The London Permaculture Festival is held in the beautiful Arts & Crafts building of Cecil Sharp House, Camden, London. Come along for 19 workshops, a stalls market and a ‘families at the festival’ zone. Enjoy discussions, networking and learning about creative solutions for a sustainable, healthy future. Browse the stalls market and enjoy the award-winning permaculture garden that demonstrates edible, sustainable and wildlife-friendly gardening surrounding Cecil Sharp House.
Tickets are £20 (includes access to all the workshops). Full price tickets are also available on the door.
Under 18’s enter free. Concession tickets are £10 and only available on the door – please see our concessions policy.
Go to http://londonpermaculturefesti… for a taster of what happens at the festival, and a full programme of events.
These are the workshops at this years festival:
- Unriddling the World – Hugh Lupton
- Growing a New Garden: Ecological tips and techniques for creating balance – Becky Searle
- How to Fall in Love with the Future: A Time Traveller’s Guide to Changing the World – Rob Hopkins
- The Accidental Seed Heroes – growing a delicious food future for us all – Adam Alexander
- Transforming our cities with permaculture – Andy Goldring
- Introduction to Permaculture – Rishil Parekh
- An Introduction to Permaculture – Cultivating a Thriving Future – Rakesh Rootsman Rak
- Introduction to Permaculture – Matt Phillpott
- Living the Good Life in the City – Sara Ward
- The Ecology of Compost – Julian Doberski
- Grow South Asian Vegetables in the UK – Hina Joshi and Niru Patel
- Celebrating ten years of Hackney Herbal – Nat Mady
- Grow Your Own Wardrobe: Colour and Cloth – Allan Brown & Zoë Burt
- Tiny House Living – how to design, self-build and live in a nomadic regenerative tiny home? – Ed Dale-Harris
- Maximising tiny space growing – Susannah Hall
- Keeping Bees in your Garden – Sara Ward
- Unusual edible perennials: top forest garden plants – Eleri Kyffin
- The Power of Permaculture Principles – Wilf Richards
- Simple home retrofits to reduce waste and save money – Hugh Livingstone
- Recycling denim with Jahmale – demonstration in the stalls market
Organizer
The London Permaculture Network was set up in spring 2010. We are currently:
- producing a monthly newsletter that summarises permaculture and permaculture-friendly events around London. To add your event to the newsletter you can add them to the London Permaculture cluster on Project Dirt (see the menu above) or email
- provide speakers to give an Introduction to Permaculture – if you would like someone to come and talk to your local group please email us
- maintain an interactive map (see the menu above) where people can find out about local permaculture and permaculture-friendly projects. Let us know if you would like to add your project to the map.
- we also have a Facebook group and Facebook page where people list activities happening in and around London
- building an online presence that does justice to what is happening on the ground.
Venue
Cecil Sharp House was built in 1929 and designed by architect Henry Martineau Fletcher.
The House was planned as the headquarters for the English Folk Dance Society, and is named after its founder and former Organising Director Cecil Sharp (1859–1924). Cecil Sharp House officially opened its doors on 7 June 1930.
In April 1932 the English Folk Dance Society merged with the Folk Song Society to form the English Folk Dance and Song Society, which is still owns Cecil Sharp House today.
The Building
The building was designed to contain:
- a library for Sharp’s book collection
- a large hall for social dancing and high-profile concerts
- and two smaller classrooms downstairs for teaching
The building very quickly became a vibrant centre for the folk arts, hosting classes and concerts and even attracting the International Folk Dance Festival in 1935.
War Damage and Rebuilding
In September 1940 Cecil Sharp House was hit by four bombs, destroying the front entrance, stairwell and a musicians’ gallery in the main hall. Fortunately the library remained largely intact, and its rare books were already in Cheshire for safe keeping. The remaining collection was packed up and moved to Oxford.
After the bombing, the building was patched up and most classes and dances took place in the basement, which had escaped largely unscathed. Postwar, funds were raised to rebuild the House. John Eastwick-Field was taken on as the architect to restore and extend the House.
On 5 June 1951, furnished with a new foyer and an additional floor, Cecil Sharp House was reopened by the then president HRH The Princess Margaret. A reopening dance was organised in celebration of the refurbishment.
The Ivon Hitchens Mural
The musicians’ gallery, which previously looked over the main hall, was not reinstalled after the rebuild. Instead, Ivon Hitchens was commissioned to produce a mural (pictured above). The piece was to depict key English folk dances and traditions. Hitchens worked on the mural for three years before it was finally completed in 1954. Measuring 69 x 20 feet, the mural was the largest in the country at the time.
The House Today
Cecil Sharp House is now more vibrant than ever. The English Folk Dance and Song Society works locally, nationally and internationally to preserve, promote and develop the folk arts. The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library is England’s national folk music and dance archive, and is a multi-media library of distinction.
Cecil Sharp House is available to hire for weddings, parties, rehearsals, filming, conferences, performances and more. The hire fees support the charitable work of the English Folk Dance and Song Society.
