Local Power and Community Space: Inside the East End Trades Guild Meet-Up

Recently we had the absolute pleasure of joining the East End Trades Guild for their Meet the Members gathering – a room full of independent businesses, makers, traders and self-employed grafters who keep London’s East End thriving.

We were there to cheer on Krissie and Len, who are part of Footwork’s People and Place programme. What unfolded was one of those evenings that reminds you what real regeneration is: people showing up for each other, building power together and dreaming beyond the limits they’ve been facing.

Images by Footwork ©

Affordable workspace drives social impact

The event (on 16th October 2025) brought together 50 members of the 400-strong East End Trades Guild to weave connections, share stories and strengthen the bonds that knit this part of London together. After some powerful speeches came the food, drinks and overdue catch-ups… the real social glue.

Krissie shared updates on the Guild’s manifesto and the new Saturday Market taking shape on Bethnal Green Road. She set out the Guild’s push for an affordable workspace policy based on social value:

“The social value that businesses are going to create should be offset against the rent… we will continue to push for this.” - Krissie Nicolson, Co-founder of the East End Trades Guild

Len (whose business JC Motors has served its local community for over 40 years) spoke beautifully and openly about his journey through People and Place 2025 and the Power Up London Accelerator with Big Issue Invest.

Those in the room felt the weight of it.

Firstly, the heartbreak of losing his business’ home in a Haggerston railway arch – evicted due to market-driven rent hikes and the lack of affordable workspace policy.

Secondly, the deep hope that, despite the arch now lying inexplicably empty (and countless other small businesses being pushed out of the places they helped build), something better is being built from that loss.

Because what’s brewing is big…

A structural foothold for community-led economic resilience

A large portion of the evening focused on the Guild’s work to develop an East End Trades Guild Community Land Trust (CLT). That’s a bold, necessary step to bring assets into community stewardship and protect affordable workspace in perpetuity, for organisations and entrepreneurs meeting the needs of the local community.

The CLT is exploring options for a community-owned site, potentially including arch spaces or other assets in East London, depending on what becomes viable.

We also heard from key City Hall voices (pictured below) including London Assembly Members Sem Moema and Zoë Garbett, and from Howard Dawber, Deputy Mayor for Business, who reiterated his pledge to help support securing a long-term site for the East End Trades Guild CLT.

Peer support: from neighbouring businesses to fellow ‘community asset developers’

A moving part of the evening came from Juliet Can (director of Stour Trust, board member of the London Community Land Trust, and a peer supporter to Krissie and Len through the People and Place programme).

Juliet spoke with clarity and warmth about land justice, community wealth-building and the deep human stories behind this work. 

Two moments from her contribution lit up the room:

“For me, land and buildings outside of the speculation of the market is really important. We need to put them into community stewardship — in perpetuity." and "I’ve been working alongside Krissie and Len in what I’d call a beautiful friendship; learning together, building our skills together, to see how we can bring the East End Trades Guild CLT into fruition.”  - Juliet Can, Director of Stour Trust. 

Juliet’s storytelling reached from her family’s arrival in East London, with a corner-shop keeper who shaped her understanding of community, to Stour Trust’s work today in Hackney Wick.

Describing the incredible mentorship from Juliet Can (pictured), Len said, "Footwork has introduced us to people who've come further than us, helping us see the hurdles and how to climb them,"

Locally-led neighbourhood transformation

The determination of Krissie, Len and their collaborators to reclaim space for community wealth, apprenticeships, wellbeing and belonging is exactly the kind of community innovation we support at Footwork.

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If you have stories, advice or support to share for the East End Trades Guild, please get in touch.