On the 9th to the 11th of October 36 young people and 7 volunteers met at Watford Quaker Meeting house. We were last at Watford in 2013 so we were well due a visit! 

Friday 9th Oct the Young people arrived both directly to the Meeting House and with the group from Friends House, Euston.

Two volunteers arrived early, and with the help of the Meeting House Warden they busied away getting the meeting house ready and loading up the 47 baked potatoes into the oven and cooking the veggie mince topping.

We then ran an introduction session to get to know each other and went over the event boundaries. We then split into our helper groups for the weekend.

Time and energy levels soon ran low, so while the first group was helping tidy and wash up, people hung out, watched Traitors(!) and played games. We went into an epilogue with some music and a few candles to help us center down into the silence. 

Setting up for bed and getting some sleep were the final items left to do after long days, and for some long journeys.

Saturday we woke up nice and late and had a veggie cooked breakfast, cereal, toast and jam. 

After tidying up and some free time we gathered for a theme session on taking action, in this case taking action in conflict situations using NVC – Non Violent Communication . Michael talked about how NVC can help us put our Quaker Peace Testimony into everyday practice by getting out of ‘violent’ communication traps (that we have all learned), and how these lead to conflicts not being resolved. 

We wondered if most conflicts could be reframed in the NVC way as violence being “the tragic expression of an unmet need”.  We split into groups and thought about a few example conflicts to see how we might understand them. [ Shameless plug – Michael runs NVC practice sessions in Welwyn Garden City on Monday evenings and has produced a free quick start guide  ]

Some more free time while “Quaker Subway” was being constructed in the kitchen for our build-a-baguette-sandwich (does that count as fusion cuisine ?) lunch. Some free time and trip out to the local park Tesco metro. Once back we split into 3 different activity groups: newspaper hockey, ‘mafia’ and board games/crafting. 

Dinner was the classic pesto broccoli pasta followed by just about enough time to fit in a film before a lovely epilogue around a firepit in Watford Quaker’s extensive garden. We were fortunate to be serenaded by a guitar based musical contribution from one of the young people.  Sleep time.

Sunday we were up early to get breakfast in and the Quaker Meeting House ready for Quaker Meeting. Those who wanted to, stayed in Quaker Meeting for the whole hour, whilst others either went out to the park or joined a discussion group. Tea, coffee and a lunch of left overs meant we had time for one last game before making our journeys home. 

We came away a little tired, but very much with our friendships nourished, hearts heartened and many happy memories made. 

Michael, Sally, Al, Gwenillian, Annette, Philip, Amy, Tavi, Wasim and all the young people. 

From Friday 26 to Sunday 28 September, 23 young people and 6 adult volunteers headed to buzzing Brighton for another marvellous London Link group residential.

We met for dinner at Wagamama whilst the stragglers battled with disruption on the underground, all being present and correct by our appointed departure time. The rear half of the post rush-hour Friday evening train was out of action, so with the other passengers, we squeezed on to the half of the train that was operational, and enjoyed catching up with Friends old and new as we trundled through the dark past Selhurst Park, Gatwick Airport and up over the South Downs.

We pulled into Brighton station and stepped down to the sanctuary of the Quaker Meeting house, where some participants had already arrived from Brighton, Lewes and environs, as had our Sainsbury’s delivery.

After a few “getting to know each other” games, we closed the day with epilogue and settled down to our improvised beds, snuggled in sleeping bags and roll mats.

On Saturday morning we feasted on Cheerios and toast with freshly brewed tea and coffee, made picnic sandwiches and headed off to Brighton Museum.

The museum was pleasingly interactive, and had an exhibition on Mod Fashion and style (1958-66). A rolling video reminded us that Abba’s Eurovision success with “Waterloo” had taken place at the Brighton Dome over 50 years earlier. 

We had our picnic lunch in Pavilion Gardens and headed off in small groups to enjoy free time in Brighton, some taking in a graffiti art trail. Back at the Meeting House garden, we got to work trimming green beens from bushes which had bean gleaned the day before from a nearby farm, being uneconomic for the farmer to harvest. They were delectably cooked up in a Thai green curry and coconut sauce for dinner, and given out to Friends at meeting on Sunday.

After a dinner of mostly Mexican fajitas and nachos (with aforementioned green beans on the side) with cake and custard for afters, we played games and walked down through the busy Saturday night life to the beach for a memorable epilogue, under the stars and seagulls, the lights of the pier visible to the east.

