Regina Beach Creative Wellbeing

15/10/2025

A round up of a weekend in London. Benjamin Button the musical, a installation, cool architecture and blue skies. 💙

04/10/2025

I'm delighted to have my poem included in this project!

26 Bridges is the creative contribution of writers’ organisation 26 to the Bloomsbury Festival 2025. It’s the latest in a long line of inspiring projects from 26.

There are 26 bridges across the River Thames in London. We paired 26 writer/artist pairs with each of the bridges to create work in words and images. These will be unveiled daily between 17 September and 16 October (the eve of the Bloomsbury Festival 2025).

On that evening of 16 October there will be an auction of the works to raise funds for an NHS clinical nurse specialist for skin cancer care at University College Hospital London. We invite you to enjoy the work daily and bid for any you particularly love. All money will go to UCLH Charity, so please be generous.

https://bloomsburyfestival.org.uk/26-bridges-9/

Bridge: Barnes
Title: Barnes Bridge
Writer: Susannah Hart
Artist: Andy Hayes
Image: 20cm x 25cm
Paper 28cm x 36cm, Screenprint on paper, unframed
Description:
Andy: What struck me about Barnes Bridge was its Victorian utilitarian physicality. The river flows beneath, but what if the bridge was a natural element too? I sketched the bridge, water and clouds with melted candle wax, because it’s hard to control; a loose-limbed approach to mark making, and then I produced a two-colour screenprint. Susannah’s poem perfectly complements this image, her words formed gradually as she regularly strolled over the bridge from southeast to northwest and back again.

BARNES BRIDGE
Susannah Hart
darkling at sunset water under the arches
bearing the weight of the day’s crossings
the heavy hang of the girders the creak
of the tracks damp understone ripe with
pigeon feathered with moss back and there
deep into riverflow the reflective bridge
asks the question of itself over and over
wheels rattle the old iron weeds whisper
and sway the tide offers the tide takes

Bridge: Barnes Title: Barnes Bridge Writer: Susannah Hart Artist: Andy Hayes Image: 20cm x 25cm Paper 28cm x 36cm, Screenprint on paper, unframed Description: Andy: What struck me about Barnes Bridge was its Victorian utilitarian physicality. The river flows beneath,

03/10/2025

I'm delighted to have my poem included in this project!

26 Bridges is the creative contribution of writers’ organisation 26 to the Bloomsbury Festival 2025. It’s the latest in a long line of inspiring projects from 26.

There are 26 bridges across the River Thames in London. We paired 26 writer/artist pairs with each of the bridges to create work in words and images. These will be unveiled daily between 17 September and 16 October (the eve of the Bloomsbury Festival 2025).

On that evening of 16 October there will be an auction of the works to raise funds for an NHS clinical nurse specialist for skin cancer care at University College Hospital London. We invite you to enjoy the work daily and bid for any you particularly love. All money will go to UCLH Charity, so please be generous.

https://bloomsburyfestival.org.uk/26-bridges-8/

Bridge: Chiswick
Title: Water language
Writer: Sinead Keegan
Creative partner: Lisa Andrews
The work: Hand cut and bound book with presentation box
Description: A handmade book with the lines of the poem tracing a repeating original linoprint of the River Thames and Chiswick Bridge. The book is Coptic stitched so that it lies flat, making it perfect for journalling, sketching and adding your own thoughts about the space around you.

WATER LANGUAGE
Sinead Keegan
Oars! Oars! Sculls! Oars!
The waterman’s cry echoes through the centuries’ mist
oars, oars, sculls, oars
slipping between ripples of the ebb tide.
Light horsemen hawk a lift on the wherries
Chiswick to Mortlake and back again.

‘Lightening flog it, up the Thames as swiftly jog it.’

Scullers in rowboats so shallow and tickle
great peril and danger, misfortunes and mischances for a cross of the Thames.

‘Some talk of building a fine stone bridge, but these things are yet in embryo.’

Still from Mortelage to Turnham Green the oars pull across the current
a lost lacu trickles down through time
a salmon returns upstream to spawn new memories.

‘Carroches, coaches, jades and Flanders mares,
Do rob us of our shares, our wares, our fares;
Against the fround we stand and knock our heeles,
Whilst all our profit runs away on wheeles.’

Pull! Pull! Echoes in the Portland arches
three for the river, two for the tow.
Oars away. Power in the water.
Let it run in the flood tide.

