaned from creating them.
The 28-year-old has launched a business, Greenwich Photo Tours, offering others an insight into favourite spots on his home turf and the best ways to capture them through a lens.
“I walk around with my camera all the time,” said Lorenzo.
“If I’m just stepping out of the house to have a stroll, or whatever, I’ll always have my camera with me.
“Greenwich is such a beautiful, picturesque space and, when I researched, I found nobody was doing a tour like this here.
“I wanted to take my expertise from my day job and bring it into a community space and put the two areas of my life together.”
Born and raised in Greenwich, he first began capturing images as a child.
Greenwich-based photographer Lorenzo Garrido
“My dad bought me a Polaroid camera when I was like 10 years old and straight away I was pretty obsessed,” said Lorenzo.
“I have a vivid memory of taking it on a Year Seven trip to France and shooting some pictures.
“I started doing street photography when I was about 16 and it opened up into this whole other world – that this could actually be your job.
“I just kind of stuck at it and went with it.”
Photography wasn’t a course option at his college, but Lorenzo studied art and design instead and just kept on clicking.
Despite his obsession with taking photographs and having his own darkroom at home, Lorenzo said most of the photos he takes in his spare time never see the light of day.
“I have a lot of work that I can’t even remember,” he said. “Heaps of negatives and undeveloped rolls of film that I have from over the years and I have no idea what’s on them.
“I’m just sitting on an insane amount of photographs.
“I’m sure they would serve some purpose to someone down the line, perhaps when they’re trying to look back at what it was like in the mid 2000s.”
Lorenzo said it was hard to find the time to organise his archive alongside his busy career.
He went freelance full-time in 2016 and has built up a name for himself in the music and fashion industries – mostly by word of mouth.
“I think being a Londoner, you have circles of friends that you grew up with and you get referred and brought in on jobs and then, if it goes well, you get more jobs,” he said.
“I’ve been quite lucky, I’ve not really had to chase work much or really rely on using things like social media.”
The tours cover a range of styles including street photography
In fact, search online and you won’t find much evidence of his commercial work, as he prefers to operate discreetly.
But recently he has shot a documentary at the Dr Martens factory in Northampton and was waste-deep in a lake in Snowdonia to shoot a campaign for brand USC.
One of his biggest clients is Sony Music.
“I do a lot of album artwork and press shots, headshots,” said Lorenzo.
“You do end up rubbing shoulders with a lot of people but I avoid name dropping at all costs, so I’ve probably just taught myself to push it all down.”
When nudged he does reveal a pretty big name though.
“I was on a job with Cristiano Ronaldo last week and he turned out to be a nice guy,” he said.
“The other 95% of the time, people have diva behaviour but I just keep my head down”.
“Especially this time of year when the autumnal light is low and gold and dances around. You can’t really take a bad picture there.”
Lorenzo is confident he has explored every part of Greenwich but said it still holds his interest and probably always will.
“I wanted to keep the tour very specific about the local community where I live because Greenwich is just such a beautiful place,” he said.
“It hasn’t been touched by gentrification too much so it’s kind of old school and I’m a bit of an old soul so I think that kind of works out.
“But London is always changing. When it does, you can rediscover it, which is pretty cool.”
Canary Wharf viewed from Greenwich Park
THE NITTY GRITTY
The two-hour tours are for those with their own digital or film camera.
They run every Saturday from 11am-1pm and cost £60 per person with a maximum of four people per tour.
The three-mile route starts at Borough Hall clock tower in Greenwich High Road and skirts around the market so people can try out street photography.
Next it will head to the Cutty Sark and along the riverside to the Old Royal Naval College.
Here the focus will shift to architectural photography and composition and clients will have five minutes to wander around.
Then it will be over to The Cutty Sark pub for river views before heading up Maze Hill and through the park to the observatory for a hill-top lesson on landscapes.
From there the tour will head back down into town for more street photography at the market.
If you’ve walked through Wood Wharf, past the buildings to the east of its green oblong of grass, you may have spotted In2Sports’ red and blue logo in the brightly lit unit on corner of Brannan Street.
But that space, with its orange chairs and Mars vending machine is merely the tip of an iceberg. It’s all about what lies beneath.
