11 GoodGymers met at the iconic Limehouse Town Hall last night to help Rosie and Jay with some urgent painting!

The corridors of the entrance hallway of this beautiful building needed a few coats of paint in time for their Open Day this coming Sunday.

Housed in a Grade II listed building, Limehouse Town Hall is,

a resource for artists and cultural producers, audiences and communities from Tower Hamlets and beyond to share ideas, celebrate, organise, and imagine a better here and now.

After a thorough briefing, Rosie dispatched GoodGymers to all corners and ends of the corridor, armed either with a roller (to deal with the big areas) or a brush (to go over those pesky corners and doorways). Working in teams of two, with an absence of spillages, Rosie agreed after 40 minutes a lot was getting done.

With Oliver and Neena tackling the higher areas, the remaining GoodGymers zipped from corner to corner with paint trays, ensuring our contribution this evening was as thorough as possible.

And guess what? As usual, the time flew and before we knew it, it was after 8 and time to carefully stack rollers, brushes and trays, ready for Rosie to continue tomorrow.

A thoroughly fun evening, culminating in a run down of our exciting announcements, including:

• This Thursday’s late summer social

• …Our new Sunday sessions with the Bethnal Green Foodbank

• …and not forgetting an important reminder of The Big London Social, next week.

Meanwhile, next Monday’s task sees us heading back to Bow to join Kieran in the lovely GET OUT Garden.

Until then.

Two teams; two truly magnificent tasks

Two teams headed out to two tasks tonight, with two totally brilliant task owners.

Our wonderful task force member Leo was heading up the big crew to Limehouse Town Hall, where the fabulous Brian had all manner of tasks for the GoodGymers to enjoy.

Writes Leo, "We set off promptly, very aptly led by Dave choosing to take us on Kat's special scenic route making excellent progress to Limehouse Town Hall, where we were met by task owner Brian who was ready & prepped for our arrival with a tasty line up of tasks to tackle.

The 23 of us split into two groups, with Chi especially keen to tackle the moving of the magnificent bar. He was joined by a group so enthusiastic, it was deconstructed and carefully transferred to the other end of the room in no time.

The rest of their group turned their hand to moving the stage in the opposite direction (yes, you read that right). It was exceptionally well coordinated, with the group making it look very easy despite MANY moving parts.

Remaining runners were tasked with cleaning some particularly grubby skirting boards; removing errant wall plugs and covering up the resulting holes with sufficient polyfilla to prepare the walls for a future paint job. The group enjoyed their tasks: in particular, Tracey, Becky & Emily seemed to get an inordinate amount joy out of cleaning (and the results were blindingly good).

As time drew to a close, we gathered for a photo behind the majestic (and successfully reassembled) bar before some very appreciative closing words from Brian to send us on our way back to the hotel - another fun and fulfilling evening."

Meanwhile, I took a small team of 5 to the local Parkview estate where Catherine had boxes of leaflets for us, lovingly prepared by the small TRA for the residents, with not just the monthly newsletter but also details of the exciting Climate Conversation Cafe taking place this weekend, in the gorgeous Glasshouse community centre. We split into two teams and blitzed the estate before heading to beautiful Bonner Gate in neighbouring Victoria Park for some fab fitness, including Bulgarian split squats against the railings and pavement planks.

We all met back at the hotel, to finish the chocolate and biscuits, discuss our upcoming GoodGym plans and say cheerio for the week. It was a thoroughly lovely February night.

Welcome's. And thank you's

A massive big warm welcome to tonight's wonderful first time runners, Mags, Patrick, Emily, Kieran.

And a huge thanks to task force supremo, Leo, who led the big team and big task; to our photographers, Leo, Charlotte, Suraj, Chi, Becky and Kat - you've helped create a lovely report! Thank you.

Also, a big shout out this week to our other task force hero, Isabelle, who on Saturday reached 50 good deeds. Thank you for all you do, Isabelle, and congratulations.

What's coming up in the next week...

