Art & Culture
Newham Heritage Month Returns This May
This year’s events and activities have been created by the local community to bring the fascinating stories of Newham’s heritage to life. The month-long celebration will take place predominantly online, with free events and activities every week.
This year’s festival takes the theme of ‘Shops, Docks and Factories – Newham’s urban heritage’ embracing the rich history of industry, innovation and creativity in Newham. The festivities will explore the businesses, places and the people that make Newham an exciting, friendly and welcoming place to live, with artist-led heritage projects on topics ranging from ground-breaking underground record stores to history-making factory-workers.
The festivities will also celebrate the heroes of industry, innovation and creativity at every level, from honouring our corner shops and family-run curry houses, to paying tribute to the huge factories and docks which formed Newham’s landscape in the last century.
Newham Heritage Month takes place throughout May with The Royal Docks hosting several events and activities that celebrate the areas unique history. From theatre performances and walking trails to animation workshops and brickmaking, here are our top picks:
Saturday 8th May
Counter Culture: Animation Workshop Celebrating Newham’s Corner Shops
Delve into the wonderful world of stop motion animation in this fun, interactive and practical workshop inspired by Newham’s legendary corner shops and their communities taking place online.
Free places are available here
Thursday 13th May
Illustrating Cody Docks: Online Poster Making Workshop
In this illustration workshop, aimed at young participants aged 14+, will explore the history and heritage of the factories that once resided at Cody Dock.
Register Now
Saturday 15 May
12-4pm
Wonderful Women of Newham
Join us on this weekend to take part in our new self-led walking trails Wonderful Women of Newham. The trails are designed for all the family to enjoy with activities along the way. Explore the local area and stories of the suffragettes, shopkeepers linked to the area in the 19th and 20th centuries, with hidden histories of women who lived and worked in the area.
For details on how to take part in the trails, click here
11am – 12.30pm
Draughtboard Alley: Photography Talk and Workshop
This is a lively and interactive online workshop exploring migration and heritage; participants will gain an insight into the lives of a community of mixed-raced families who lived in Canning Town in the early 20th Century.
Free places are available here
Thursday 27th May
Photography at Cody Docks: Workshop for Young People
This workshop created for young participants aged 14+, will explore the history and heritage of the factories that once resided at Cody Dock.
Saturday 29 May 10am & 1pm & Sunday 30 May 11am & 2pm
Brickfield Newham: Hands-on Outdoor Brickmaking and Short Performance
At this outdoor workshop in the Royal Docks, you will learn how to mix clay dug from the borough with local industrial materials to create a unique clay body for brickmaking. Work alone or team up with a partner to see how many you can make!
This project is a collaboration between the University of East London, V&A East, Victoria & Albert Museum Research Institute and Brickfield.
To book your free place, click here
Saturday 29 May 8-10pm & Sunday 30 May 8-10pm
Brickfield Newham: Theatre Performances about Brick, Heritage and Living in Newham
UEL’s MA students in Performing Arts present twilight performances set around a live fired kiln in an industrial courtyard. Based on their findings into histories of brick, brick building and dwelling in the borough, and using the humble brick as the object of performance, students explore connections between building methods of the past and our present infrastructure
This project is a collaboration between the University of East London, V&A East, Victoria & Albert Museum Research Institute and Brickfield.
To book your free place, click here
Newham Heritage Month takes place from the 1 – 31 May with an action-packed schedule for all the family to enjoy. Other projects include:
- Crate Digging: The influence of De Underground Records
- Newham’s Wonderful Working Women
- Stories of Africans Living in Newham
- Drawing Woodgrange Road, Past and Present
- Heritage Heroes of Newham
- J D McDougall: Newham’s Best Kept Secret
- Roots of the Curry House
- Darning Newham
- Connecting the Past to the Present – A Photographic Journey
- Creative Shopping around Newham Markets
- Voice of the Dragon: Sharing our Heritage
- Madge Gill – East London Textiles
- Shops, Docks and Factories – A Musical Celebration
- Movies and Memories
For the full listings of events and activities please visit: https://www.newhamheritagemont... Heritage Month is funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund and The Royal Docks Team.
