Weekend of Play event

BREAD OVEN FACILITATION AND ‘BATH (STREET) BOMBS’ WORKSHOP 

12pm – 3pm, Sunday 28th June
Garnethill Park
Organised by Glasgow Building Preservation Trust and the Sauchiehall Street: Culture and Heritage District, along with partners PEEK, the Hunterian Museum, Join the Dots (that’s us!), Make It Glasgow and the Mackintosh Tearooms.

Join the Dots supported the Sauchiehall Street: Culture and Heritage District's "Weekend of Play" running two events in Garnethill Park.

PIZZA MAKING (12-3pm)
Age range: 5+ age with parent/career supervision
Number of participants: 40 children in 2 bookable sessions

With the Italo-Scots community well established in Glasgow since the first migrants arrived in the late 1800s to make Glasgow their home, Italian food culture has been integral to Glasgow. The Italians were leaders in the café trade in the West of Scotland in the early 1900s – and were at the forefront of popularising the fish supper! Thanks to dough donated by local, family-run Italian restaurant Sartis, Kirstin, Jude and Loris helped children and families make 40 DIY pizzas to celebrate the merging of Italian and Glaswegian culture.

The Garnethill Community Bread Oven was lit and heated for two hours prior to the event and the team are gaining confidence in fire building and use of the oven. This time we maintained a good heat throughout with a larger and continuous fire and had no problems cooking the 40 pizzas over the 3 hour period.

BATH (STREET) BOMBS 2-3pm 
Age range: 3+ parent/career supervision
Number of participants:  20

Glasgow's Bath Street gets its name from being home to Glasgow’s first ever public bath house. In the early 1800s, entrepreneur William Harley opened the first indoor public baths in Scotland for local people to access for free. Children joined us to hear about the history of Harley and his obsession with hygiene, enjoying a fun messy play session throwing bath bombs into a vat of water in the park and watching them fizz, pop and crackle. The children loved the explosions of colour and the whole sensory experience; the sight, smell and sounds!

Thanks to Lush for kindly donating over 30 bath bombs. 

The Weekend of Play was organised by Glasgow Building Preservation Trust and the Sauchiehall Street: Culture and Heritage District, along with partners PEEK, the Hunterian Museum, Join the Dots, Make It Glasgow and the Mackintosh Tearooms.

Home from Home - Spring 2026

COMMUNITY EVENT 
5-7pm, Saturday 9th May 2026
Garnethill Multicultural Centre, 21 Rose street

Hosted by all 4 original ‘dots’; Jude, Kirstin, Rosie and Sadie. A busy event that benefitted from people moving from the Garnethill Music day into the Multicultural Centre to hear and play more music and enjoy some food together! 

Pizzas were provided by Antipasti, sandwiches and salads by Roxana Ogrean catering and there were contributions and home making from many members of the community. Bunting making tables were set up so visitors could make a flag for the communal bunting - we were able to display some of the bunting made by local groups in our previous workshops. Rosie and Jude brought flowers from their Garnethill gardens to decorate the tables in the centre. 

Intergenerational musicians performed live music including singers, a pianist and young flautist who were much appreciated by everyone present. Local children dressed in costumes on stage and performed some drama and songs they had prepared. We counted approximately 70 attendees. 

Thanks to Garnethill Multicultural Centre for hosting us, Antipasti, Sprigg, Joy cakes and catering and the local community for providing food to share. Thanks to all the wonderful musicians who shared their tunes. 

Pizzas in the Park - April 2026

COMMUNITY EVENT
3-5pm, Saturday 18th April 2026
Garnethill Multicultural Centre, 21 Rose street 

Hosted by Kirstin and Rosie, with Jude and Sadie in attendance, this was our first official community Bread Oven event. Rosie acted as chief firemaster, fanning the flames and cooking food, accompanied by head chef, Kirstin who was assisting people with pizza making. We prepared the dough ourselves in advance and brought it to the park for attendees to make their own pizzas.

We kicked off the event with a community litter pick - and bunting making was hosted by Sadie in Fleming House that morning. We opened up the oven, cleaned it, lit the fire, made it safe and we stayed with the oven for the duration of the flames. We had a good turnout with many familiar faces and some new visitors dropping in to an intergenerational, family event over the course of the afternoon. We were lucky with a sunny day, so could offer chalk for children to engage in creative play - and also go to the playpark.

Everyone was able to make a pizza themselves or experiment with designing their own small bread items(!). We counted approximately 40-50 attendees over the afternoon, many of whom stayed for over an hour or for the entire time. We were joined by Loris - a fourth year GSA student - who was inviting participants to engage in creating a dictionary of Garnethill by offering up and discussing words we use.

