When a Community Turns the Heat into Connections: Reflections on “Somewhere the Sun is Always Shining!”

20^th of June 2026: Nine venues, over 30 activities, hundreds of residents, researchers, artists and neighbours — moving through the same streets, following a hand-drawn map, talking to each other about heat.

“Somewhere the Sun is Always Shining!” was a free, all-day community festival held as part of London Climate Action Week, delivered through the Melting Metropolis research project together with an extraordinary web of local and institutional partners hosted by the Somers Town Community Association (STCA) in collaboration with other community partner organisations for the project namely A Space for Us People’s Museum and Scene & Heard. One reflection to take away from the day: the most urgent conversations about climate don’t just take place in conference halls, but honest, open conversations about them happen in trusted spaces where connections are nurtured.

What Made the Day Work

The festival wasn’t a typical type of climate event; it was designed as a neighbourhood, for the neighbourhood. A hand-illustrated trail map connected nine venues across Chalton Street and Polygon Road, each offering something different: a film screening at The Living Centre, a cyanotype workshop at A Space For Us People’s Museum, hair braiding at Polygon Road Open Space tied to the cultural history of cooling, hibiscus and flaxseed drinks from the Horn of Africa, a pop-up sewing library stitching a collective tapestry, live poetry from Basement Poets, African drumming, a giant bubble spectacular, and structured, engaging conversations with UCL researchers, Camden Council officers and British Library archivists on indoor air quality, housing equity, and what Doughnut Economics might mean for London’s streets.

People were well-fed with stories, food and drinks through the South Asian cooling dishes like pani puri and fruit kebabs served at community café Spicy Laass, the mango lassi and samosas from South Asian volunteers at A Space for Us People’s Museum, iced lollies served in different stalls, teas at the Levita Gardening Club and traditional breads and cooling drinks from the Horn of Africa.

Illustrated posters placed across venues asked open questions rather than presenting answers: Do you feel less optimistic when it’s too hot? What do you do indoors when your flat hits 30 degrees? If you could give something to London so it can be cooler in a heatwave, what would it be?

This is what thoughtful climate communication looks like at street level: curious, visual, personal, and rooted in people’s actual lives.

The Power of Collaboration

None of this would have been possible without the depth and breadth of the relationships behind it.

The Somers Town Community Association (STCA) hosted more than a third of all the day’s activities, acting as the neighbourhood’s anchor. A Space For Us People’s Museum served as the Melting Metropolis History Hub, holding the day’s archive and memory dimension. Scene & Heard brought storytelling. The FCJ Centre for Eco Justice & Spirituality offered a quiet reflective space. Cock Tavern opened its doors. St Mary’s Church offered cool and calm.

On the institutional side: the University of Liverpool, Queen Mary/CUNY, Wellcome, Camden Council, the British Library, UCL Bartlett, and London Climate Action Week all brought research, resource and reach. On the creative side: Urban Radicals, Something Good, Caito and ODAC, UAL CCA, Kat’s Kraft, Doughnut Economics UK, LDEC, ACAN and Basement Poets brought skill, imagination and voice.

Thirty-plus organisations. One neighbourhood. One shared question: what does it mean to live well in a warming city?

Relationships Are the Infrastructure

Climate action is often framed as a problem of technology, policy or finance. Rarely is it framed as an intersection of relationships. But what Somers Town showed on 20 June is that relationships are the infrastructure: the thing that makes everything else possible.

It is the relationship between a research university and a local community association that means academic findings about heat stress reach the people most affected by it. It is the relationship between an illustrator and a festival team that turns a logistically complex multi-venue day into something a child can follow on foot. It is the relationship between a pub landlord and a poet and a braider and a gardening club that makes a community feel, even for one afternoon, that its concerns are being heard, reflected on, and taken seriously.

The climate crisis will not be solved by any single institution. It will be addressed, community by community, where trust already exists or being slowly, but thoughtfully, built.

What Comes Next

Melting Metropolis is a long-term research partnership exploring how cities like London adapt to extreme heat, and how communities like Somers Town can shape that conversation from the inside. The festival was one day. The work continues.

If you were part of 20 June — as an organiser, a volunteer, participant, a neighbour who wandered in — we’d love to hear from you.

And if you want to bring this kind of community-led, relationship-first climate work to your own neighbourhood or institution, get in touch.

Melting Metropolis is delivered by the University of Liverpool in partnership with Wellcome, Queen Mary/CUNY, Camden Council, the Somers Town Community Association and A Space For Us People’s Museum.