Scrabble, knitting and a ukelele at the St Martin’s Church Living Room

THEY were a move to stop Camden’s vulnerable from freezing during the energy crisis.

But users of “warm banks” in Gospel Oak say they would love them to continue into the summer after the measures brought the community together.

Inside Bacton Tower’s warm bank, one of five venues in Gospel Oak participating in the “Living Room” project, an intergenerational mix of pensioners and families eat cheese toasties and play dominoes every Monday evening.

There are two TVs for kids to watch, a play area and snacks donated from the pioneering Cooperation Town food hub across the road. Around 30 people attended last week, and more have come each week since the project began on January 16.

Co-ordinators James Robin and Caroline Nalwoga

“I started coming here with my five-year-old daughter. She just plays with the other kids in here and everyone comes together. We’re just like a family,” said Naima Jibril, 30, who lives in Waxham.

“Every time I come I bring someone new and they always like it. It’s really cold outside so it’s nice.”

Ms Jibril said she is on a prepayment meter but the government helps her with energy bills.

“If I didn’t have that I would have struggled because it’s expensive,” she said. “Gas is especially expensive. I’m cooking and then I have to keep topping it up. Everything is so expensive. Clothes, everything.”

Caroline Nalwoga, a teaching assistant and coordinator of The Gospel Oak Living Room, said: “When the doors are closed we don’t get to meet as much. It’s a tight knit community. We all know each other. But you won’t get to see how connected we actually are until there’s a project like this. It’s a beautiful thing because everyone is actually friendly.”

Ms Nalwoga, who lives in Weedington Road, added: “I’ve had friends that have come here, they’ve not got much food in their fridge, things like that. Then they’ll come here and take a loaf of bread away and they can have bread for three days.”

James Robin, a building surveyor and another coordinator of the Living Room, added: “Each of the spaces has a slightly different vibe. This one because it’s after school, it’s more games for kids. This one has TVs, the others don’t.

“It’s about making it welcome for all.”

He added: “Particularly with some of the older people, the messaging coming out is don’t put your heating on because it will cost you a fortune. “So they are sitting at home cold because they don’t really know what the potential cost is, or what the risks are or where the help is. And if you can talk to them you can let people know how help is available.”

Brad Hepburn, chair of Ludham and Waxham’s TRA which also hosts its own Living Room, said: “There is clearly a need. It came out during all the doom and gloom about energy, but it’s just a good thing to do anyway. Our target group is mums and kids and elderly and we’re really pleased that that’s what we’re seeing.”

New friends concentrate on a game of backgammon at the Bacton Tower Living Room

He added: “I’m a big supporter of there being a community space that people can pop into if they need to. Last week this woman came through the door and she was 90 something years old and she had lost her keys.

“She was freezing. Her hands were blue. She just lived upstairs. She couldn’t get in because she couldn’t find her keys and they were in her pocket. She got herself in such a state. No matter what happens with all of this and how much it benefits, I’m glad we were there for that woman.”

Mr Hepburn said that they hope to continue the project to “break down isolation” that we are still feeling after the Covid pandemic. Mr Robin emphasised the importance of signposting information to elderly people.

The Gospel Oak Living Room is paid for through split funding from the council, district management committee, and private funders.

The project is funded until March 2023.