We’ve got a boat to float!

There was a time we wondered how the business quarter that was Canary Wharf was all going to fit in to the slender land mass allotted to it in the middle of Millwall Dock. How they did it, of course, was to build out over the water.  Not many of us can build permanent structures over the water, but a trio of local activists have done the next best thing: they’ve turned an old boat into a community venue. And all that enterprise will drift away unless the community rallies round by next week (see end of article below).

The story centres round a man called James, who had a butty. No, not a cheese sandwich – a “butty” is a not very common kind of engineless narrowboat designed to carry cargo.  He and his mates Alice and Ian (all three of them seasoned boaters who have been part of the canals and rivers and waterways community for several years) used the butty as a site and host for a variety of waterborne leisure activities – bringing together other water-dwellers and nearby land-lubbers in chess and music, most notably when it became the regular “jam butty”.

James fell on hard times and decided to sell his butty – at which point Ian stepped forward and told him he could not do so, for the butty was destined to do good for the whole community.  (I wish I had a friend like Ian.  Unfortunately I have a dozen of them – Ed.)

And so it came to pass that the butty has become a Floating Village Hall and it is to have its grand launch at the Summer Fete on The Regents Canal at Mile End over the weekend of 11th-12th July. The butty will display what it’s made of by taking a central role at the weekend’s festivities, hosting live performances and storytelling, a tug of war tournament, a cake competition and a thrilling ceilidh starring world class folk musicians. In the run up to the Festival, there will also be a chess and board games night on Tuesday 7th, “knots and knitting” on Wednesday 8th, a choir on Thursday 9th and an edible and medicinal wild plants walk on Friday 10th (all welcome).

The butty had a dry run over the Olympics, when it offered a Floating Market at Mile End. Now it’s hoping to go further and use the launch as a springboard for a number of intimate community events on a longer term basis. Most villages have a hall which they can use as a basis for board games, music, dance, etc. The water-livers in East London just don’t have that: not only does it keep individuals isolated, it keeps that whole community distant from the land-based community too. The butty’s trying to be that village hall we don’t have on the water: both a venue to do what you want in, and also a prompt to want to do more than sit indoors with the TV.

However, all this must be funded. Although the Village Hall Butty aims to be non-profit making, those who run it are trying to set up a service boat which would allow it to offer the community so very much more.

Funds are being sought via www.crowdfunder.co.uk/the-village-butty (where you can find lots more information and a little film) to help keep the village hall afloat and available for the local community to enjoy for years to come.  The deadline for reaching the very modest £5,000 target is 15th July. That’s just a week for you to dip into your pocket or check the back of your sofa – and also to nudge the well heeled in Tower Hamlets or those who know them.  The Village Butty needs you!

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