Walk through its glass doors, descend a level and you’ll find an expansive relaxation area, complete with a pool table, ping pong, a bar, bikes, seating, sports memorabilia and tables made from old vaulting horses.
It’s a charming enough space on its own, but this too is just an appetiser.
What In2Sports is really sitting on is a full-size, purpose built sports hall, complete with changing facilities, fitness studio space and even a crossfit-inspired gym.
Some of the facilities will be used part-time by the neighbouring primary school, when it opens, with the remainder of the timetable available for clubs, businesses and individuals looking for functional, affordable space.
The main sports hall at In2Sports in Wood Wharf
“In2Sports is an indoor sports arena that caters for a wide variety of needs, with the ability to deliver a wide array of opportunities for people to be able to participate in sports and leisure activities at every level,” said Callum Wear, In2Sports trustee.
“It’s a place for anyone and everyone to have fun, play sports and then there’s the social side of it as well, which is a very important feature.
“Rather than just coming in, playing your sport and then leaving, players can relax and mingle with like-minded people, share their victories and talk about their next game strategies.
“It might be cricket, football, netball, volleyball, dodgeball or any smaller-sided counterparts to outside games that can be played indoors.
“We will always be evolving to accommodate new trends and demands.
“Our ambition is to become the home for anybody, any club or association that has a need to deliver sports and leisure activity programmes in this area.
“We don’t have an alliance with or allegiance to anyone, and we will work with a wide variety of people.
“Success for us is about participation – people walking out of the door and saying they’ve had a fantastic time.
“Having a fun place with an electric atmosphere is what we want.
In2Sports’ crossfit-style gym area
“That’s the name of the game. If you’re not having fun playing sport, you’re not going to achieve to the best of your ability.
“When you’re here, you might be playing table tennis, but you might be playing with your football team or talking about the game or your next opponent – we want there to be constant activity around you.
“It’s a place that keeps people entertained and involved socially – sharing experiences with people is key.”
In2Sports is structured as a charitable trust and following a £9.99 registration fee, the sports hall can be hired for between £120 and £160 per hour depending on timing.
Quarter and half-court hire are also available and there’s a 40% discount for local residents with disabilities, those on benefits, who are senior citizens or who are full-time students.
In celebration of its opening, In2Sports is currently offering all courts at off-peak prices.
Flexibility is central to the organisation’s model, with The Training Room perfectly summing that up.
“It’s certainly not just a bar and it’s a bit more than a clubhouse,” said Callum.
“It could be the space where you could come for a small community workshop, for presentations, talks, speeches, birthday celebrations or just a place where people can relax after a game and have a drink with friends.
“We’re a licensed venue, but you can also have health drinks as well, such as smoothies. It’s warm and welcoming.”
Callum knows a thing or two about welcoming Wharfers. Originally from New Zealand, he moved to the UK and, while working as an analyst on a financial project management system, met and became friends with accountant Chris Bennett.
The two discussed various ideas but both loved the idea of collaborating on a business related to sports and after about a year and a half of discussions created Play On Sports, launching in 2004.
Stretching to an eventual 50,000sq ft of space on the Wood Wharf site, it all began with a guaranteed 18 month lease.
In the end, Play On stayed until 2014, relocating its operations to Whitechapel when they had to make way for building works as Canary Wharf Group began the regeneration of the area.
The Training Room can serve many functions at the venue
“It’s great to be back in Canary Wharf – everyone has welcomed us back and people have been so supportive,” said Callum.
“I think Canary Wharf Group sees the benefit to the community that we bring and hopefully we’ll be contributing to the vibrant hub the estate has become.
“Now it’s full steam ahead – we have opened and it’s time to develop relationships with businesses and organisations around here and to tell the community that we’re here and we’re available for them to enjoy.
“This isn’t just a facility for corporates, it’s a place for anyone to use and play.
“We’re ideally located, less than a 10-minute walk from the Jubilee and Elizabeth Line stations and there are good bus services along Preston’s Road too.”
In addition to The Training Room and the sports hall, In2Sports is also offering monthly memberships or access on a pay-as-you-go basis to its gym.
“It’s a crossfit-style training room, which is a really inclusive form of exercise,” said Callum.