‘And one from tother hale, and pull, and teare,
And raile, and brawle, and curse, and ban, and swear.’

Listen for the voices in the flow.

Bridge: Chiswick Title: Water language Writer: Sinead Keegan Creative partner: Lisa Andrews The work: Hand cut and bound book with presentation box Description: A handmade book with the lines of the poem tracing a repeating original linoprint of the River

02/10/2025

I'm delighted to have my poem included in this project!

26 Bridges is the creative contribution of writers’ organisation 26 to the Bloomsbury Festival 2025. It’s the latest in a long line of inspiring projects from 26.

There are 26 bridges across the River Thames in London. We paired 26 writer/artist pairs with each of the bridges to create work in words and images. These will be unveiled daily between 17 September and 16 October (the eve of the Bloomsbury Festival 2025).

On that evening of 16 October there will be an auction of the works to raise funds for an NHS clinical nurse specialist for skin cancer care at University College Hospital London. We invite you to enjoy the work daily and bid for any you particularly love. All money will go to UCLH Charity, so please be generous.

https://bloomsburyfestival.org.uk/26-bridges-7/

Bridge: Kew
Title: Threshold
Writer: Kendra Futcher,
Creative partner: Paul Davis –
The work: Signed Archival art print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag 308gsm. A3 with border. Supplied in protective board tube.

THRESHOLD
Kendra Futcher
A conscious coupling
From me to you
Kew to Brentford
A point of connection
Between people, place and time
She has seen it all
Three times lucky
Built for another world
Bolstered and buttressed
With the changing weight of time
Then, narrow wood frame
Now, Cornish granite and Portland Stone
Ancient stone flanking our coastline
Strengthening our city
This place that fortified me
A backdrop to a rite of passage
Giving and taking
Dishing out life lessons
I crossed the bridge
Unconsciously wandering towards adulthood
Before my inner child
Crawled out from under the bed
In that loft on Kew Road
A churning stomach
A transient place
Of not belonging
You, barely visible
In a faraway land
There was no bridge.

Bridge: Kew Title: Threshold Writer: Kendra Futcher, Creative partner: Paul Davis – The work: Signed Archival art print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag 308gsm. A3 with border. Supplied in protective board tube. THRESHOLD Kendra Futcher A conscious coupling From

01/10/2025

I'm delighted to have my poem included in this project!

26 Bridges is the creative contribution of writers’ organisation 26 to the Bloomsbury Festival 2025. It’s the latest in a long line of inspiring projects from 26.

There are 26 bridges across the River Thames in London. We paired 26 writer/artist pairs with each of the bridges to create work in words and images. These will be unveiled daily between 17 September and 16 October (the eve of the Bloomsbury Festival 2025).

On that evening of 16 October there will be an auction of the works to raise funds for an NHS clinical nurse specialist for skin cancer care at University College Hospital London. We invite you to enjoy the work daily and bid for any you particularly love. All money will go to UCLH Charity, so please be generous.

https://bloomsburyfestival.org.uk/26-bridges-6/

Bridge: The Richmond Footbridge and Lock
Title: “The Richmond Footbridge and Lock”
Writer: Molly Ovenden
Creative partner: William Ovenden, embroiderer
The work:
Item 1: hand embroidered piece
Item 2: typewriter printed copy of poem (watch the author read the poem below)
Description: A 21-line poem written to capture the seasons of and visitors to the iconic toll bridge which depends on flood levels to allow passage via the toll way. An intricately hand-embroidered piece depicting key architectural design details of the bridge and its surroundings, including: floral emblems, waterfowl footprints, flood level gauge, the arch of the bridge, and the ever-changing sheen and flow of the river spilling through the raised and lowered bridge.

RICHMOND FOOTBRIDGE AND LOCK
Molly Ovenden
Autumn captures dew
in fading light
upon the bolts to hold

Winter calls frost
in etched stillness
upon the river’s flow

Spring cheers moss to life
in blooming quacks
upon the walkway old

Summer claps huzzah
in all night hilarity
upon the clear edge of gold.

No matter the season
this bridge does rise and shine
a steadfast arc to carry
whomever needs to cross
be it Tom, Dick, or Harry
and here it always remains
the same –
for in London is the Thames
and it’s always about to rain
or so the story’s been told…

Bridge: The Richmond Footbridge and Lock Title: “The Richmond Footbridge and Lock” Writer: Molly Ovenden Creative partner: William Ovenden, embroiderer The work: Item 1: hand embroidered piece Item 2: typewriter printed copy of poem (watch the author read the poem

30/09/2025

I'm delighted to have my poem included in this project!

