london
2015 Opening Doors London May groups and activities
Opening Doors London
www.openingdoorslondon.org.uk
For information about groups and activities please contact us on: 020 7239 0400 or ODL.Info@ageukcamden.org.uk
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ODL Signposting and Information Leave a message on 07961 937 621 odlsignposting@ageukcamden.org.uk
Opening Doors London: full listings and activities. Monday 27th APRIL Mixed Tower Hamlets ODL East Drop-in Positive East, 159 Mile End, Rd, E1 4AQ. PLEASE NOTE: The next Opening Doors Drop in at Positive East will be a week earlier than scheduled as the normal date would fall on the Bank Holiday. Come and join our friendly east London afternoon social. We will include ‘A Voice For Older People’ as a regular slot in the last half hour of our drop-ins. This is an opportunity to give your views on services in Tower Hamlets, whether you live, work, or socialise in the borough and this will be fed back to the Older People’s Reference Group. Call Nic Humberstone on 07538 392 104 or email Nicola.Humberstone@ageukca mden.org.uk Drop in any time between 4pm – 6pm Friday 1st Mixed Friday coffee & cake club Tavis House, 1-6 Tavistock Sq, WC1H 9NA. Come in for a chat and cake at this peer led social group. Hot drinks can be purchased in the café. Please feel free to bring your own cakes. Every Friday 10am – 12pm Monday 4th Mixed Group Barnet Diners’ Club and Games meeting in partnership with Age UK
Barnet The Queens Arms Public House, Great North Rd. EN5 1AB. (Close to High Barnet Tube station beside Odeon cinema). Meet for a drink with friends or have a meal from the very delicious value 2-4-1 menu (about £5 per person). Darts and pool available. For more information please ring 020 7239 0400 or Amanda Radonich at Age UK Barnet on 020 8432 1415. 7pm – 9pm CANCELLED DUE TO BANK HOLIDAY: Mixed Tower Hamlets ODL East Drop-in Tuesday 5th ODL Quarterly Group Tavis House, 1-6 Tavistock Sq, WC1H 9NA Interested in writing and putting together our ODL Q magazine? Put your enthusiasm to work, and learn on the go. We need writers, editors, and illustrators. Help make your magazine look exciting and engaging. Drop in or email us at odl.quarterly@ageukcamden.o rg.uk 6pm – 8pm Why do I help with Q magazine? We plan, write, discuss, edit, publish - all firsts for me - I'm learning and getting better. What I do actually shows in the finished magazine. I'm hearing different views, arguing, compromising and deciding. Interesting that there are men and women in the group, and we can't work out who said what without checking the minutes!
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Exhausting, satisfying, and I've given something back to ODL. I'm smiling! How about you joining in, and smiling as well? Tony Smith Wednesday 6th Anchor Housing/ODL Mixed Art Group Chigwell Court, 99 Balance Road E9 5SQ The art group will be held in the communal room. Basic materials will be provided for the informal drop-in session. Volunteer artists on hand. 2pm -4pm Men’s Pimlico Social Pimlico Room (back of Church), St Saviour’s Church, St George’s Square, SW1V 3QW. Friendly drop-in coffee evening. 6pm – 9pm Thursday 7th ‘Rainbow Surfers’ older LGBT computer drop-in Computer Suite, Tavis House, 1-6 Tavistock Square, WC1H 9NA. Our LGBT friendly drop-in session provides you with an opportunity to receive IT assistance and guidance from knowledgeable volunteers and staff. For more information please contact Tony or Kamye on 0207 239 0400. Every Thursday 10am – 1pm Mixed Newham Dinner Club Stratford Circus, Theatre Square, Stratford, London E15 1BX. All welcome. You don’t need to book, but if it is your first time at this group please Page 1
Opening Doors London: full listings and activities. call Kate for details. 020 7239 0447 or email kate.hancock@ageukcamden. org.uk. 6pm – 9pm
Dinner: from 6.30pm Ends: 9pm
PLEASE NOTE: Men’s “Older, Gay & Positive” group will be on Thursday 14th May this month.