“Everyone can engage with it because you’re only competing against yourself.
“Then we also have our studio space which would be ideal for Yoga, Pilates and so on.
“We’re also working with various charities so they can use it to achieve their goals and they’ll be utilising that space to get people up and active.
“We have a can-do, all inclusive approach to delivering sports. This is not your square-boxed sports hall, so if someone wants to host a sports activity, we will try to deliver it.
“This is very much a community project, the In2Sports charitable trust is for the benefit of everyone – corporates, social clubs and children.
“We like to work with organisations who are using sports to break down barriers, to give people that self-esteem, that self-confidence and to keep people playing sports on a sustainable basis so that they can have fun and feel better.”
- Jon Massey is co-founder and editorial director of Wharf Life and writes about a wide range of subjects in Canary Wharf, Docklands and east London - contact via jon.massey@wharf-life.com
“We cannot measure whether we’ve saved someone’s life, but I sincerely believe that we have,” said Henry Smith, CEO of property developer Aitch Group and founder of The Wickers – a charity he set up in 2018 to help fight knife crime in Hackney and east London.
“Sadly it was born out of tragedy,” he said. “My sister was quite young – 21 or 22 – when her husband was killed in Stratford.
“He was stabbed with a knife by someone close to him and what was left after that was a tragedy that affected not just my sister – who had a daughter and another on the way – but also the two girls.
“My sister was never right for the rest of her life – sadly she passed at 39 – and my mother was never the same either.
“Fortunately, my two nieces have grown up to be amazing adults, but a lot of people don’t have the family support they did.
“It’s so easy for people to fall through the safety net.
“When a person attacks somebody with a knife, the impact can be very far-reaching.
“Two people can lose their lives – one lies dead on the ground and the other goes to prison for years.
“Then there are all the other people it affects. I’m of the generation that has seen this kind of violence become an epidemic.”
The number of crimes involving a knife or sharp instrument in London had risen to almost 16,000 by 2019/20 – up from less than 10,000 in 2015/16.
While the pandemic saw the figure drop back down again to 10,150 for 2020/21, it had already risen to more than 11,100 by 2021/22.
The charity runs all sorts of activities for young people in east London
“Aitch is a London developer, but we really started off in east London and we’ve grown from there,” said Henry, who grew up in Hackney and now lives in Shoreditch, a few minutes’ walk from his company’s offices.
“I’m a great believer in the idea that you’ve got to put something back into society, because if you don’t, then where does it leave us?
“That’s why we created The Wickers, which is centred on the Hackney Wick area.
“It’s a charity that aims to reduce gang and knife related crime by providing opportunities for people to develop new skills and learn from positive role models.
“You have to start with young people, to look at their home lives. They may be from single-parent families or children living with parents who have dependencies.
“Especially now, there’s a shortage of money, of food and that creates its own problems. People, especially the eldest sons in those situations, feel the need to provide.
“It’s not just in Hackney, it’s everywhere – the promise of easy money through crime is right there.
“Then, in someone’s mind, it’s so easy for them to pick up a knife, but the effect of doing that can last for generations.
“What you find is a lot of these children have been brought up not to expect a lot from their lives and that is wrong.
“The Wickers is there to say that we can show them how to become good citizens, that there is an alternative.
“We’re there to help with their education, their after-school classes to help them find opportunities.”
The Wickers runs plenty of sports sessions in its programme
The charity runs sports activities, classes in art and design plus cooking and nutrition, hosts guest speakers, provides career coaching and half term and summer programmes, as well as delivering knife and gun crime workshops.
“It’s been amazing – the people who I work with to push out the message and deliver our services are fantastic,” said Henry.
“We’re really punching above our weight – we’ve got some great sponsors, lots of people who volunteer and we’re reaching more than 500 teenagers a week.
“That could be through going into schools to deliver our workshops or the young people who come to our running club, music sessions or who play football with us.
“We get a lot of referrals from Hackney Council too, which shows how well thought of we are as an organisation.
“Above all, we create a safe space. Don’t forget, if you’re a certain age and you know certain people you might not be able to go to a particular postcode or cross an estate.
“Even now, I find that hard to imagine that, but this is real, it’s what’s going on. That is when people get stabbed.
