Recent Projects
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.
A Home Fit To Live In
A Home Fit To Live In focuses on home and housing in Canning Town in the 1960s and 70s. Made possible by The National Lottery Heritage Fund with a grant of £10,000, Eastside will interview Canning Town residents about what life was like living in Canning Town at that time. These oral histories will be added to Eastside’s public archive and form the basis for an exhibition, website, and series of workshops with community groups and young people, to preserve and celebrate the historic role of Canning Town in housing policy and improved living conditions.
At the end of Kildare Road, there is a string of 39 homes that seem ordinary at first glance, but house an important history. These homes, completed in 1964, were built as a testbed for the Parker Morris standards, an innovative new housing policy centred around improving space and living standards. This experiment was successful in influencing changes in housing policy and design – the standards became mandatory for all new town builds in 1967 and all council houses in 1969. Eastside is seeking to interview Canning Town residents, especially those who lived around Kildare Street, Beaconsfield Estate, Addington road, Pretoria, Birch close and Sycamore Close, about their experiences of home and housing in the 1960s and 70s. Eastside also offers the opportunity for 6-8 volunteers passionate about heritage to undergo oral history training and work on the project.
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.
Telephone: 0208 5533 116 Email: office@ech.org.uk
Eastside Community Heritage, School 360, Sugar House Lane, Stratford, London, E15 2QS
Eastside Community Heritage, Trinity Centre, East Avenue, East Ham, London, E12 6SG
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