Who we are
Surge Cooperative is a not-for-profit cooperative living and working on the Channelsea River in Newham, East London, since 2018. We are a community of boaters, artists, and local residents united by a shared love of the river — and a conviction that it can once again become a thriving, biodiverse, community-centred waterway.
Our aim is to co-develop the Channelsea River and Bow Creek as a liveable, cohesive, resilient, and participatory blue-green space. We work toward this through affordable, climate-adaptable cooperative moorings; environmental restoration; and outdoor community education.
We operate against the backdrop of a legacy of industrialisation and environmental degradation, the pressures of rapid commercial development, and the challenges facing two of the UK's most economically deprived boroughs. We think the river deserves better — and so do the communities that live alongside it.
Al
An acoustics engineer with an experimental arts background, Al has been living and working on barges for over 20 years. A passionate advocate for waterways, he brings a wealth of knowledge to the cooperative as a Principle Six co-op advisor.
Ana
An owner of a post-production studio. A Day Skipper-qualified boater with a sharp eye for the river in all its moods.
Charlie
A Renewable Energy Co-operative member and solar-powered boater, bringing practical know-how to sustainable living on the water. Co-secretary of Surge.
Hannah
Has a long history of working in creative events production both in the UK and internationally, curating public events and workshops with a diverse network of arts organisations and charities.
Michal
A sound designer and engineer with broad technical skills spanning landscape, carpentry, and computer-based production. Co-founder of Animorph Co-op and CASH, and a Day Skipper-qualified boater. Co-secretary of Surge.
Ruth
A designer and photographer who has lived and worked on boats for over 20 years. She carries out monthly water quality testing on the Channelsea, keeping a close eye on the river's health through the seasons.
Stephen
Is an artist working to transform spaces and communities using various disciplines including gardening, sculpture and music. He's very good at getting people together and inspiring them to make a change.
Our cooperative model
Surge's moorings are organised as a fully mutual cooperative, where members become stakeholders with an equal voice. All decisions prioritise care for people and the environment, and any surplus is fairly shared and reinvested in the community.
Thames Water has offered us a 125-year lease to turn a strip of land adjacent to the water into access for our first moorings. Across the river, along the Long Wall Path, we have a yearly roll-over stewardship lease with Thames Water, where we are developing an ecology garden, a community orchard, and an accessible compost toilet.
Our history on the River
The area surrounding Bow Creek and the Channelsea River was mostly developed during the latter part of the nineteenth century. Proximity to the River Lea — a tributary of the Thames — made it an ideal location for industrial expansion. A large number of wharves, chemical works, metal works, and factories once lined the river. At its peak, over 40 bustling wharves stretched along just a few miles of the tidal River Lea, with hundreds of vessels mooring alongside.
Today, only a handful of boats remain. We are working to change that — reviving the river's heritage as a working, living waterway, now in service of community and ecology rather than industry.
Conservation work
The Eco Boat
We ran a successful community crowdfunding campaign this year to purchase our Eco Boat — made possible thanks to the generous support of the Inland Waterways Association and the Aspers Foundation, as well as donations from our wider community. The boat is now in the water and being fitted with an electric outboard and batteries.
The Eco Boat is essential to our conservation work. We use it to tackle vigorous species — primarily Floating Pennywort — which spread rapidly and choke the river, threatening its wildlife. Manual removal and composting is one of the most effective methods for managing this aquatic weed, and having a boat enables us to reach areas that are otherwise inaccessible.
The Long Wall Ecology Garden
Along the Long Wall Path on the banks of the Channelsea, we have planted a community orchard and are creating an ecology garden. Over the years, volunteers have helped us clear rubbish, plant trees, and build wildlife habitats. With support from the Thames21 Empower Rivers fund, we are now taking this work further — surveying the site and developing a three-year plan to tackle Himalayan Balsam along the Long Wall Path, while working in partnership with Thames Water to remove Japanese Knotweed and Giant Hogweed from the riverbank.
Floating Islands
We designed and built our first floating island — a 'liver for the river' — in 2019, providing resting spots for birds and invertebrate habitat, with aquatic planting for water filtration. In 2022, supported from the Newham Co-create Community Assembly Fund, we built five further floating habitats for the Channelsea River, with community workshops at every stage.
River Clean-Ups
As a trained Thames21 River Action Group, we have been organising regular river clean-ups since 2018. Across 15 clean-up events, 43 volunteers have helped us remove over 6 tonnes of rubbish from the river.
Community engagement
We believe the river belongs to everyone. Since 2018, Surge has engaged over 264 local people in a range of cultural and environmental activities, with partners including Thames21, Loughborough University, Queen Mary University, Totally Thames Festival, Newham Heritage Month, Sound Camp, East London Garden Society, Culpeper Community Garden, Plaistow Eco Hub, Abbey Gardens, Compost Mentis, The Orchard Project, River Roding Trust, National Parks City, Newham Nature Network and Creekside Discovery Centre.