“We want to show these young people that there is another way, that they can do a lot with their lives and then give them the tools to do it.
“We work with ex-offenders, for example, and they’re the best because they’ve been to the edge of the cliff and realised that crime was not the way.
“For me all of our activities contribute – it’s about opening people’s eyes to the world out there and what they’re capable of.
“Once you’ve done that, it’s up to them – everybody has to take that next step themselves.
“We’ll stand behind them and give them all the support they need – but they have to be the ones to do it.”
The charity counts the likes of Strettons, Tokio Marine, Savills and JLL among its backers with more than £160,000 raised for its activities by companies in the property sector so far this year.
“We want to do even more and for that we need more money and more people,” said Henry.
The charity is supported by a wide range of organisations
“For anyone thinking of donating, The Wickers is a charity where contributors are really making an impact.
“For me, charities have to have no waste – people have to be accountable and you need to see the outcomes, otherwise what are you doing it for?
“In the long term, I’d like to be in a position where I can run a charity full time and when I step down from Aitch, that’s where I’d like to spend my time.
“When you see someone who found it difficult to sit in a room and listen and who is now able to do that, it’s very rewarding.
“If you’ve had someone who was very disruptive, but has gone on a journey and is now in gainful employment, then that is really good and it’s what’s happening a lot of the time.
“We’re working with estate agents, BT and the NHS to help people find opportunities and to show them the steps they need to take to make something of themselves.
“It’s very easy for me to say that Big Ben is only a few stops away, but some of these kids have never seen it – no-one has shown them what the world’s like out there.
“While my time is best spend on fundraising at the moment, I’m always happy to sit down with young people.
“I grew up in Hackney, not sure what I wanted to do and not having enough respect for different institutions as a teenager.
“If I hadn’t had a father to show me the right way, I could well have taken the wrong path.
“I hope my sister and brother-in-law would be very happy with what we’re trying to do. You can’t measure it, but it feels fantastic when you can help fill a gap in a young person’s life.”
- Jon Massey is co-founder and editorial director of Wharf Life and writes about a wide range of subjects in Canary Wharf, Docklands and east London - contact via jon.massey@wharf-life.com
“This area is lively – a part of the regeneration of London – it’s fun and it’s got far more going on than other parts of the capital so I’m really glad we came here,” said Lucie Pollard, director of the University Of The West Of Scotland’s London Campus.
UWS’s southern base arrived at Republic in Blackwall just as the pandemic was beginning and is finally getting a chance to settle into its new home, following the various lockdowns.
“Where we were before, near London Bridge, students said that they didn’t like being in an office block,” said Lucie.
“But the buildings here don’t feel like that at all and having the other universities here with us makes it a really exciting place – almost a multi-versity.”
UWS’s roots date back more than 100 years to its foundation in Paisley and the university is well-known in Scotland, recently being named Higher Education Institution Of The Year for 2022 at The Herald Higher Education Awards.
“That’s the Oscars of Scottish higher education, so it’s very important for us institutionally,” said Lucie.
“We’re a really innovative organisation, which goes back to our roots in terms of supporting the local community and businesses – creating degrees that allow students to take up employment easily and also welcoming more mature students than any other university.
“Creating a London campus in 2015 was all about bringing that space we occupy in Scotland to the capital, growing our international reputation and providing a place for students from overseas who want to study here.
“We have people from around 60 different countries studying at this campus and they have so much to offer. It’s our aim to be more community-facing, to work with local authorities and businesses based here.
“I believe that will be of great benefit, because our students have so much knowledge, so many skills and languages and an understanding of cultural nuances from their varied backgrounds.
UWS London Campus director Lucie Pollard
“That means they can be a real asset to the local community, whether that’s working with businesses or doing voluntary work here.
“I’m really keen for them to have work experience in different firms and we’d love to talk to organisations locally to create micro-placements.
“That could be two weeks or six weeks – it really depends on the project.
“We’re especially interested in talking to small and medium-size businesses who may want help with projects – it means our students will gain far more in terms of understanding the strategic work that companies do, than they will from a placement at a much larger firm.”
