Following on from the success of the Barnes Ponder community visioning events in 2013 and 2023, Charles Campion was asked by the Mortlake Community Association to lead a similar event for the neighbouring, historic village on the River Thames. Mortlake is famous for being the finish of the Oxford v Cambridge Boat Race course and 800 year old brewing tradition. With reference to its brewing history, the process was given the genius name of the “Mortlake Mash Up”.
After a few months of organising, including a successful funding application to the Richmond upon Thames Council Civic Pride Fund, the Mash Up process began with the launch of the online interactive map, hosted by JTP Engages mortlakemashup.jtpdata.com to elicit issues and ideas from the local community.
The first event held was an Enterprise workshop with local businesses, followed by Future Makers, the engagement of around 150 young people through local schools and the Power Station youth club. The Mash Up visioning weekend on 14 & 15 March 2025 began with the arrival of the facilitation team from far and wide – the furthest traveller being Nick Taylor from Scarborough. The facilitation team then joined with community members for the Time Trek, a walkabout led by the Mortlake History Society and showcasing Mortlake’s incredibly rich history.
The main event was the Mash Up community planning day on Saturday 15 March, a mix of exhibitions, workshops and activities for all ages. The event was hosted by The Storyworks UK in their offices in the former Mortlake Brewery sports and social building. Storyworks is a film and tv production company based in the former brewery, which has recently produced the Disney series “A Thousand Blows”. Following brief introductions, the programme began with a fascinating presentation from the Mortlake History Society. This led into the first workshop of the day. Given the large numbers of participants, it was decided to run two parallel workshops in separate rooms. People were asked to consider their issues, dreams and solutions for Mortlake.
Following lunch, participants took part in themed hands-on planning groups to draw out future project ideas for Mortlake. One group focused on process and how the community could continue to be involved in shaping Mortlake and delivering the projects that emerged from the Mash Up. The future development of the former brewery site will spin off significant Section 106 community benefit funds which can be spent locally. The day continued with the groups reporting back to a plenary session and ended with a next steps workshop.
One participant wrote in later, “Thank you guys for coming to help us last Saturday. It was very nice to share in an open manner, where we could stretch and exercise our dreams and share our knowledge!”
The facilitation team is now bringing the ideas together and a report back of the Mortlake Vision is being planned for June. I will update on the outcomes – watch this space!