Mixed ‘Second Sundays’ Social Group Chelsea Theatre, 7 Worlds End Place, Kings Road, SW10 ODR. Come and join our friendly bunch for a delicious light lunch, £4 per person. Members will need to RSVP to Fiona by Friday 8th April on fiona.addison@ageukcamden. org.uk or call 07435 356 951. 12.30pm – 3.30pm
Friday 8th Mixed Friday coffee & cake club See Friday 1st for more details. Every Friday 10am – 12pm Signposting and Information Service
Sunday 10th
Monday 11th
If you need help in the home, are confused about tax, have questions about your pension, benefits or housing Contact the team at odlsignposting@ageukcamden .org.uk or, call the ODL Signposting and Information phone line: 07961 937 621. We will get back to you to discuss your issue further within one working week. Mixed ODL East Dinner Club Positive East, 159 Mile End, Road, London E1 4AQ £6 for delicious meal. We have a new chef who will be serving a three course home made meal for £6. Pre-booking is essential, please email Nicola.Humberstone@ageukca mden.org.uk or call/ text Nic on 07538 392 104 stating your name and contact number by Monday 4th. Drinks: 6pm
Mixed Walking The Capital Ring: Stoke Newington to Hackney Wick Join Liam for a 4 mile walk. Starting in Stoke Newington, the walk goes into a nature reserve at Springfield Park. The rest of the route follows the River Lea as it winds its way towards the Thames and goes past the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. This walk is mainly on the towpath and is narrow and rough in some places and some of the canal footbridges have steep slopes. This event will be a good way to exercise and socialise whilst navigating slopes, steps, pavements and muddy patches too. Bring water, energy snacks for the journey, rainproof gear/ sunglasses (or both!), walking footwear you
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don’t mind getting muddy and some money for a welldeserved pizza lunch at the end. Meeting point: On the street just outside the ticket office at Stoke Newington station. Meet at 10.45am Walk starts at 11am prompt. Walk ends 12pm or 1pm (depending on our speed) followed by a pizza lunch for those who want it. End point: Hackney Wick station Line Dancing Mixed Tea Dance Tavis House Café, Tavis House, 1-6 Tavistock Square, WC1H 9NA. Join us for our tea dances whether you are an experienced dancer, a beginner or have never danced before – there is room for all! Peter will instruct and lead us in Line Dancing. Drinks and snacks will be provided but please feel free to bring your own to share. We are hoping to have more tea dances so please bring your ideas along with your dancing shoes. Please bring lgbt friends of any age. 5.30pm – 7.30pm Questions about groups, events and activities? If there’s contact details next to the specific event you’re looking at, please use those to find out more information. Otherwise please contact us on 020 7239 0400 or ODL.Info@ageukcamden.org.u k.
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Opening Doors London: full listings and activities. Tuesday 12th Men’s Group Walk
We return to Central London for our May walk, so "Let's All Go Down the Strand". To the south of one of London's most famous thoroughfares is a secret hinterland of surprises and hidden treasures. Beautiful gardens, historic buildings, a theatre, a world famous hotel and a church that will astonish you. Reaching the Aldwych, it becomes even more remarkable. A staircase in a unique building where you would once have been deafened, fountains that you can walk through without getting wet and an amazing chapel hidden in the heart of a university. Reeling from all this, we shall stumble across an abandoned underground station and gaze with incredulity into the spring-fed waters of a Roman Bath. For good measure, we shall reacquaint ourselves with the hidden world of London's stunning Inns of Court before having an opportunity to drink a free cup of tea and use Britain's most ravishing cash machine. If you would like to join the walk you can either: - Text or leave a message on the walking group mobile number which is 07804 329 416.
