Community and sustainability

Getjar, through their connections with ISG have been able to work with AgeUK Camden to provide some much-needed repairs to the centre garden. The centre on Cromer Street in King’s Cross was in dire need of help after a tradesperson had left them with a half-finished poorly constructed path and wall leading down to the centre.

The relationship began between ISG and AgeUK began around two years ago, when ISG were looking to work with local charities in the area whilst building the state-of-the-art Institute of Neurology (IoN) on Gray’s Inn Road. Partnering with AgeUK was an easy choice as the charity work with those that are affected by the neurological issues that, once built, the Institute of Neurology on Gray’s Inn Road will be looking to cure.

During the Covid-19 lockdown Abul Choudhury, Centre Manager of AgeUK Camden, was at the forefront of delivering food and medicine to roughly 10,000 people whilst the UK was shut down. Continuing to work tirelessly with his team during this time, to make sure the members of the centre were not left without valuable supplies. Unfortunately, after all of this wonderful and selfless work, the centre was not rewarded with the kindness of strangers. Abul worked hard to acquire donations for a tradesperson to build a new path and wall down from the road to the centre, after it became unsuitable for wheelchair use. But the tradesperson left the wall in a worse state than when they arrived, leaving Abul in a desperate situation that ended in him attempting to patch the wall and path together himself.

When the wall was coming apart Abul “didn’t know where to start” – enter Getjar. With the world being such a small place, Anna Clarke (Project Manager for Getjar working on IoN) actually has a close tie to the centre through the board of trustees and this led to Anna visiting the centre along with ISG. Anna quickly rallied some of the builders from the IoN site to head down to AgeUK to rectify this situation, acquiring building materials through their supply chain for free. On the 11^th May builders from Getjar began digging and did not stop until recently, to produce the path in the image above. Although they did not just create the path, they also produced a lovely pagoda area for the centres’ visitors to relax in during the summer and have plenty BBQ’s! Getjar also repaired the wall and the entrance area to the small park.

The work by Getjar has been fantastic and Abul insisted the money they have saved from construction costs will go a long way at an organisation like theirs.

Getjar, AgeUK and ISG are going to a BBQ to celebrate the construction of the new path and pagoda on the 1^st July, which will be a great day to interact with those that are benefitting from all of the hard work put in by those involved. This BBQ will also hopefully see a visit from Labour leader and local MP Kier Starmer.

One of our key focus areas is the protection of trees and gravestones along the boundary wall to St Andrew’s Gardens. We have set up a ‘construction exclusion zone’ around them, which prevents any construction activity from coming near them and the gravestones will also benefit from an additional protective layer. The zone also protects the root structure from being damaged. Both the trees and gravestones will be inspection throughout by a competent specialist.