Recent Projects
Eastside Community Heritage Digital Archive Consultation
Eastside Community Heritage collects people's stories about working and living in London. We are looking to not only make our collections (of recorded accounts, photos and videos), from our Hidden-History archive available online, but also enable people to create their own displays, education resources, presentations, and art works to share with others.
In order to do this, we are asking people a few questions to help us design some additional facilities for our website, which will be helpful to use. The survey should take less than a minute to complete.
A Home Fit To Live In
A Home Fit To Live In shares new oral history interviews from Canning Town residents recalling their memories of home from the 1950s to the 1970s, and celebrates Canning Town as a historic centre of housing standards innovation. This project is made possible by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
We delivered oral history training to 7 volunteers, who then conducted oral history interviews with local people. The quotations, sound clips, and photographs used in this website and exhibition are taken from these interviews. We are also honoured to share paintings from Canning Town-born artist Terence Claydon, who paints his memories of growing up in the area in the 1950s and 60s.
We held a launch event at Custom House and Canning Town Neighbourhood Community Centre and Library in January 2024, where people could see the new exhibition, Terence Claydon's paintings, and share memories with each other.
Black History Month Resources
Listen to our new podcast celebrating Sisterhood at School 360 for Black History Month, to hear from Co-Headteacher Andrea Silvain and Senior Administrator Charmaine Blake about their experiences as Black women working in education.
Download our PowerPoint display which shares photographs from our archive of Black women living in London throughout the decades.
Shared Stories: Unlocking hidden history
Eastside Community Heritage has received a £250,000 grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund for an exciting heritage project, “Secrets shared: Unlocking hidden history”, in London. Made possible by money raised by National Lottery players, the project focuses on enabling online access to oral histories, photos, videos and memorabilia, provided by individuals living and working in London from 1915 to the present day.
As well as enabling anyone to access the Hidden-History archive online, the project will also provide training to a range of communities and schools on how to search the archives, and use innovative tools to select contents for creating their own displays, as well as educational and reminiscence activities.
To find out more, download our press release below or email office@ech.org.uk.
South Asian Heritage Month: Stories To Tell
Our new exhibition Stories To Tell celebrates the stories of South Asian women living in Newham, members of Ekta Project, for South Asian Heritage Month. Ekta Project is a charity and community group that brings Asian elders living in Newham together. We enjoyed a wonderful exhibition launch held at Trinity Centre, where Ekta meet regularly, with food, music and dancing.
See a digital version of the exhibition below and visit our project website to see more.
Close Knit
This project spotlights the personal histories of crafters in Newham, celebrating their heritage, creativity, and skill in crafts that have often been overlooked due to associations with women and domesticity. Working closely with community groups in Newham, we ran oral history interviews with 20 craftswomen skilled in all kinds of crafts, from lacemaking to woodburning. We are currently working on an exhibition website to share clips and photographs from the project, and have two upcoming workshops for Women's History Month in March inspired by the project.
All interviews and transcripts from the project are held in our public archive. Email office@ech.org.uk to arrange a visit.
Peacock Tapestry made by Hazel's grandmother, Mrs Marcus, early 1960s. The transfer design for this was purchased from The Needlewoman Store in Regents Street. An accomplished needlewoman Mrs Marcus crocheted, knitted, embroidered and was a professional hand finisher in the family furriers.
Photo donated by Hazel Goldman.
Peacock embroidery made by Hazel's mother, Doreen Goldman, 1980s.
Photo donated by Hazel Goldman.
Teachers' Resource Centre
We are excited to announce the launch of our Teachers' Resource Centre! We welcome teachers to use our archival
resources to incorporate local history and heritage into lesson plans.
Each month, we will offer resources to mark a historic date or history month. We plan to develop this programme
further to best suit our teachers and students, so would love your feedback and suggestions!
Our resource centre includes:
- Digital photographs
- PDFs of our exhibitions
- Selected sound clips from oral histories
- Podcasts
- Videos
- Transcripts of oral histories
- Access to our library
Open Tuesdays to Thursdays, 10am - 5:45pm.
Please email
us to book your timeslot.
Remembering Marks Gate and North Chadwell Heath Project
Our project Remembering Marks Gate and North Chadwell Heath explores the recent history of the area, as told by the people who live there. In partnership with North Meets South, we collected oral history interviews with local people, who recalled their memories and experiences of both areas, from the end of the Second World War to the present day. Once small hamlets surrounded by countryside, Marks Gate and North Chadwell Heath have seen major changes over the past century.
Over summer 2022, we ran workshops at The Warren School about the heritage of Marks Gate and North Chadwell Heath, using our oral histories to share what life was like in Marks Gate and North Chadwell Heath in the 1950s and 60s. We later ran workshops with community groups in the area to co-design a pop-up exhibition, coming out in December 2022. We have now released the project digitally on a project website.
Visit the website to find out more!
Tubular Bells and Copper Flowers Project
Our Tubular Bells and Copper Flowers Project tells the story of the volunteer performers in the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Opening Ceremonies. In oral histories, they describe their extraordinary experiences of these historic events, from the audition process to the impact of the Ceremonies in Newham.
During the Spring of 2022, we ran a series of creative workshops with community groups around Newham in which we shared our sound clips and photos to inspire artwork based on memories of the 2012 Opening Ceremonies. The artworks made in our workshops later featured on banners we designed to celebrate the 10th anniversary of London 2012, which were displayed in parks around Newham over the summer and featured in the 'Celebrating 10 years' festival in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
This autumn, we launched our exhibition made from the volunteers' oral histories and photographs. We held a launch event at the View Tube cafe in the Olympic Park, where visitors could see our exhibition and take our guided walk, in partnership with London Unseen, exploring the fascinating heritage of the Olympic Park.
Temporary Telephone: 07411 536339 Email: office@ech.org.uk
Eastside Community Heritage, School 360, Sugar House Lane, Stratford, London, E15 2QS
Registered charity (1071668) and company limited by guarantee (3509623)