June 7th 2026, Dulwich
The first Bell House Festival of Retrofit was great! It felt like home – the home we’d all love to hang out in.
The atmosphere was simply happy, full of people sharing insulation tips and their experience of installing renewable energy in their home.
This is community at it’s best, helping each other to save energy, money and the environment – and having a great time in the process.
Dulwich is fortunate to have in Bell House – do visit, there is so much going on there for all ages and interests.
We thank Angus and Fabienne for providing Bell House and taking a chance on a new festival and also thank their super volunteers who were bringing out tea and sandwiches non-stop.
Community energy works
The stars of the show were the extraordinary award winning (British Renewable Energy Awards Winner 2026!) South East london Community Energy (SELCE) – Powering a cleaner, fairer future for south east London – and they really do walk the walk by transforming access to information, funding renewable installations and basically are a full on power team led by Giovanna Speciale.
Talks and Workshops
In the gardens the Weva Collective gave visitors a lesson in how to repoint the north wall at Bell House. There was Card City for kids too.
Selce curated two panel talks where people shared the ups and downs and inside outs of having their homes made warmer, more economic and a lot more comfortable to live in. We’re grateful to all the people who shared their experiences and helped others to follow in their footsteps.
The Blue Patch contribution was a display on Chimney Sheep‘s ‘insulation quick fixes‘ – chimney sheep are neat woollen shapes made to fit your flue – there’s now a Chimney Sheep tucked snugly inside a chimney at Bell House because Sally the Director of Chimney Sheep wanted to contribute! We also featured locally approved suppliers: Enbee Architecture and Design and Burgess Architects, Watertight International, (flood protection and preparedness) lots of people picked up their information as flash floods are becoming a real issue in the UK. Shuttleworth Projects is a well known local contractor and has been used by many friends and neighbours, including Blue Patch! New members Mitchell & Dickinson were also popular as they provide glazing solutions that work for period homes – which Dulwich is full of. Elite Renewables brought a battery with them – and a micro-inverter, which they were busy explaining to enraptured visitors. Elite have done a lot of installations locally – including installing 16 solar panels, two batteries and an ASHP next to Blue Patch HQ!
Well after closing people lingered with cups of tea to debrief. We were still discussing the virtues of battery to solar to EV and back again – everyone is hooked – let’s do it again.
Blue Patch was so excited to be included in developing what we hope can, in future, grow. We want to bring in people who are new to all this, who are looking for information, encouragement and will be reassured by Blue Patch’s checking system of picking up local references for contractors and suppliers.
The UK needs sensible and affordable options, budget-friendly insulation, transparent and accessible information on Air Source and Ground Source, solar and batteries. Community is everything so let’s share and guide the transition to a low-carbon economy in the UK.
The pictures are by In The Right Light photography.