NLSHP welcomes the news that Hanover Housing Association has acquired the former Saint Luke’s hospital site in Muswell Hill. We believe that this will be good for the local community. Hanover is a not-for-profit organisation and is aiming for a sympathetic development which will be relatively low in density and will preserve many of the best features of the site, including the listed buildings fronting on to Woodside Avenue and the historic gardens on the site. It will be a long-term provider of housing on the site. It will preserve a pedestrian right of way through the site but will make sure that there is no vehicular traffic through the development.

We are confident that Hanover will consult fully with local residents and interest groups. We are also pleased that this will give us a chance to establish one of London’s first cohousing communities here in Muswell Hill. Hanover is keen to promote cohousing and is working with several other groups in London.

NLSHP is a group of residents which aim to promote cohousing in the community. The Cohousing Woodside group aim to provide a mixed income community that will provide a range of housing with a choice of tenures.

Our member Maria Brenton has a letter in The Guardian today about how cohousing can help prevent older people from becoming isolated, and how much needs to change to make it easier to set up cohousing communities. See here!

On 4 March, following our successful visit last November, 14 NLSHP members and friends visited the Springhill cohousing community in Stroud, Gloucestershire, to find out what cohousing is all about and draw inspiration from the way Springhill has organised its community life. Springhill organises Open Days several times a year, where visitors get to see some of the private houses and the various spaces and facilities the common house offers the residents.

The sense of pride in what the 75+ members of Springhill have achieved over the last 12 years was clearly evident in the final question and answer session which quite a few members joined – and not just because of the excellent cakes one resident, Helen, had volunteered to bake. They talked about the blood, sweat and tears during the numerous setbacks along the way and some of the difficult community meetings in which key decisions had to be sorted out. Even today, questions such as where to store the bicycles can be an issue that needs to be discussed over some time until a solution is found. But most of the issues, it seems, have by now been discussed, done and dusted, and one member wondered if it was time to think about the future and what the group wanted to achieve next.

We, the North London cohousers and the delegation from a cohousing initiative in Milton Keynes were reminded of the difficult tasks ahead as both groups are at the beginning of their cohousing journey. But Springhillers also talked about what cohousing has given them and the choices they have now: members can relax in the privacy of their homes when they need it or join the community for cohousing tasks (meals, gardening etc.) if they feel like company. We were interested in how the community makes sure everybody pulls their weight and it was clear that this question comes up very often at Open Days. This seems to be no longer an issue for Springhill: there used to be a book where people logged their contributions to the cohousing community, a minimum of 20 hours per year is obligatory for all. But the human species is clearly not designed for this level of continuous scrutiny: members, it seems, were happy to do the work, but would forget to write it down so in the end the log was discontinued. Now everybody does what they can, and if some members are going through tough times, the group seems to be happy to help and accept more limited contribution for a while. “After all, if people don’t contribute” one member pointed out to us, “it is mostly their loss”.

The day was sunny, the market in Stroud was charming and the experience of Springhill cohousing left us all with a yearning for something similar for our projects, and awe for the Herculean task still ahead. But hey, if they can do it, so can we.

It is hard to overstate how important such visits are for people new to cohousing , and Springhill cohousing members do a good job in promoting cohousing in the UK. There was one thing a group of us were sure about on our train journey back to London: if we get our cohousing off the ground one day, we will also want to remain open to visitors and help others make up their minds about cohousing. And bake some nice cakes as well…

Details about Springhill, articles, ideas, pictures and future Open Days on their website: http://www.therightplace.net/coco/public/

We also have some video and pics from our last visit in November.

On a rainy Sunday morning – a little early for some! – the intrepid Members and Friends of Cohousing Woodside gathered to discus their ‘Vision’ for the future of their co housing community. Paul Bragman facilitated the session brilliantly. For those of us you abhor meetings and ‘getting to know you exercises’, the good news is the session was a pleasure not a chore.

The morning began with an ice breaker game so we could find out more about each other at speed. The task resulted in a lot of laughter and fast introductions – someone said it was akin to speed dating! Jeremy Green was the speediest fact finder in that particular task.

It was fun to discover amongst the group a wide variety of talent and skill, linguists, architects, musicians, writers to name a few. To ensure we all circulated and met new people we were divided into four groups to discuss a variety of topics from ‘values’ to ‘objectives’ from ‘sharing’ to ‘privacy’. The feedback from each group was fascinating.

Many common threads emerged, top of the list were ‘Community’ and ‘Sustainability’.
The blue sky thinking threw up everything from car sharing to passive housing, from yoga to home cinema. Most groups included the words ‘fun’ and ‘laughter’ in their ‘vision’ of community living, something that was not in short supply in the session.
Our thanks go to Paul for facilitating the meeting and keeping us on track, and to Lys de Beaumont for booking the hall.

The morale of the group seems high and positive, and despite a desire not to have too many meetings there seemed to be an acknowledgement that we need to sow the seeds now to  reap the benefit later – not just for this generation but the next.