Families took a welcome break after months of Covid restrictions for a Sunday barbecue and riverside walk in Wapping as part of a Thank You Day get-together.
The barbecue was part of events up and down the country celebrating coming to the end of lockdown and was organised soon after the fifth anniversary of the murder of MP Jo Cox, who lived in Wapping with her young family.
Those taking part were all carefully spaced out in small groups for safe social distancing when they met up on July 4 at the event arranged by the Wapping Bangladesh Association.
"We made people keep to small groups," organiser Atikur Rahman told the East London Advertiser. "They were served food by maintaining Covid rules.
"But it was a great day for people from all walks of life as well as the Bangladeshi community."
It started with a community clean up and walk along the Wapping waterfront, followed by the barbecue with entertainment and children’s activities including a football tournament.
The nationwide Thank You campaign hoped to help those who faced isolation during the pandemic re-join the community and to appreciate the NHS.
Brendan Cox — Jo's widower and dad to their two children — founded his Together campaign, which is one of the Together Coalition organisations behind the weekend events around Britain.
The movement was to "bring the nation together" and follows last month's fifth anniversary of Jo’s murder by a right-wing extremist in June 2016 in her Yorkshire constituency.
The family were living in their Thames houseboat at Wapping’s Hermitage moorings at the time.
Jo’s sister Kim Leadbeater took up her baton when she won her former Batley and Spen constituency for Labour in a by-election last Thursday, July 1, five years on from her death.
Brendan’s "campaign of national unity" is being backed by organisations including Virgin Media O2, which paid for Sunday’s barbecue bash at Wapping.
The media giant has put aside £500,000 for the campaign, with grants of £1,000 for environment and community projects up and down the country to bring people together for “a more connected society”.
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