A gold medal and a street party 🏅

Welcome back.

The heat has let go. After weeks of the mid-thirties, a bank holiday weekend in the low twenties is going to feel almost polite. Bring a jacket, but bring plans.

Plenty on. A Chiswick runner who came back to the sport through Gunnersbury parkrun has just won European gold. There's a free exhibition opening at Chiswick House in the Learning Hub that many of you helped fund. And on Sunday the High Road closes for a street party that drew four thousand people last year.

Also inside: GCSE results worth celebrating, and the Book Festival's local authors lineup.

Glad to have you with us.

The heat has broken properly. Nothing above 24°C across the whole four days, which after Edition 18's 36°C reads like a different summer.

Bank holiday Monday holds up. 23°C, breezy first thing, then broken cloud with a bit of rain in it. Nothing that should cancel anything, but the nights are drawing in, 12°C after dark is the coldest of the four, so take a layer if you're out late.

This Sunday, Old Market Place turns into a street party, and everyone is invited.

West London Queer Project turns six. It started during the pandemic, set up to counter the isolation a lot of people were feeling, and has grown into one of the largest LGBTQ+ community organisations in the country. More than 5,000 members. Over 200 activities a year, from drag nights to touch rugby to parenting advice.

The birthday party runs from midday to 9pm, free to attend, with the main stage from 2pm. Community stalls, food and drink, family activities. On the bill: Diana Vickers, Pearl Does Country, Miss Chanel No.5, Queera Lynn, Luna, Brent Would, Marsha Mallow, Miss Joelle and Miss Darcey Nox, with more to come. There's an after party in the Boston Room at the George IV from 9pm to 1am.

Last year's drew more than 4,000 people. Founder Aubrey Crawley puts it simply: it's a thank you to the community that built the thing.

🔗 wlqp.org

Connie and her family have run the café at the Dukes Meadows Splash Pool since it opened, and next year it turns 20. They're planning a revamp with Dukes Meadows Trust: a new name, shade sails, an extra serving counter.

Before they commit, they want to hear from people who use it and people who don't. There's a short survey open now, and everyone who fills it in goes into a draw for a £50 hamper from the Trust's Sunday Food Market.

🔗 Have your say

19 Turnham Green Terrace

Chris's opens every single day of the year except Christmas Day. Through the heatwave that meant standing over fryers in a shop with no air conditioning, which manager Syed did without much complaint, on the reasonable grounds that everyone on Turnham Green Terrace was in the same boat.

He also made an observation that's useful this week. Fish and chip sales dip when it's too hot to be bothered, and come straight back when the weather cools. Well, the weather has cooled.

Open daily. Turnham Green Terrace is a two-minute walk from the station, which makes it a sensible Friday night when nobody wants to cook.

Source: Chiswick Calendar

The local wins, openings and milestones worth knowing about this week.

🏅 Chiswick's Georgia Hunter Bell wins European gold

She took the 1500m title at the European Championships in Birmingham, controlling the race from the gun and going clear at the finish. It's her third international title of the year, after World Indoor gold in Poland in March and the Commonwealth 800m in Glasgow in July.

The local part is the good part. Hunter Bell grew up here, at St Mary's RC Primary, Sacred Heart and Cardinal Vaughan. She quit the sport in 2017 after a run of overtraining injuries and thought she was done. She got back into it in 2022 doing parkruns at Gunnersbury Park, still working full time in cyber security, and qualified for the World Indoors on training squeezed around a day job.

Asked by the BBC whether it was an easy win, she said it never is, but that she'd felt calm. In September she goes for a fourth title of the year at the inaugural World Ultimate Championships. Watch the race.

Source: The Guardian & The Chiswick Calendar

🎓 Chiswick School beats the national averages again

Nearly a third of entries came back at grades 9 to 7. More than half of students taking History, Science and Religious Studies hit that range, and the school expects Maths and English to land above national averages too.