Now, next week we're back to the Poets Corner Community Garden and back to Michael and Margaret at Hollybush, who've been in touch to say they need you. So come on board for that, why don't you.

And don't forget the Mini-Mermaids incredible mission this Thursday. Honestly, it's a game-changer, so make your excuses, take an extra long lunch hour and come and join Leo and the crew for some fablous, feelgood fitness cheerleading.

Well, until next time, take the very best of care: have a great week, stay warm (won't be long before the clocks go forward), stay well and stay in touch.

Back to the Town Hall!

26 runners braved another damp January evening to head to beautiful Limehouse Town Hall where task owner Brian was thoroughly well prepped for us for the second visit of a two week task.

It was a hive of activity as the runners set about bustling around this amazing building scrubbing, sawing, drilling, clearing and descaling, and polyfilling...Amazing.

Teams were dispersed all over the building, with Tracey heading up the cleaning team, dispatched to the incredible wrought iron staircase and theatre balcony, to deftly get into every nook and cranny with electric toothbrushes; Dave saved the day with his electrical know-how, while Leo headed up Team Filler blitzing holey walls, and Isabelle, Suraj, Stefan, Steve, Joel and Chris blitzed the boarding. Amazing stuff.

The time flew by quite incredibly and before we knew it, task owner Brian had taken creative control and had us replicating the iconic Beatles EMI stairwell pic as a fantastic task finale.

Job. Done.

And then we ran back to base, animated and exhilarated at all we'd achieved, and been part of.

Big shout out's

A big thank tonight to Bryon for leading the team to the task, Ivo for backmarking, and Leo for additional pics.

And a massive warm welcome to Craig, who joined us for his first run tonight. Thanks for your huge contribution and we hope to see you really soon.

What's coming up

• Next week we’re a two-task team: we’re at a brand new task, just around the corner, helping the Poets Corner Community Garden, while a second team are heading up the road to join the Meath Gardens crew for some clearing and much needed litter picking. All the details and sign up can be found here.

• And in two weeks’ time, on Feb 10th, The Tower Hamlets Monthly Social commences! This month is hosted by Isabelle, who’s booked us ample table space at the nearby Fugitive Motel, so whether you fancy a cheeky Monday Magners, or some heavenly, reasonably priced pizza, and a natter, do come and join us.

In the meantime, have a really good week: Take care, and hope to see you very, very soon.

A new task no less

31 runners formed two groups this evening to head down to Limehouse to a brand new task!

Although we've visited the Town Hall before, this was our first time tasking it with the fabulous Limehouse Town Hall Consortium Trust, a fabulous charity aiming to return the hall to full & sustainable community use.

With our brilliant task force already lined up to co-lead and navigate the group safely down to Limehouse, Bryon set out with Chris and Kat to take the faster runners off, while myself, Lieke and Liz led the remainder of the runners, beautifully navigated by Lieke, along the quietest route!

We arrived to a brilliantly organised task from task owners Brian and Sam!

Plenty to do on arrival...

Groups were soon dispatched throughout the building to:

• Move cupboards and other bulky items around the building
• Remove a large panel in the theatre
• Scrub the vast wrough iron staircase
• Fill wall holes on the ground floor
• Clean the silk screen tub in the slightly scary basement

The time absolutely sped by, and it seemed no sooner had we arrived and got our kit ready to work were we assembling for picture-posing on the magnificent staircase.

But we needn't be sad - we're returning to this absolutely terrific task next week where we'll be led through another big variety of jobs, not only helping out this wonderful institution, we'll also be having a whale of a time while we do it again. THANK YOU ALL!

A big warm welcome to our first time runner, Timur - what a joy to have you on board, what an asset you were. Thank you! And hope to see you very, very soon.

What's coming up

• On Sunday, our amazing Task Force, Leo & Isabelle are leading the third of our Junior parkrun volunteering collaborations - more details and sign up are here.

• While next Monday, we return to the Town Hall, for more fun in this splendid location, so come and join in if you can.

Until then, banish any thought of January blues: stay warm, run if you can, stay in touch... Just have a brilliant week, and we'll catch up soon.