- Email odwalksgroup@gmail.com We need your full name and the name of any other Opening Doors member coming with you. Alan will them confirm meeting point details. There is room for up to 24 people; if you would like to participate please book. These walks are proving popular so if you find yourself unable to come along, having booked, kindly let us know so that your place can be offered to someone else. 2.15pm for 2.30pm start. Walk from 2.30pm – 4pm Men’s Group Speaker Night Henderson Court Resource Centre, 102 Fitzjohn’s Ave, NW3 6NS (entrance on Prince Arthur Rd). Tonight's talk will be from Dr Paul Jordan AKA 'Dr Eurovision'. Paul wrote his PhD on the politics behind the Eurovision Song Contest and published his book based on his research, 'The Modern Fairy Tale', in May 2014. Since 2012 he's been the BBC's pundit for the Eurovision semifinals and has attended the event since 2000. Paul will be providing a trip down memory lane by providing an overview of the history of the contest. He will also discuss his experiences of visiting Russia, Serbia and Azerbaijan and will also present some aspects of his research.
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Social 6pm – 7pm. Talk from 7pm. (After the talk some members also head to a local pub for a drink.) Wednesday 13th Goldman Sachs Day Out to Kew Gardens All spaces for this trip have now been filled. If you already booked a space you’ll receive an email or letter about it shortly before the event. Thursday 14th ‘Rainbow Surfers’ older LGBT computer drop-in See Thursday 7th for more details. Every Thursday 10am – 1pm ‘Knit and Natter’, come and craft - MIXED group, for everyone! Second Thursday of each month Join Nickie in the cafe at Tavis House! Nickie says – ‘If you want to learn to knit I will teach you. I will provide knitting needles and yarn and bring a few easy patterns. If you already have a favourite craft and it's portable, bring it along and share your skills. Page 3
Opening Doors London: full listings and activities. Maybe crochet, embroidery or beadwork perhaps?’ 3pm – 5pm Men’s “Older, Gay & Positive” Group Tavis A&B Meeting Room, Tavis House, 1-6 Tavistock Square, WC1H 9NA. Support and social group for gay and bi men aged 50 and over who are living with HIV. 6pm – 8pm Friday 15th Mixed Friday coffee & cake club See Friday 1st for more details. Every Friday 10am – 12noon
sex/gender non-conforming people. We may also discuss the implications of being trans* and/or sex/gender nonconforming on discourses of bisexuality. 6pm – 8pm
Redbridge Mixed Social Dropin Due to very low take-up of this group Redbridge Mixed Social Drop-in has been suspended. If any members would like to discuss this please contact Chryssy on 0207 239 0400. Tuesday 19th
Monday 18th Bi Visibility Group Tavis House, 1-6 Tavistock Square WC1H 9NA. Open social and discussion group for anyone who would like to think about the question "What does bisexuality mean to you?" This month we will be showing a short film called Swimming Costume produced for TAGS, the Trans* and Gender Nonconforming Swimming Group, based in Lewisham. TAGS was formed to facilitate a safe space for non-cis people to enjoy the benefits of accessing public swimming facilities in an environment which is often hostile to people with nonnormative sex/gender identities and/or bodies. We encourage people of all ages to attend. Following the film we will hold a discussion about the difficulties of accessing public sports and leisure spaces for trans* and
Mixed Outings In Art London Canal Museum, New Wharf Road, London N1 9RT www.canalmuseum.org.uk At the London Canal Museum you can see inside a narrowboat cabin, learn about the history of London's canals, about the cargoes carried, the people who lived and worked on the waterways, and the horses that pulled their boats. Peer down into the unique heritage of a huge Victorian ice well used to store ice imported from Norway and brought by ship and canal boat to be stored. This unique waterways museum is housed in a former ice warehouse built in about 1862-3 for Carlo Gatti, the famous ice cream maker, and features the history of the ice
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trade and ice cream as well as the canals. Museum is fully accessible. Call or text Chris to confirm on 07958 257 541. Museum admission: £2.50 (group rate of 10 plus). Meet outside (weather permitting) at 2.30pm. Museum visit will end with coffee and cake a few minutes walk away at: Kings Place arts centre at 90 York Way, London N1 9AG. www.kingsplace.co.uk Intergenerational Feminist Reading Group Tavis House, 16 Tavistock Square, WC1H 9NA. An informal space for discussion of feminist ideas & texts. Chaired by Elsa Richardson, an historian based in Queen Mary’s Centre for the History of Emotions, with the aim of encouraging a dialogue between different generations of feminist thinkers, activists and supporters. We will be looking at the fourth chapter of Shulamith Firestones’s ‘The Dialectic of Sex’ entitled ‘Down with Childhood’. Copies of the text will be available at the group. However, the text is simply a springboard for discussion as discussion and our own live experience will be the main focus of the group. So it is not essential to read the text beforehand and if you want to come along for interesting discussion that is absolutely fine too. 6pm to 7.30pm
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Opening Doors London: full listings and activities.