Nationally, results were flat on last year, with grade 7 and above at 21.8%. London did better than any other region on both measures.

It follows a good set of A Levels the week before, and last year's Ofsted, which praised the school's care for its students and the enthusiasm in its lessons.

Source: The Chiswick Calendar

📚 Twenty local authors, two minutes each

The Book Festival has announced the lineup for its Local Authors Showcase, the event that opens the festival every year. Twenty writers get two minutes apiece in front of a packed room at the George IV. New host this year: Capital Xtra DJ Jojo Silva.

Two names you'll know. The Rev Martine Oborne, vicar of St Michael's on Elmwood Road, has written her first novel, about a female priest whose bishop doesn't think women should be ordained. And Karen Liebreich of Abundance London, whose pocket parks we covered a fortnight ago, has written Chiswick Fruit Timeline: A History in Apples and Pears, tracing the area's contribution to British fruit growing.

Also on: New Scientist podcast editor Rowan Hooper, primary schoolteacher and sci-fi novelist Dan Batchelor, Tabard Theatre regulars Tim Marriott and Nick Bromley, and New York Times bestseller Alwyn Hamilton, once a bookseller at Chiswick Waterstones.

Source: Chiswick Book Festival

🏳️‍🌈 WLQP 6th Birthday Street Party | Sun 30 Aug | 12pm to 9pm | Old Market Place

Free, all ages, main stage from 2pm. See above for the full bill. After party in the Boston Room at the George IV, 9pm to 1am. Details.

🖼️ London's Hidden Queer Global Majority Histories | Thu 27 to Sun 30 Aug | Learning Hub, Chiswick House

Two years of work by Queer Global, documenting the stories of LGBTQ+ Global Majority and migrant Londoners. Photography, oral histories, interviews and video, much of it filmed here at Chiswick House, alongside 90 further interviews.

It's also the first proper outing for the Learning Hub, the building the £201,025 crowdfunder paid for back in spring.

Thursday 2pm to 8pm, Friday and Saturday 12pm to 8pm, Sunday 10am to 6pm. Free, but book ahead. Book tickets.

🥖 The Food Market at Dukes Meadows | Sun 30 Aug | 10am to 2pm | The Pavilion, Market Drive, W4 2RX

Every Sunday, rain or shine, and the proceeds go back into the park. More details.

🏃 Gunnersbury parkrun | Sat 29 Aug | 9am | Gunnersbury Park

Free, timed, 5k, walkers welcome. Also, the place where a European champion started her comeback. Details.

🎪 Bizzy Buddies summer camp | to Wed 2 Sept | Chiswick House

Last week of the holidays, and there are still camp days going for ages 3 to 12 if you need cover before term starts. More details.

💐 Pick and arrange your own bouquet | Fri 4 Sept | 2.30pm to 4.30pm | Kitchen Garden, Chiswick House

Florist Lilian Highmoor walks you through cutting and arranging, and you take the bouquet home. More info.

🍏 Abundance Apple Day | Sat 5 Sept | 1pm to 3pm | Outside Chiswick Library, 1 Duke's Avenue, W4 2AB

Free juice pressed from local apple trees, apple bobbing, longest peel, seed swap and insect bricks made from clay and cob. Bring your own apples if you've got a tree. All free. More details.

📖 Chiswick Book Festival | Wed 9 to Mon 14 Sept

Opens with the Local Authors Showcase at the George IV on the Wednesday. Tickets on sale now. Details.

🐕 Chiswick House Dog Show | Sun 20 Sept | 11am to 4.15pm | Cricket Pitch, Chiswick House

22nd year, 17 classes, fancy dress theme is The Traitors. £6 a class, spectators free. More details.

Did you get a photo?

Four thousand people on the High Road last year, and it'll be busier on Sunday. If you get a good one at the street party, hit reply and send it over. We'll run the best of them next week, with your name on it.

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