Byker Phoenix hit the streets in March

The latest issue came out in March and has been well received by most! It seems to be bringing a bit of life and discussion back to Shields Road...

The best things come to those who wait...

Another issue of the Byker Phoenix is about to hit the streets in early March! It is a huge amount of work but the contributions have been great and the advertisers have been very keen!

There are some competitions to do, letters to write, picutres to colour in, things to get angry about and things to laugh about.

Get writing. Next one will be out in June so drop us a line...

Next Plant Sale - Sat 28th May, 11-2pm

We will be holding another of our very popular plant sales at the East End Pool and Library, Byker on Saturday 28th.

The last one was great fun, very popular and we met loads of enthusiastic, passionate and active gardeners. So those of you who missed the last one we hope that you can get to this event. We will have plants for the allotment, for the garden and for the home on sale for rediculously cheap prices. Some of what we will have are teasel, Michelmas dasies, foxgloves, poppy seeds, some WILD things, some vegetables and some fruit bushes too.

So come along and get inspired - and inspire us to get active in our community!

See you there. Colin

Saturday 23rd April 2011 Plant Sale!!

We are having a plant sale at the East End Library on Saturday 23rd April between 11am and 2pm. Seeds, flowers, veg and fruit trees should be available at prices from 50pence! BARGAIN.

We want to be inspired to get something going over the summer to brighten the place up. Hope to see you there.

Erskine and Malminkartano

Colin is just back from a visit to Erskine's housing development in the NW suburb of Helsinki - which is actually our headline photograph above. He was fortunate to make contact with a resident there and had a guided tour of the inside apartments and even the roof! Bit cold at -18degrees but amazing. So thank your Jorma for showing Colin around. We are making international links and it is getting pretty exciting.

Off to a good start in 2011...

We are starting the new year the way we meant to go on - so December saw the launch of the reborn (from the ashes) Byker Phoenix community newspaper. 20 pages of news, views and local gossip to get people talking, playing and generally interacting in Byker. It is packed with information, games, jokes, sports, gardening tips AND a FREE CUT OUT SANTA!! all for free... you can't complain about that can you?

The Byker Phoenix was originally published by volunteers living in Byker during the mid 70s to the 80s giving residents news on current affairs, redevelopment, local history and local happenings such as the Byker Festival. As a piece of social history the original Phoenixes are a treasured resource in the community.

It has been talked about resurrecting it for a few years now. There is a real need for those living in the Byker Ward to have a public voice and even though there appears to be more of an opportunity for people to engage in social media - facebook, twitter, blogs, etc etc - what are we doing with it and does it give us a group voice as opposed to solely individual opinions?

So we obtained some funding from the Byker Ward Committee, got some paper, a photocopier, scissors and some glue and have put the first issue together using good old technology of cut and paste and the first issue came out in December 2010. Get in touch with us at bykerphoenix@yahoo.co.uk if you would like a copy posting out to you...

Next issue comes out in February 2011 and all contributions are welcome. We especially want to hear from local residents and other residents of Erskine housing (come on you Swedes, get writing!)

Head of Steam

The Society is surging along - we have had talks with Newcastle University, Northern Architecture, Newcastle Libraries and others and we are all very keen to work together on projects - huge potential to get interesting action going.

We ordered some books from the Centre for Alternative Technology (Wales) and now are the proud owners of 'Shed Nation' which is very inspirational! Also a book on permaculture, planting by the moon and building your own compost toilet. Who can stop us now?

Amazingly, out of the blue, we are also the owners of a brand new tricycle! How cool is that?