26 Bridges is the creative contribution of writers’ organisation 26 to the Bloomsbury Festival 2025. It’s the latest in a long line of inspiring projects from 26.

There are 26 bridges across the River Thames in London. We paired 26 writer/artist pairs with each of the bridges to create work in words and images. These will be unveiled daily between 17 September and 16 October (the eve of the Bloomsbury Festival 2025).

On that evening of 16 October there will be an auction of the works to raise funds for an NHS clinical nurse specialist for skin cancer care at University College Hospital London. We invite you to enjoy the work daily and bid for any you particularly love. All money will go to UCLH Charity, so please be generous.

https://bloomsburyfestival.org.uk/26-bridges-5/

Bridge: Twickenham
Title: The Nymph in Concrete
Writer: Tom Collins
Creative partners: Stephen Collins, artist
The work: 8in by 8in, 1.5in deep; acrylic on canvas. Image covers front and sides.
Description: A 30-line poem in five stanzas reflecting on Twickenham Bridge’s relationship with nearby Richmond Railway Bridge, its roots in the jazz age and the stories it might tell if only we’d ask.

THE NYMPH IN CONCRETE
Twickenham Bridge (with a nod to Richmond Railway Bridge nearby)
Tom Collins

Sibling bridges separated by a generation.
Its nouveau was old when your deco came along.
And while Richmond sports fondant-fancy yellow,
You are the sober one, just patinated bronze fringing solid concrete.
Solid concrete, solid concrete, solid concrete

Your traffic’s baritone rumble contrasts with the squeal
Of railway wheels close-by, metal against metal.
Above, let’s face it, you are just a road to somewhere,
The riverside below is where the magic happens.
Magic happens, magic happens, magic happens.

There, gilded by sunlight, the reflection of ripples on the Thames
Dances freely on hefty arches straddling the waters.
A young Hockney might have animated them. London meeting LA.
Beside you, knackered barges slumber after a night on the town,
On the town, on the town, on the town.

You know how they feel, you were a child of the jazz age after all.
You once danced with the Prince of Wales – he cut your ribbon –
Before he went rogue and ran off with Wallace.
Never one to kiss and tell, you keep your secrets,
Your secrets, your secrets, your secrets,

Until a gaggle of children pass underneath the arches
And unleash your unexpected echo with their song.
Voices chant, trumpets roar and we’re back in a thirties jazz club,
Thrashing in wild abandon. The echo is your superpower.
Your superpower, your superpower, your superpower.

But only knowing children, out from class, hold the key. The rest of us –
Day-trippers, joggers, courting couples, an old guy
On his mobility scooter, a woman walking her dog –
Pass under the arch in silence, oblivious to the nymph in concrete
Hiding there, and the music she could make if only we would let her.

Bridge: Twickenham Title: The Nymph in Concrete Writer: Tom Collins Creative partners: Stephen Collins, artist The work: 8in by 8in, 1.5in deep; acrylic on canvas. Image covers front and sides. Description: A 30-line poem in five stanzas reflecting on Twickenham

29/09/2025

I'm delighted to have my poem included in this project!

26 Bridges is the creative contribution of writers’ organisation 26 to the Bloomsbury Festival 2025. It’s the latest in a long line of inspiring projects from 26.

There are 26 bridges across the River Thames in London. We paired 26 writer/artist pairs with each of the bridges to create work in words and images. These will be unveiled daily between 17 September and 16 October (the eve of the Bloomsbury Festival 2025).

On that evening of 16 October there will be an auction of the works to raise funds for an NHS clinical nurse specialist for skin cancer care at University College Hospital London. We invite you to enjoy the work daily and bid for any you particularly love. All money will go to UCLH Charity, so please be generous.

https://bloomsburyfestival.org.uk/26-bridges-4/

Bridge: Richmond
Title: Architextures
Writer: Jo Aaron Lilford
Creative partner: Amanda Benstead
The artwork: Abstract textile celebration of the feature layers in the rock beneath the arches of Richmond Bridge. Paper straws and mixed textile threads. 40 x 40 x 5cm framed
The writing: A freeform poem reflecting upon a creature fossilised in the bridge’s Portland stone construction and visible beneath its arches.