Have you completed your Opening Doors London member’s survey?
You should have received the survey through the post or via email in late April. Please make sure to fill it in and send it back to us before Friday 22nd May.
As well as being crucial for funding purposes, it’s also particularly important for you to let us know your thoughts on the future of ODL.
Taking part in the survey is the best way to influence the future of the project, so please take part and let us know what you think!
Wednesday 20th Barnet Roving Lunch Club Each month this lunch club will try a new venue and sample the different cuisines available
in North London’s largest borough. This month we visit a popular Thai restaurant in North Finchley: The Elephant Inn, 283 Ballards Lane, London N12 8NR. Set menus from £13. http://elephantinnfinchley.co. uk 12.30pm – 2.30pm Mixed ODL Ealing/ West London Social and Support Group Ground Floor, Lido Centre. 63 Mattock Lane, West Ealing, W13 9LA. www.lidocentre.org.uk Stations: Ealing Broadway, Northfields, West Ealing: 5 to 15 mins walk. Buses E2, E3, 207, 83, 427, E7, E8. Meetings take place every third Wednesday of the month at 2.30pm at the Lido Centre. All welcome. Refreshments served. For more information call 020 7239 0400. Opening Doors London in partnership with Age UK Ealing & Ealing CVS. King of Escape (2009) A hilarious and outrageous comedy from the director of Stranger by the Lake. For more details please contact: Derek.Freeman@ageukcamde n.org.uk 2.30pm – 4.30pm (PLEASE NOTE NOW BACK TO USUAL TIME) Anchor Housing/ ODL Mixed Art Group Chigwell Court, 99 Balance Road E9 5SQ The art group will be held in the communal room. Basic materials will be provided for the informal drop-in session.
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Volunteer artists on hand. 2pm – 4pm ODL Quarterly Group Meeting Tavis House, 1-6 Tavistock Sq, WC1H 9NA. See Tuesday 5th for details. 6pm – 8pm Questions about groups, events and activities? If there’s contact details next to the specific event you’re looking at, please use those to find out more information. Otherwise please contact us on 020 7239 0400 or ODL.Info@ageukcamden.org.u k. Men’s Group Pub Social Venue TBC. Due to the closure of Black Cap we will be hosting this event at another location from now on. Please contact us on 020 7239 0400 or ODL.Info@ageukcamden.org.u k to find out where. Come along for a chat, a drink and share snacks courtesy of George and staff at The Black Cap at this peer led group. 7pm – late Thursday 21st ‘Rainbow Surfers’ older LGBT computer drop-in See Thursday 7th for more details. Every Thursday 10am – 1pm Women’s Film Night PLEASE NOTE Women’s Film Night is now on 3rd Thursday of each month so that we don’t clash with Haringey Page 5
Opening Doors London: full listings and activities. Independent Cinema G24 Common Room, Foster Court, Malet Place. Come into UCL from the entrance opposite Waterstone's on Torrington Place. Foster Court is on the right and half way along there is an archway also on the right, with a set of automatic double doors on the right - the Common Room is through those doors and up 3 stairs but also has step-free access.
