A New Malden architectural practice is celebrating 101 years of trading by volunteering the equivalent hours in the community, the Mountford Pigott 101 Initiative.

Mountford Pigott LLP (est. 1921) has empowered employees to take time out of their working day and contribute it to serving local initiatives. 

Liza McGrath, Finance Manager and Human Resources said: "This year we thought let's just get a bit closer to home and look at the community and see if we can find some local connections." 

Partners at the company have decided to commemorate the centenary of designing and delivering schemes (like Big Yellow storage units and a mixture of residential and commercial properties) with 101 hours of supporting the community.

Members of the firm have been coming down to support the Wellbeing Days on the Cambridge Road Estate (CRE) for the last few months, as well as helping out at the food bank every week. 

"There's good quality fresh food, everyone is really positive and friendly- the whole thing is like a little social," Ms McGrath said. "You don't always find that with food banks, sometimes it can be a bit depressing. It's not like that here." 

McGrath added it has become a "real buzz" around the office with coming down to help at the food banks. Her colleagues keep coming up to her to ask if they can volunteer and some of the partners have also lend a hand. 

"We've stumbled across on things we had no idea about," Ms McGrath said. "Stuff that's right under your nose." 

Ms McGrath said they were just over halfway through the hours, and she was looking forward to helping over the Christmas period. 

"It's introducing employees to charity connections in the local area as well so hopefully people will come next year- even outside of work," McGrath added. 

Now the company has made the connection, Ms thinks it will continue next year- even if it's just twice a month staff can come down to the food bank. She said: "I would like to keep it going anyway. 

"It's been an all-round benefit for everybody," McGrath said. 

Mountford Pigott 101 Initiative – Keep Britain Tidy along the River Wandle in Merton. (Photo: Mountford Pigott)

As well as aiding the CRE, the employees have got their hands dirty with litter picks in Merton and organised collections with the homeless charity St Mungo's. Mountford Pigott has got three fundraising collections lined up in October, outside Putney station. 

The company has also partnered up with the Air Ambulance charity in the last three years, after one of the partner's life was saved by the service. 

The next CRE Wellbeing Day is 3 October.