This week’s instalment in our ongoing series, profiling a selection of the creative businesses based at the original Mainyard Studios, is an unexpected delight.

We dropped into the workshop of Resting Reef, a startup that creates underwater memorials from a loved one’s ashes, which then help in restoring endangered marine habitats for years to come.

As co-founder Louise Skajem tells us of their first partnership, with a community on the island of Bali, the project engages the public and grieving families in a process that supports new life to thrive, while also helping to ease the pressure on burial plots, which are becoming increasingly rare all over the world.

With other environmental innovators, such as seaweed packaging trailblazers Notpla, also proud to call the Wick home, it’s no surprise that such a venture has also gravitated here. But it’s nevertheless a privilege for storytellers like ourselves to be able to spread the word about such industrious projects going on all around us, in dedicated maker-workspaces like Mainyard, and beyond.

Read the full story now:

If you run a local startup, shop, restaurant, event, venue or other growing business in this part of East London, joining The Wick Network gives you masses of media support from us including a video interview, dedicated landing page, discounts on print ads and plenty more, all for only £250+VAT a year. Email us at [email protected] for more details now.

We still have 30-minutes of free riding credit on Lime bikes for anyone leaving a comment over in the new Wick Community. For example, have your say in the hot debate about the proposed flats threatening the Lord Napier pub, and we’ll message every new commentor with a discount code 👍🏼

💿 Free Vinyl DJ Workshop & Records Exchange + Vinyl Selectors All Night is at Gwenda on Sat 10th Oct. The workshop and record exchange kick off the afternoon, followed by open decks where anyone is free to play two records of their choice, before selectors take over things from funk, disco into classic and tech house.

💍 The Yard Theatre debuts their latest Live Drafts: The Radical Wedding Engine on Fri 9th Oct for a one night only WIP. A playful theatrical experiment created by five East Asian migrant artists where five friends decide to marry each other. The interactive performance features a Chinese banquet, games, vows, and a shared wedding ritual welcoming the audience as part of the wedding party.

🪩 GOOD AS YOU: A Softer Soirée returns on Sat 10th Oct at the newly named Living Womb, formerly Algha's Plantroom, for its first birthday. The queer, sober-friendly day rave promises disco, 90s house, global grooves and bass heavy sounds, with special guest Bestley and plenty of room for dancing, costumes and queer joy. There's also an optional vogue and whacking class to kick things off…

🎨 Nunnery Gallery opens Bhajan Hunjan: speaking through materials on Fri 9th Oct, bringing together more than 40 years of work by the artist. The free exhibition spans painting, print, sculpture and collage, alongside examples of Hunjan’s work in public art using materials including silk screen printed glass, laser cut acrylic and metal. Drawing on her Kenyan upbringing, Sikh heritage and experience of moving to the UK, the show also explores women, diaspora and identity. Runs until 20th Dec.

🥊 Hustle Hackney Wick Wrestling brings some wrestling chaos to Colour Factory on Thu 8th Oct - a night of battles in the ring and all the drama that comes with them.

🧹 Tower Hamlets Green councillors are leading community cleanup Hackney Wick Litter Pick around the Hertford Union Canal on Sat 10th Oct. Meet at Lofthouse Square to help give the area a post summer spruce-up, and enjoy a chat and coffee after.

Check out local culture reviews, features & interviews every week on thisisthewick.com

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The Entrepreneur: Stuart ‘Tommo’ Thomson on building Barge East

🎻 Tommy Barlow heads to Vittoria Wharf Studio tonight Wed 7th Oct for an intimate live show. Barlow mixes field recordings, guitars, strings, samples and his distinctive voice, with the occasional bagpipe thrown into the mix, drawing on influences from traditional folk to Bon Iver, Steve Reich and James Blake.

👵 At Number 90 on Thu 8th Oct, BYOG – Bring Your Own Grandparent takes over with Rossi. on the decks playing his signature grooves and inviting you to bring along anyone aged 60+ and you’ll both get two free Kahlúa Coffee Cream drinks.

🕺 Grand Funk for Refugee Community Kitchen returns to Colour Factory on Fri 9th Oct for a fundraising night featuring Andy Smith, Lily London, Felix CW and Donsurf. Disco, funk, soul, house, reggae and global grooves with Andy Smith – known for his work with Portishead and the Reach Up compilation series – headlining. 100% of profits go to Refugee Community Kitchen, with Grand Funk having raised more than £30,000 for the organisation since 2022.

🪩 At Grow on Sat 10th Oct, DeepDig is back with Stu Clark of WOLF Music and Lenny of ill Fitted - digging into some deep house, disco and boogie.

🌙Councillors have granted 13 licences for outdoor events and late-night food sellers at the new Wickside development, along the Hertford Union Canal. The licences could mean more outdoor entertainment and food activity coming soon to the new town centre area, which also sees 475 new flats and warterfront public realm improvements.

✊🏿Hackney's Black History 365 programme is now running through October and November, with a newly announced programme of grant-funded cultural projects - ranging from dance and carnival workshops to creative writing, heritage and storytelling projects. Check out the full programme here.

🧘 Social Yoga is hosting free drop-in yoga session Open Practice every Tues 10-12, where you can explore yoga without having to join a formal class - just two relaxed hours of movement, breathing, ideas, questions, tea and conversation. Contact via the website to book.

🏃 Team Marathon London is bringing a new kind of running event to Hackney Wick in May 2027. Rather than one person taking on the full 26.2 miles, teams of four will each run 10.55km together, with no relay handover. The race will be wrapped up in a festival-style atmosphere with DJs, live music, a brass band, street food and drinks. Tickets start at £26.20 per runner. Join the waiting list here to grab tickets when released.

🎭 Shoreditch Town Hall is hiring a Cultural Programme Manager. The full time role will support the Head of Cultural Programme in the design and delivery of Shoreditch Town Hall’s cultural and community programme. This is a key role that takes responsibility for administratively and operationally delivering the programme, communicating with visiting companies and artists, and collaborating closely with in-house teams. Salary is £32,800. Applications close Fri 9th Oct.

🎬 Hackney Museum is hiring paid actors for its upcoming Talking Portraits installation. The fee is £350 for one filming day plus a half-day costume fitting. The roles needed are: 1) Rayaan: A thin young man of South Asian heritage who can pass as a 14 or 15-year-old, a lascar (sailor), who can deliver an English script with an Indian accent, and 2) Essex: A young man of African heritage, to play the role of an enslaved servant aged around 20 who has escaped and is seeking his freedom. The fee is £350 and applications close this Fri 9th Oct.

📈The Fashion Business School at London College of Fashion is offering Help to Grow: Management, a practical 12-week programme for senior leaders of established UK businesses with 5–249 employees, designed to strengthen leadership, improve efficiency, explore new growth opportunities and tackle business challenges. Alongside an experienced business mentor and the chance to connect with other business leaders, participants will develop a personalised Growth Action Plan to take away. The programme costs £750, with 90% funded by the UK Government, and a bursary may be available depending on eligibility. The next cohort starts 4th Nov.

🎵 The Youth Music Trailblazer Fund is now open for applications, offering grants of £2,000-£30,000 to organisations running projects that help children and young people make, learn and earn in music. The fund is particularly interested in projects that trial a new way of working, help sustain a grassroots programme, disrupt the status quo - or ideally, all three. Applications close on Fri 20th Nov.

📕 The Wick Book is a limited edition 160-page hardback historic record, looking at 15 years of culture, community and change in the neighbourhood through the pages of The Wick. We’re now down to the last 20+ copies.

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