Monthly Eco Gatherings
Every first Saturday of the month, 11am–1pm, we gather at the Long Wall Ecology Garden
for hands-on conservation work, river observation, wildlife spotting, cake, and community.
All are welcome and events are free.
Art and Culture
We have collaborated with artists and cultural organisations to bring the river alive in new ways. Projects have included:
An Ear to the River
An Ear to the River grew out of the Channelsea itself — and out of the work of Surge members Stephen Shiell and Hannah White, who make up the artist duo Blanc Sceol. Stephen and Hannah were part of founding Surge in 2018, and since then the river has become a central collaborator in their artistic practice. Their listening and sound work has become deeply entwined with Surge's conservation activities, opening new ways of attending to and advocating for the waterway.
The project is part of an ongoing series of site-specific actions with the river, taking shape through walks, workshops, deep listening sessions, live transmissions, and collaborations. For Blanc Sceol, these gatherings are invitations — to themselves and to others — to slow down, observe, and learn alongside the river.
Explore the project at blancsceol.co.uk · Listen to the podcast
River rights and advocacy
We are actively working to give the Channelsea River a legal voice. In collaboration with the River Rights Network and the Climate Ecological Transitions Hub at Loughborough University London, we are developing a River Rights Charter for the Channelsea — exploring what it would mean for Newham to join the 17 UK councils that have already recognised local rivers as having rights under the law.
We are also engaged in broader advocacy for moorings and waterway access, including contributing to an All-Party Parliamentary Group discussion, advising other boating cooperatives, and participating in planning discussions about the future of East London's waterways.
Our supporters & Partnerships
We are grateful for the support of organisations who share our vision for the river:
Thames Water · Thames21 · Power to Change · Community Led Housing London · Groundwork · Inland Waterways Association · Newham Heritage · London Nature Trails · National Parks City · Co-operatives UK · Aspers Foundation · London Borough of Newham · London Borough of Tower Hamlets
We are also happy to have worked with Loughborough University and Queen Mary University of London, whose researchers and students have brought scientific rigour and fresh energy to our river monitoring and habitat work. We work with the River Lea Catchment Partnership, sharing data and attending Lea Guardians meetings as part of the wider effort to improve the health of the Lea catchment. We are also working with the Cody Dock/Living Lea project on catchment-wide river health data and Compost Mentis, a soil and alternative sanitation cooperative, on community build days and ecological sanitation on site.
Funding and Support
Our work has been made possible by generous support from a range of funders. Two grants have been particularly foundational. A grant from Community Led Housing London — supported by the Mayor of London and hosted by CDS Co-operatives — was instrumental in establishing Surge as a viable cooperative enterprise, funding business planning, topographical and drone surveys across four potential sites, specialist marine legal advice on riverbed ownership and ancient mooring rights, architect and planning fees, and member training. This work gave us the legal, structural, and spatial grounding to pursue our long-term vision for community stewardship of the Channelsea corridor. A Mayor of London Grow Back Greener grant transformed the Long Wall Ecology Garden — funding the planting of an orchard and riverside willow bank in partnership with the Orchard Project, a solar-operated water pump drawing and filtering water directly from the river, and a composting toilet for volunteer days and events.
Further support has come from Newham Community Assembly through two Community Infrastructure Levy grants, enabling us to deepen our roots in the local community; a Groundwork/GLA Our Space award which allowed us to develop a conservation plan for the Long Wall Ecology Garden, build a composting system, and construct a raft to begin tackling floating pennywort on the river; and a Mercers' Company grant which supported our partnership with Compost Mentis and the installation of a temporary composting toilet on site. Earlier support from Groundwork's Bright Ideas fund (Power to Change and MHCLG) helped lay the cooperative's foundations, and Thames Water has provided support for our on-site work at key moments.
We are grateful for the encouragement of the previous Mayor of Newham, Rokhsana Fiaz, and of Laurence Pinturault, formerly of Newham Council and Tower Hamlets. The Heritage Lottery Fund, through Newham Heritage Month, supported a community project celebrating the area's natural and industrial heritage.
We are proud members of the Inland Waterways Association, and we are building a growing network of local supporters including Channelsea House residents, Newham Community Garden Forum, Plaistow Eco Hub, the Greenway Litter Pickers, Carpenter and Docklands Centre, and Bow Locks Cooperative Moorings.
Get involved
There are many ways to support our work:
• Come to a gathering — first Saturday of the month, 11am–1pm, free
• Volunteer — river clean-ups, planting days, and conservation work throughout the year
• Follow us on Instagram and Facebook for updates
• Get in touch — contact us here