For our next event we hope to rely more on donations of ready made pizza dough from local pizzerias so that we have the best chance of pizza success. We would also be brave with fire building and ensure the oven is hot enough to cook quickly and well.

Thanks to everyone that attended and promised to come back and celebrate again with us! 

Community Bread Oven Training

TRAINING
3-5pm, Saturday 17th April 2026
Garnethill Multicultural Centre, 21 Rose street 

All four original ‘Dots’ (Jude, Kirstin, Rosie and Sadie) were trained by local community Firemaster, and member of FROGGS, Margaret. We brought our own children as test subjects for the pizzas we made. She showed us all how to unlock the oven, clean it and make it safe for use, both as an oven and in terms of fire safety for the surrounding area and visitors. We have a first aid kit and tools for bread and pizza making. We built a fire under Margaret’s instruction and tended it until it was possible to bake bread in the oven. We are all now fully trained in using the oven for community events. 

April Bunting Making Workshops 2026

WORKSHOP HOSTING
1st, 8th, 18th, 22nd, 29th April 2026
Edward House, Sauchiehall street 

Hosted by Sadie. One of the Join the Dots long term goals is to have metres and metres of community-created bunting that can be used for community events both in and outdoors. At the end of this two year project, we hope to hang it in the streets of Garnethill as part of a huge celebration event, akin to a Home From Home event on a much larger scale. 

Over the course of April, Sadie led a series of drop-in workshops to encourage locals to make bunting to add to the collective effort. Groups of local children and a handful of adults attended these workshops, making several metres of bunting of their own design. All the fabric was repurposed, and Sadie used her sewing skills to bring it all together into a stretch of beautiful handmade bunting. 

Thanks to Fleming House for hosting and The Guild and other kind individuals for donations of fabric. 

Home From Home - Winter 2026

5-7pm, Saturday 7th March 2026
Garnethill Multicultural Centre, 21 Rose street

Home From Home events are held seasonally four times a year. They were originally begun in 2024 as a positive response to racist attacks across the UK and Europe. Each one is slightly different, but all have community food sharing, live music and are always free and welcoming to everyone. The aim of Home From Home is to foster links between different people and groups occupying the area local to Garnethill in Glasgow; joining the dots between people, place and possibility. 

Attended by all 4 original ‘dots’; Jude, Kirstin, Rosie and Sadie. The first of the official Join The Dots events, this marks perhaps the 6th Home From Home event to date. Free pizzas were provided by Antipasti, and there were other contributions and home making from the community. Bunting-making workshops allowed for flags to be designed and made for the communal bunting. We also set up a ping pong table and a drawing and crafts area, as well as a lego station. 

We were treated to traditional Breton music for circle dancing and also a bagpiper who accompanied a session of ceilidh dancing. Local children dressed up and performed onstage with live piano accompaniment. Jude kicked off with some songs and a local couple performed some folk favourites. The evening was rounded off with live sitar music and song. We counted approximately 30-40 attendees.

Thanks to Garnethill Multicultural Centre for hosting us, Antipasti, Sprigg and the local community for providing food to share.

Community Wishlist consultation

CONSULTATION HOSTING

31st March 2026
Doubletree Hilton Hotel, Cambridge street 

Garnethill does not currently have a local Place Plan. Place Plans are community-led documents that set out proposals for land use and development in a particular area. By submitting a complete and thoughtful plan to Glasgow City Council, the hope for Garnethill is that it will influence positive future development in the area - as suggested by the engaged local community. Much work has already been done by the passionate and hardworking community in Garnethill, so we intend to simply support and continue that effort. 

Here at Join the Dots, we believe it would be helpful to support the creation of a Place Plan for Garnethill, alongside Garnethill Community Council and the Multicultural Centre. This event was designed to bring the community’s creative vision into the development of the document. We were assisted by Scott Galloway; an expert in policy and biodiversity in public realm planning.

Hosted by Jude and Kirstin, this consultation also included live illustration of suggested improvements to Garnethill. Kirstin’s background in public realm design and Jude’s warmth and mediation skills led to constructive and positive outcomes for the future vision of the area. Using a map of Garnethill designed by Rosie, attendees were able to map out current problems with post it notes, air their views and then discuss possible positive change in Garnethill that Join the Dots may be able to help bring to reality.

While Kirstin and Jude led discussions and took notes, Rosie was able to pull those thoughts into an illustrated visual document (see above) that can be shared and used for illustrative purposes throughout this project. We noticed a shift in mood for visitors, as people understandably arrived with grievances and left lighter, with hope that change is possible and can be realised.

Thanks to the Doubletree Hilton Hotel for hosting and providing free refreshments - and to the continuing hard work and generosity of the local community.