House 1-6 Tavistock Square, WC1H 9NA New for 2015: 4th Friday of each month Join Angie & Lesley for an informal art group for all abilities - come and do your own creative thing, or improve and expand your drawing skills with gentle guidance from an experienced volunteer teacher. Whether you are a traditional sketcher or an outrageous avant gardist this group will supply encouragement, support, plenty of dialogue....and maybe an exhibition. Basic materials provided, but feel free to bring your own sketchbooks and non-messy kit. 12.30pm – 3pm Signposting and Information Service
We will be showing Pride (2014) Realizing that they share common foes in Margaret Thatcher, the police and the conservative press, London-based lgbt people lend their support to striking coal miners in 1984 Wales. Social 5.30pm Film 7pm -9pm Friday 22nd
If you need help in the home, are confused about tax, have questions about your pension, benefits or housing -
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Visit the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Gallery, at Unison, 130 Euston Road. NW1 2AY http://www.egaforwomen.org .uk/gallery.html Then a stroll to Coffee, Cake & Kisses café at 54 Warren Street. The café is a lovely new inclusive space for Central London. If the weather is kind we can make a visit to Fitzroy Square to see one of the many homes of Virginia Woolf. Meet at the front entrance to the Unison Building, 130 Euston Road at 11:00am. Men’s Film Night: Henderson Court Resource Centre, 102 Fitzjohn’s Ave, NW3 6NS. (entrance on Prince Arthur Road). Maurice (1987)
Contact the team at odlsignposting@ageukcamden .org.uk or, call the ODL Signposting and Information phone line: 07961 937 621. We will get back to you to discuss your issue further within one working week. Tuesday 26th
Mixed Friday coffee & cake club See Friday 1st for more details. Every Friday 10am – 12noon
Women’s Walking & Herstory
Informal Art Group Tavis
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Based on the novel by E.M. Forster. After his lover rejects him, a young man trapped by the oppressiveness of Page 6
Opening Doors London: full listings and activities. Edwardian society tries to come to terms with and accept his sexuality. Director: James Ivory Stars: James Wilby, Rupert Graves, Hugh Grant. 6pm social. Film starts at 7pm Thursday 28th ‘Rainbow Surfers’ older LGBT computer drop-in See Thursday 7th for more details. Every Thursday 10am – 1pm Mixed Islington Older LGBT Drop-in London Friend, 86 Caledonian Road, N1 9DN. In partnership with London Friend, this social group is a place to meet friends for a coffee, chat and optional board games! 2pm – 4pm Friday 29th Mixed Friday coffee & cake club See Friday 1st for more details. Every Friday 10am – 12noon
Saturday 30th Mixed Coffee Evening Meeting at Tufnell Park Tube station at 7.45 p.m. Mike will be hosting the coffee evening. Please remember to bring cakes with you. Phone 07581 647 344 for more details. 7.45pm – 10pm Sunday 31st Sunday Lunch & Film Club Henderson Court Resource Centre, 102 Fitzjohn’s Ave, NW3 6NS (entrance on Prince Arthur Road). This month’s film is Women on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown. A woman's lover leaves her, and she tries to contact him to find out why he's left. She confronts his wife and son, who are as clueless as she. Meanwhile her girlfriend is afraid the police are looking for her because of her boyfriend's criminal activities. They talk to a female lawyer, who turns out to be the lover's new lover, and everyone's path keeps crossing each other's in a very complicated and confusing manner.
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Lunch available for £4, this month’s lunch will be lamb chops with veg, vegetarian or fish option: please advise when booking. Booking for lunch essential, please call Chryssy on 020 7239 0400, before Friday 29th. Please note that due to budgetary constraints we will be discussing the future shape of this group on the day. Social from 12pm Lunch from 12.30pm Film at 2.00pm Future dates for your diary: Sunday 14th June Second Sundays: Same Gender Tango Class for ODL members This free "tango taster" class for beginners will run from 2:30-3:30pm at Chelsea Theatre. To book in advance contact Fiona: fiona.addison@ageukcamden. org.uk 07435356951 Saturday 27th June London Pride
Questions about groups, events and activities? If there’s contact details next to the specific event you’re looking at, please use those to find out more information. Otherwise please contact us on 020 7239 0400 or ODL.Info@ageukcamden.org.u k.
www.openingdoorslondon.org.uk
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