Parents and staff of the First Neighbourhood Co-operative Nursery revist the nursery site in 2019. (Left to right) Saroj Tailor, Pauline France, Eva Turner, Mary Burnett. Photograph by Szilvia Kiraly.

Children at play in the First Neighbourhood Co-operative Nursery. Photograph courtesy Pauline France / Bishopsgate Institute.

Hear the story of the First Neighbourhood Co-operative Nursery: a unique, parent-led childcare project based in Walthamstow from the late 1970s to early 1990s. We talk to Eva Turner, who recorded the history of the nursery in 2019, and play clips of oral history interviews with other parents and workers. All the sounds of children playing and singing are taken from film footage of the nursery in the 1980s (watch film below).

Credits:

Produced by Tania Aubeelack

Sound design by Rosa Schling

Interview with Eva Turner by Tania Aubeelack

Oral history interviews by Eva Turner and Linda Mezaks

Doing it Ourselves was funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Thank you to everyone who shared their stories and Bishopsgate Institute, the home of the Doing it Ourselves archive.

The First Neighbourhood Co-operative Nursery

In the late 1970s, a group of parents and toddlers came together to create a place to play and meet at Harmony Hall, Walthamstow. After years of organising a drop-in playgroup, lots of fun, laughter and hard work, a unique childcare project was born. The First Neighbourhood Co-operative Nursery opened on Verulam Avenue in 1986. It was run by parents and paid staff, who worked together to provide high quality childcare and education for their children.

Doing it Ourselves: the First Neighbourhood Co-operative Nursery was an oral history project run by On the Record and Eva Turner from 2018 -19. The project culminated in an exhibition held at The Mill Community Centre in Walthamstow. To consult the full archive please visit Bishopsgate Institute.

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John chose to stay at home and look after his baby son Joe in the early 1990s, when you didn’t see many other dads looking after babies. John and Joe talk together about what that decision meant to their relationship.

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Credits:

Narrators: John Newman and Joe Newman

Interviews and editing: Rosa Schling

Music: Luke Christie

Photograph: Sophie Polyviou

Kindly funded by the Gilda Street Trust in memory of historian and author Gilda O'Neill. 

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Eva and Norah met at Stepney City Farm when they were both new parents in the mid-1980s and formed a friendship that lasts to this day. They discuss their different paths: Eva returned to work outside the home while Norah became her childminder.

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Credits:

Narrators: Eva Turner and Norah Parkin

Interviews and editing: Rosa Schling

Music: Luke Christie

Photograph: Sophie Polyviou

Kindly funded by the Gilda Street Trust in memory of historian and author Gilda O'Neill. 

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Brenda unexpectedly became a single mum in the 1970s, after moving back home to the East End. She describes the ups and downs of bringing up her son with his grandparents living next door.

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Credits:

Narrator: Brenda Crew

Interviews and editing: Rosa Schling

Music: Luke Christie

Photograph: Sophie Polyviou

Kindly funded by the Gilda Street Trust in memory of historian and author Gilda O'Neill. 

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From toddlerhood onwards, Shirley was raised by her ‘beautiful’ grandmother in Dominica while her parents worked abroad. She talks about the values her grandmother gave her and the decisions she made about childcare when she had her own children in the UK.

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Credits:

Narrator: Shirley Peters

Interviews and editing: Rosa Schling

Music: Luke Christie

Photograph: Sophie Polyviou

Kindly funded by the Gilda Street Trust in memory of historian and author Gilda O'Neill. 

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Sylvia was brought back from evacuation during the war as a ten-year-old to be the main carer for her baby brother while her mother was unwell.

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Credits:

Narrator: Sylvia Clarke

Interviews and editing: Rosa Schling

Music: Luke Christie

Photography: Sophie Polyviou

Kindly funded by the Gilda Street Trust in memory of historian and author Gilda O'Neill. 

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Joyce was brought up by ‘a lovely, lovely mum’ who had sadly lost her first two children.  Now a great-grandmother, Joyce describes her worries and love for her own babies.

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Credits:

Narrator: Joyce

Interviews and editing: Rosa Schling

Music: Luke Christie

Photograph: Sophie Polyviou

Kindly funded by the Gilda Street Trust in memory of historian and author Gilda O'Neill. 

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