It was our fifth session for Greenford Park Residents Association Community Hall and the fourth one that included transporting bikes. Will those bicycles eventually go away?

We started the journey of transforming the hall's backyard in December last year. Back then, we could not even take a good "before" photo of the space as dozens of bicycles blocked us from entering the area.

It was incredible to see the final step of clearing the bike graveyard today and completing the painting (at least the first coat!) of the second wooden bench that had been buried under the heaps of bikes.

The bicycles belonged to London Bike Hub, a great initiative aiming to restore as many bicycles as possible for the community. They used to store the pre-loved rides and bike parts at the back of GPRA Hall. Now was the time for the association to reclaim the space and start using it for tea parties and outdoor events. Ash, Christos, Sevan, Steph and Kash were there to make that happen. Under the watchful eye of task owner John, they followed his vision of a bike-free space with two renovated orange benches ready to welcome visitors.

After 90 minutes of dismantling two large bike racks, using creative ways to get the wheeled and wheel-less cycles up the hill to their new home, sweeping paving slabs and painting a bench with old, orange-tinted wood protector, the promised land of tea parties has emerged. It was astonishing to see such a clear, spacious yard, especially in comparison to what we had first encountered in December!

We cannot wait to hear from John again about the community activities planned in the garden... or another job to fix the paving slabs - we are not too fussy!