ARCHITEXTURES
Jo Aaron Lilford
(228 million years ago)

Imagine, if you will,
Avoiding the thrill
Of consumption by pterodactyl
(Or some other prehistoric ill).
Your worm-time spent
Mud-writhing carefree in the Dorset sun…
Then, that’s it, it’s all now gone:
Set, inanimate, infinite
Layered in the warming clays of Portland Bay,
To rest and dream your forever dream,
Reminiscing on your life of prehistoric being:
Your next role as yet unforeseen…

A couple of thousand years just passed
The quarrymen sound the alarm and blast
Your tranquil existence into the past
For worm is now rock:
An undeniably hard place
Your role now takes a different pace.

Up. Up!
Your arse-end is hewn from your other
Two blocks, loaded on a solid ketch
And sailed up the Thames
To the Richmond stretch.

Worm: your first life’s come undone,
The lazing about is all but gone.
Who knew that on the day that you were hewn
You’d become part of this pontoon:
The famous Richmond Bridge Tontine Scheme.
A very different wormy dream.

A cross between gamble and mortality lottery,
It was an investment, spread among lots of you.
It raised the pennies to ditch the ferries
And build the bridge
To carry us all from here to there
To great fanfare: and thus in 1777
Our worm met his alternate heaven.

Set in the arch of Richmond Bridge,
Today his stony form surveys
The waters eddying through the days.
And journeys rumble overhead,
Our worm – although he is stone dead-
Provides a service to the masses
As millions of cars and big red buses
Chunter from St. Margaret’s to Richmond and beyond
Worm’s legacy, set in stone, lives on.

Bridge: Richmond Title: Architextures Writer: Jo Aaron Lilford Creative partner: Amanda Benstead The artwork: Abstract textile celebration of the feature layers in the rock beneath the arches of Richmond Bridge. Paper straws and mixed textile threads. 40 x 40 x

28/09/2025

I'm delighted to have my poem included in this project!

26 Bridges is the creative contribution of writers’ organisation 26 to the Bloomsbury Festival 2025. It’s the latest in a long line of inspiring projects from 26.

There are 26 bridges across the River Thames in London. We paired 26 writer/artist pairs with each of the bridges to create work in words and images. These will be unveiled daily between 17 September and 16 October (the eve of the Bloomsbury Festival 2025).

On that evening of 16 October there will be an auction of the works to raise funds for an NHS clinical nurse specialist for skin cancer care at University College Hospital London. We invite you to enjoy the work daily and bid for any you particularly love. All money will go to UCLH Charity, so please be generous.

https://bloomsburyfestival.org.uk/26-bridges-3/

Bridge: Teddington Lock Footbridge
Title: ‘Spanning The Tide’
Writer: Daniel Headey
Creative partners: Steve McCallum
The work: Framed artwork. Paper stock TBC. (Frame 55cm x 28cm-landscape)
Description: A poem in four movements based in 1888/1889 when the Teddington Lock bridges were built. Inspired by the small island in the middle and its flora and fauna and by the boat workers who changed jobs to help build the structure. A story of two different people meeting. Fleeting moments. Quick glances. As life (and the water) flows on, where will their journey take them?

Bridge: Teddington Lock Footbridge Title: ‘Spanning The Tide’ Writer: Daniel Headey Creative partners: Steve McCallum The work: Framed artwork. Paper stock TBC. (Frame 55cm x 28cm-landscape) Description: A poem in four movements based in 1888/1889 when the Teddington Lock bridges were built. Ins...

27/09/2025

I'm delighted to have my poem included in this project!

26 Bridges is the creative contribution of writers’ organisation 26 to the Bloomsbury Festival 2025. It’s the latest in a long line of inspiring projects from 26.

There are 26 bridges across the River Thames in London. We paired 26 writer/artist pairs with each of the bridges to create work in words and images. These will be unveiled daily between 17 September and 16 October (the eve of the Bloomsbury Festival 2025).

On that evening of 16 October there will be an auction of the works to raise funds for an NHS clinical nurse specialist for skin cancer care at University College Hospital London. We invite you to enjoy the work daily and bid for any you particularly love. All money will go to UCLH Charity, so please be generous.

https://bloomsburyfestival.org.uk/26-bridges-2/

Bridge: Kingston
Poem Title: Free for Ever
Writer: Galen O’Hanlon
Creative partner: Steph Wright
The work: A hand-illustrated 32cm commemorative plate to celebrate the freeing of Kingston Bridge from tolls on 12 March 1870. While the poem is an elegy for the toll-man, the plate is a celebration of the high Victorian festivities. Inspired by old photographs and a printed menu from the day, the illustrations tell a story of banners, jellies, and pies — charming, whimsical and fun.