UWS’s London campus offers a range of courses including undergraduate degrees in business and health studies, an extensive selection of business, education and administration-focused masters qualifications and, from April next year, PhD programmes.
“We also offer courses with Continuing Professional Development (CDP) accreditation, especially in AI and data analytics because those are areas where people need to upskill,” said Lucie, who spent nearly two decades working in various roles at the University Of Greenwich, before making the move to UWS in 2017.
“There are a lot of people in business who have risen over the years and suddenly realise there’s a whole load of tech that they have limited understanding of and need to find out about fast.
“They can do that very quickly by plugging into CPD. We’ve also identified the areas of sustainability, equality and diversity, where there’s a similar need.
“Those courses could be delivered digitally, in person or a mixture of the two.
“Our university strategy up to 2025 was launched in January 2020, just before the pandemic, and it was all about hybrid teaching.
“Covid became a real catalyst for us – we’re making the best use of technology.
“We’ve invested in new digital platforms for the students and we’ve got a huge digital transformation project that’s ongoing.
The university has space in Republic’s Import and Export buildings
“We find students are very discerning about what they want on campus.
“We don’t want everything to be online because we’re not the Open University.
“Our students want some things online so they can access them wherever they are, but they also want things on campus that are really authentic and immersive.
“After all, you don’t want to spend money coming in and then just listen to someone reading out a Powerpoint slide. It’s also vital to build a network of contacts who will be with you for a very long time.
“On an operations level, moving to an institution where the other campuses are 400 miles away was an interesting challenge.
“I’m not sure why we didn’t use Teams before Covid, but having that now has been really refreshing – it’s so easy to jump on a call and be in a virtual meeting.
“The pandemic has made tech more responsive.”
Responding to people’s needs is very much the guiding principle at UWS, as its staff work to provide the best experience possible for those taking its courses.
“When I was at Greenwich, I’d been an academic and I’d worked in the more professional service areas,” said Lucie.
“I do finance, I do HR and I understand students’ needs.
“So to work at UWS where students always come first is really rewarding. We really do feel passionately that we are here for those who are taking our courses.
Courses at UWS are delivered via hybrid teaching – a mix of face-to-face sessions and online
“My daughter watches Gordon Ramsay – although I don’t know why – and he always makes it clear that the most important person is the customer. We have the same philosophy here.
“That makes a real difference to your mindset – you spend your time thinking that the student is more important than the vice-chancellor – and it really does work.
“Communication is really important too, so we make sure that we’re really clear to students that we know what it means for them to come here – the challenges involved in relocating to a different country – and making sure it’s a welcoming space.
“We recently held our graduation ceremony and that’s always great because you get to see the end result – the students come up and tell you about the great experiences they’ve had.
“UWS is somewhere they get to meet people from lots of different backgrounds, where they get supported by the staff in London, but can also tap into the research that’s happening in Scotland.
“It’s a journey – they’ve typically come over from another country and that can be daunting. Then they find support among new friends and almost become part of a new family.
“We hope during their time with us that they get the knowledge, skills and expertise they need to go out and make a huge impact in the societies they want to work in.
“I’m old and spent years in one institution before moving to another.
“Now people move jobs every year or every three years, and they need to be world-ready to work in this country, the US, Australia or their countries of origin.
“Having those skills is really important.”
With lockdowns and Covid restrictions in the past, UWS is bedding into life at Republic and seeking to forge new links with local businesses.
“One of the ways we can do that is though our CPD programme,” said Sadiq Islam, business manager for the university’s London Campus.
“We’re keen for our name to be known as widely as possible and, by building relationships through our CPD courses, we’re able to create partnerships for student placements by engaging with those companies.”
He said UWS was currently offering a subsidised Help To Grow Management Course – a 12-week programme aimed at senior leaders in small and medium-sized businesses to help their organisations thrive and grow.
The Government covers 90% of the cost of the course which involves 50 hours of training and one-to-one mentoring, delivered on a flexible basis, both online and face-to-face.
Firms, which must have been operating for more than a year and have five or more employees, then pay a fee of £750.
The university has students from around 60 different countries
- Jon Massey is co-founder and editorial director of Wharf Life and writes about a wide range of subjects in Canary Wharf, Docklands and east London - contact via jon.massey@wharf-life.com
