Clapham’s new shopping bag. Image by Louise Haywood-Schiefer.

Clapham locals are being urged to purchase a newly launched, environmentally friendly, shopping bag, with profits aimed to help upkeep a local homeless charity.

The shopping bag is a collaboration between ‘This Is Clapham’, a not-for-profit organization aiming to promote Clapham, and the London based designer Jenni Sparks. The idea is that the shopping bag, which is being sold for £10, will attract attention to the good causes that it supports, while representing the personality of Clapham.

Jeremy Keates, a representative for This Is Clapham, said: “The shopping bag basically ticks all the boxes. It’s reusable, made of organic cotton, and supports a prominent local charity which we very much believe in the importance of”.

For every bag bought, £1 is donated to ‘Ace of Clubs’, a local homeless charity on St. Alponsus Road. The charity offers safe shelter, food, warmth, clothing, laundry services, and hot showers to the homeless, socially isolated and those living in vulnerable circumstances.

The shopping bag intends to encourage locals to quit buying plastic supermarket bags to spare the environment from the excessive, unnecessary use of plastic.

“Our thought is that people can support two great causes, with a designer fashion item that truly represents what Clapham is all about” Keates added.

Sparks has featured cultural institutions, famous buildings and celebrated landmarks of Clapham onto the shopping bag. Amongst the art are drawings of the clock tower of Clapham, the tube station roundels, the park Clapham Common, and several references to the lively music and arts scene.

Sparks has previously collaborated with This Is Clapham, producing a hand drawn cultural map that is both used on the agency’s website as well as on leaflets distributed to visitors of Clapham.

The bag can be bought online via the This Is Clapham website: https://www.thisisclapham.co.uk/product/this-is-clapham-shopping-bag/.