FREE FOR EVER
Galen O’Hanlon
Kingston Bridge, 12 March 1870

Yes, the bridge might be free,
free for evermore,
but Old Tom of the toll,
his job is no more.

He shuts the tollhouse,
bids his boy goodbye,
tips his hat to the mayor
as the procession rolls by.

He’s stood here longer
than anyone can tell,
since before the stone bridge
and the wooden one as well.

He’s an old river spirit,
with the marsh in his heart,
and his head in the mist
and his hand on the cart.

People throng in the streets,
banners shiver in the wind,
Old Tom watches on
as the crowd presses in.

There was snow at dawn,
and sun out at noon,
they lunch at The Griffin
and eat all afternoon:

Roast Fowls, Raised Pies,
Ornamented Tongues,
Fore Quarters of Lamb,
and Jellies Macedoine.

They come out blinking
in the last of the light –
see the sunset on the bridge,
free at last, what a sight.

Old Tom’s in the shadows
as dusk turns to night,
sees them build a pyre,
set the toll gates alight.

And the heat from the fire
glows red on his face,
how strange to be warmed
by his fall from grace.

So he turns to the river,
takes off his coat,
wades into the water,
with firelight on the boats.

“Here! Old Tom!” calls his
boy from the shore,
pulls a pie from his pocket,
“Take this, there’s more.”

He leans on a tree, and
he hears the boy say
“You never much liked
them gates, anyway.”

And Old Tom’s old face
cracks into a smile,
as they sit and stare
at the pyre for a while.

Bridge: Kingston Poem Title: Free for Ever Writer: Galen O’Hanlon Creative partner: Steph Wright The work: A hand-illustrated 32cm commemorative plate to celebrate the freeing of Kingston Bridge from tolls on 12 March 1870. While the poem is an elegy for

26/09/2025

https://bloomsburyfestival.org.uk/26-bridges-1/

I'm delighted to have my poem included in this project!

26 Bridges is the creative contribution of writers’ organisation 26 to the Bloomsbury Festival 2025. It’s the latest in a long line of inspiring projects from 26.

There are 26 bridges across the River Thames in London. We paired 26 writer/artist pairs with each of the bridges to create work in words and images. These will be unveiled daily between 17 September and 16 October (the eve of the Bloomsbury Festival 2025).

On that evening of 16 October there will be an auction of the works to raise funds for an NHS clinical nurse specialist for skin cancer care at University College Hospital London. We invite you to enjoy the work daily and bid for any you particularly love. All money will go to UCLH Charity, so please be generous.

Bridge: Hampton Court
Title: The Birds of Hampton Court Bridge
Writer: Joan Lennon
Artist: Thomas Heitler
The work: Foamex 293mm by 340mm
Description: Hampton Court Bridge saves its beauty for the side view – arches like the curve of a swan’s wing were where the poem and image began.

THE BIRDS OF HAMPTON COURT BRIDGE
Joan Lennon
First there was a ferry, followed by three fancy bridges, none of which lasted. Then, in 1933, the modern Hampton Court Bridge was opened. Made of reinforced concrete, it was a workhorse of a bridge, perhaps even an ugly duckling, but an ugly duckling with a difference…

A bridge that’s
concrete-backed for bearing

everyday
traffic
every day:
tyre and trudge –
sturdy
solid
stolid
straight

But see it from the river –

three leaps crossing,
each arch
a royal curve
like the wing
of a swan

cladding of Wren-red bricks
fit for his palace

trimmed
with white Portland stone
(laid down
when birds
were dinosaurs)

while the water threads
through
to the city
city
city
sea

24/09/2025

There are 100 days left in 2025. I'm embarking on 100 days of writing. I didn't pick a word count. I'm not finishing (one of a million) an unfinished project. I'm just committing to showing up and seeing what happens. A sentence or an opus at a time. Join me?

Final call for tonight’s workshop! 💯

Today marks 100 days until the end of 2025.

What will you do with yours?

Join us tonight for a fun and powerful 1-hour workshop to help you make the most of the final days of 2025.

Link in bio☝️

16/08/2025

New Poke shop in Cabot Circus! So yummy! 🥒🥑🥬🍜🌱