Still Digging Where We Stand

Apologies for the prolonged bloggage silence.  Things have been busy here at Dig Where We Stand.  In a good way!

We have been awarded further funding by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and are working to support the following groups with their HLF All Our Stories projects:

• ALDATERRA – the Living Archaeology of the Place
• Welwyn Archaeological Society
• Friends of Windmill Gardens – Mill Memories
• The Paddington Arts – ‘Cultural Heritage of North Paddington’
• East Finchley Community Trust – ‘Martin School – our school, our story’
• Grove Park Community Group – Grove Park heritage and literary trail.
• Jewish Cultural Centre – JEWISH EAST END
• Hoxton Hall – Shoreditch Storybank
• Mental Fight Club – the Spirit of Southwark
• Narrative Eye – Black People in Tudor England
• IROKO Theatre – Homage to Canning Town African Ancestors
• The Cinema Museum, Community Curators – local cinema heritage
•  Bexley Heritage Trust, Under your feet’ – exploring the Hidden Landscape at Hall Place
• Jacksons Lane, A Borough United
• Coin Street Centre Trust – Heritage sights and sounds
• Catch-22 – Stories of Becontree

A trip to the Cinema Museum

Last week, Chris O’Rourke made his way to the Cinema Museum to join in with one of their events:

“I helped out at a Study Day for the ‘Picture Palaces’ project, which took place at the Cinema Museum.

For anyone who hasn’t been there, the Cinema Museum comprises a huge collection of objects to do with all aspects of filmgoing. It’s housed in what was once the Lambeth Workhouse, where Charlie Chaplin spent time as a child. Now the building is jammed wall-to-wall with film posters, projection kit, tip-up seats, ushers’ uniforms, and film memorabilia – most of it purchased or salvaged by the museum’s founders, Ronald Grant and Martin Humphries.

The ‘Picture Palaces’ project, which is being funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund’s ‘All Our Stories’ strand, aims to draw attention to the local cinema heritage around Elephant and Castle and Kennington. Community curators, led by Abigail Tripp, are planning a series of events, building up to an exhibition later in the year, as well as collecting memories of filmgoing from Lambeth residents.

The Study Day was the first chance for volunteers and members of the local community to meet and swap ideas for the project. There were nine different ‘stations’ laid out around the museum’s massive central hall for people to visit. Each one was set up to introduce different skills, like sound editing and oral history interviews, and to give information about useful resources like historic maps, old photographs of the area, and material relating to Chaplin’s life in South London. I was chatting to people about archives and online resources for finding out about London’s cinema history. There was also another UCL researcher there (Dr Linda Thomson) looking into the benefits of heritage projects for people’s wellbeing.

The day was a great way to learn more about the area and to hear stories about growing up and going to the pictures in Lambeth. There are plans afoot for more ‘Picture Palaces’ events soon, including field trips to some of the area’s old cinema and music hall venues.”

It’s a great project and we are really happy to be supporting it.

 

 

 

Participants mapping old cinemas at the ‘Picture Palaces’ study day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next week: Dig Where We Stand go back to school…