Castellers of London

Castellers of London
Foundation 2015
Shirt color Red
Location London, United Kingdom
Premises St Thomas the Apostle church
Group leader Jon Kepa Longarte
President Jordi Bellver
Best towers 5d6
Best performance 4d6a, 5d6, i2d6, 3d6a
Official website http://castellersoflondon.org.uk/

Castellers of London (CoL) is a group of people with an interest in building human towers (Castells), a Catalan tradition that dates back more than 200 years, who live in London, England. Many of the people involved in CoL are from Catalonia, but the group also includes people of many nationalities.[1] The goal of CoL is to promote the tradition of castells in the London area by holding open rehearsals and organising special events, such as exhibitions.[2]

In 2015, a group of people experienced in building castells held a series of workshops to promote human towers in London and attract Londoners to attend their rehearsals. They started at Rochester Square Gardens in Camden, moved to Camden Garden and then rehearsed in Regent's Park. Currently rehearsals take place in St Thomas the Apostle church in Arsenal North London. CoL continues to expand its membership, and currently includes people of different backgrounds and all ages, as well as whole families.[3]

Their debut performance took place during the Youth Fest in Tottenham on 18 July 2015.[4] First pilar of 4 would not happen until 5th September 2015 during the celebration of the Catalan National Day in Kennington Park, Lambeth.

So far CoL are focused on building stable structures six levels tall.

Management

CoL is an association run by its members and directed by two committees elected during the annual general meeting. These are the Management Committee and the Technical Team, and they are currently represented by the President (Jordi Bellver) and Cap de Colla, the head of the team, (Jon Kepa Longarte) respectively.

Presidents - Marc Pujol (2015) - Hasier Rodriguez (2017) - Anne D’Hermy (2017) - Jordi Bellver (2018)

Caps de colla - Jan Creixell (2015) - Stephen (Cuss) Anderson (2017) - Jon Kepa Longarte (2017)

Performances

Castellers of London do few performances a year, highlights being the one for St George's day (usually in Borough Market), one in July around their anniversary and their Christmas diada. They also perform every year together with other international colles in what is called International diada.

Past performances and results can be found in their official website.

The best performance so far was the 6th October 2018 in the II International Diada in Tarragona, performing 4d6a, 5d6, i2d6 and 3d6a.

Participation in International "diades"

2016 London

Castellers of London hosted the first International diada in Spitalfields Market. Castellers de Paris where the colla invited and they worked together to achieve their best performance to the date. Two structures of 6 levels were built but up to the acotxador. As the enxaneta didn't climb, they count as dismantled attempts (id).

Result: (id)3d6, (id)4d6

2016 Tarragona

Tarragona's council invited few international colles to perform in Plaça de la Font on Saturday prior to the Concurs de Castells. This time, Castellers d'Andorra and Xiquets de Copenhaguen where invited together with Castellers of London and Castellers de Paris. Castellers of London completed for the first time the two structures they could not complete for the previous International diada.

Result: 3d6, 4d6

2017 Paris

To continue with the tradition, Paris invited this time the colles that participated in the latest diada. Castellers of London completed a new construction, the 4d6a, after two dismantled attempts of the 3d6a in their previous Christmas diada. This was the first time the colla completed a performance with 3 structures of 6 levels, becoming a colla of 6. They would repeat the same performance two more times during that year.

Result: 3d6, 4d6a, 4d6

2018 Tarragona

Performance to take place on 6th October 2018 in Plaça de la Font, Tarragona. Castellers of London performed with Castellers de Paris, Castellers d'Andorra, Xiquets de Copenhaguen and for the first time, Colla Castellera de Madrid.

Their intention was to do their best diada yet with the 4d6a, 5d6, 2d6 and a p5 at the end. Madrid had the same goal, so both colles went all in with their objectives.

Colla Castellera de Madrid got the perfect diada but, unfortunately, the first attempt of 2d6 from Castellers of London collapsed when the enxaneta was climbing and they had to change the rest of the structures. They did a 3d6a in the repetition round and finished with 2 pilars of 4 instead of the planned pilar of 5. This was not an impediment for Castellers of London to do their best performance yet.

Result: 4d6a, 5d6, i2d6, 3d6a

Structures achieved

ConstructionTotal2018201720162015First achieved
iiddiiddiddiddidd
2d6 100100000000---
5d6 0120120000007 July 2018
4d6a 0060020400003 June 2017
3d6a 0230020120009 December 2017
4d6 0170010412001 October 2016
3d6 0190030412001 October 2016
Total 152711100134400
  • i indicates an attempt that collapsed before it was crowned
  • id indicates a dismantled attempt (not crowned but it didn't collapse)
  • d indicates a completed attempt

References

  1. ↑ Prim, Sara (24 April 2016). "Catalan and British culture mix in London in Sant Jordi celebrations". Catalan News Agency.
  2. ↑ "Els Castellers de Londres posen el colofó al Sant Jordi britànic". La Vanguardia. 24 April 2016.
  3. ↑ ARA Barcelona (15 July 2015). "Londres presenta en societat la seva pròpia colla castellera".
  4. ↑ Programa de radio "l'agulla" de LANOVARÀDIO (24 July 2015). "Presentació dels Castellers of London".
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