On Sunday morning we joined a bumper meeting for worship of almost 90 Friends, with a brilliant Children’s Meeting to accompany it. We enjoyed participating in a marvellous shared lunch of soups, quiche, salads, breads and cheeses. After clearing the meeting house we headed back to the train, sorry to say goodbye but happy to have spent a delightful weekend among the company of Friends

Friday 26 September 2025 (6pm Victoria Train Station) – Sunday 28 September (afternoon)

While it might officially be Autumn by the end of September – London Link Group are hoping to prolong the summer vibes with a residential trip to Brighton!

Last visited in 2022 – we hope to offer a similar blend of beach, games, and interesting places to visit with spending thoughtful time with Brighton Quaker Meeting, who have kindly agreed to let us sleep on their comfortable Meeting House floors again.

After meeting for pizza close to Victoria Train Station on the Friday evening, we will travel to Brighton on the train together in time to arrive for settling in with Epilogue and hot chocolate.

Those wishing to travel direct to Brighton Quaker Meeting can do so, for 8.30pm. We will spend Saturday exploring the joys Brighton has to offer, and Sunday with Brighton Friends – travelling home together after a shared lunch.

Because of the need to ensure we have adequate volunteers and train tickets etc the deadline for booking is Saturday 20 September.

Please find the booking form here: https://londonlinkgroup.org.uk/buzzing-in-brighton/

The cost is £20 – but no-one is to be excluded so please contact us if you need to discuss this.

Please contact David Holtam (david.holtam@gmail.com) or Rebecca Fricker (clerk@londonlinkgroup.org.uk) if you have any queries, and do forward details of this event to anyone you think might be interested.

On Saturday 28th June a group of 19 Linkers, pre-linkers and adults met up at the Kindertransport statue outside Liverpool Street station, and boarded an early train for Southend.

Three of our number, over in London for June/July, are normally based at Albuquerque Quaker meeting in New Mexico, USA and we enjoyed talking to them about their life there.

We arrived at Adventure Island just as it opened for the day, Southend Pier and the Thames estuary illuminated by glorious sunshine. 

We enjoyed the thrills of various rides and attractions, regrouped for a picnic lunch in the Cliff Gardens, supplemented with chips from the many fish and chip outlets, and cooled off in the shade of the amusement arcades. 

Towards the end of the afternoon, we met to head back to the station (via the sweet shop!), with one person picking up an electric guitar in a charity shop.

We returned to London on the train, some catching up on naps.

Everyone is looking forward to seeing each other at FSSE Junior Gathering and Senior Conference in August, and then at the next LLG residential to be held on 27-28 September in Brighton!

On 26 January 2025, 20 young people and 4 adult volunteers met for the afternoon at Westminster Quaker Meeting for Winterval 2025.

Proceedings began with silent worship. We then had fun doing a Quaker Quiz, and (in Winterval tradition) made our own pizzas. The best quiz round was “Quaker or Quacker” in which we had to figure out if the person shown on the screen was a Quaker, a birdwatcher, or both (turns out Damon Albarn from Blur and Gorillaz is kind of both).

We finished the afternoon and said our goodbyes, and went home feeling ready to start the week (well, after some of us had got over our eventful journeys on the Underground).

It was really good fun meeting up with Quaker friends and we had been looking forward to seeing each other and catching up. We are looking forward to the residential weekend in Welwyn Garden City in March. 

14 Linkers from the very new, to the sadly soon to leave us, along with 6 brilliant volunteers, descended on Forest Hill for a weekend of fun.

We started with culture in the Horniman Museum – where a few of us caused chaos by letting cats into the cafe, and others by trying to get pigeons out of the cafe! People were particularly impressed by the spinning globe (more of later), instruments and aquarium.

We ate a picnic looking at the fabulous views over London then, after some tree hugging in the beautiful gardens, headed to the funky Forest Hill Meeting House. Here we played some games to get to know each other (before killing each other – Mafia style – always a popular choice).

Linkers were then set a challenge – in small groups they had to recreate something they were inspired by in the museum.

An exhibition was then set up where the creations were judged against strict criteria including vibes, likeness and resources used.

This took us to a dinner of tasty vege chilli and some down time before Epilogue and hot chocolate.

On Sunday we joined Forest Hill Children’s Meeting where we learnt about Joan Baez,  and sang one of her songs, led by Suzy in some very funky dungarees that she had designed for her brother when she was the equivalent of a Linker! The children then considered what helped them feel safe, while the young people explored the power and role of protest music and culture – name checking artists including: Declan Benedict McKenna; The Halluci Nation, especially the track “Sisters”; Billy Bragg; and the Singapore punk scene!

Several families then joined us for another great lunch featuring baked potatoes and a very welcome homemade chocolate cake before we all headed home.

Huge thank you to Forest Hill for hosting us, the volunteers who made it happen, and the Linkers themselves whose ingenuity and contributions never fail to amaze. We look forward to seeing you in January for our annual Winterval (date to be decided soon).