If you’re having a bad day, and need a bit of inspiration, if you live in London and happen to be wandering round the south-west part of that gigantic and difficult city, you could do worse than dropping by the Kew Bridge eco-village...

I went down there this week, and had a wonderful time. The village is on a patch of land which St George’s developers have had earmarked for some time now. “They don’t seem to be in any hurry though,” said Simon, one of the group who’ve set up home on the site. And while they dither, the Kew Bridge collective are working their bums off, turning an acre of land into a fertile village and nursery, carrying in sacks of the topsoil that kind supporters are donating, building cold-frames and planting beds, constructing homes out of coppiced wood, insulation and plastic sheeting, putting down woodchips to make sweet-smelling paths, making lights out of jars, wicks and chip fat donated by the local fish’n’chip shop, and putting together their own oven and kitchen, literally built with their own hands.

“We’ve got water from a mains tap,” says Simon. “We’d like to filter water from the Thames eventually, but you need a license apparently. We could do a great job though, use reedbed and chalk filtration; the water companies just use sand and that leaves all sorts of rubbish in there.” They dream of growing a strip of sunflowers along one of the raised mounds of earth at the road-side of the site; they would nod at the passengers on the top decks of the passing buses. “It’s so important to catch people’s attention, to make them understand what we’re trying to do. That’s the whole reason we’re here after all.”

They’re inspired by the 16th century Digger movement led by Gerard Winstanley, who believed that “if the waste land of England were manured by her children it would become in a few years the best, the strongest and flourishing land in the world”. The original Diggers didn’t last very long, but they had a huge impact; the idea of squatting, of taking possession of unused land and turning it into service, has been a political weapon ever since.

The eco-village in Kew is just the first of many, its residents hope; they’re in the
process of holding meetings to set up a core group who would be willing to set
up another village. The spirit of Winstanley in Kew? It’s not so unlikely.

Anyway, get down there if you have a moment. It's a warm and inspiring place, and they'll be very pleased to see you. 

Words: Bibi van der Zee
Photos: Flickr user chericbaker of the Kew Bridge eco-village
Flickr user Barbara Chandler of the eco-village signs