Her Barking is a women-led movement, experimenting to collaboratively design and test low cost interventions to make streets and spaces feel safe. 

In Barking, 51% of residents do not feel safe after dark, compared to a national average of 21%. The majority of these residents are women, older people and disabled people.

We have been engaging residents since summer 2018 to identify spaces where people don't feel safe and collaboratively designed and tested a number of installations across Barking Town Centre as part of London Festival of Architecture 2019.

Thanks to funding from The National Lottery, Awards for All, we were able to fund the collaborative design and delivery of a semi-permanent intervention in St Awdry's Walk. A hanging canopy of shapes and crowdsourced messages was installed in February 2020 and we hope to commission a piece of independent research to understand the impact of the interventions on perceptions of safety and openness to connection. 

Want to get involved? Join the Facebook group to be sure to hear details of the next phase of Her Barking and keep up to date with the project.