An invitation from Councillor Anyanwu

I am delighted to welcome you to the programme of events for the 2022 Lambeth Heritage Festival, taking place throughout the month of September. In the festival’s tenth year, a varied line up of over 40 events will represent our fantastic and diverse communities here in Lambeth.

I am passionate to ensure that the history of Lambeth’s people and places is shared widely, both with residents and with other Londoners, and is preserved for generations to come. This year there are a range of activities available for residents to get involved in, from talks, music and films to exhibitions, walks and workshops, uncovering local secrets and histories known often by few.

The festival also offers the occasion to discover the more unusual places, such as the new Lambeth Palace Library, Brixton Windmill, the Heathwall River or Brixton’s Blue Plaques. We also take this opportunity to celebrate the diversity that makes our borough the fantastic place it is, with events talking about the history of local Black, Muslim and Polish communities. Make sure to not miss the Lambeth Local History Fair at St John’s Waterloo Church on Saturday 3 September.

The Lambeth Heritage Festival really does showcase some of the best things that are taking place in Lambeth, and I look forward to celebrating our borough and its history with you.

I would like to thank Lambeth Archives and the Lambeth Local History Forum for bringing forward such an innovative programme of events.

I am very pleased to introduce you to the programme of events for this year’s Lambeth Heritage Festival which is happening throughout the month of September. Once again, its varied line up and attractive mix of events tries to offer something for everyone and seeks to reflect our diverse community here in Lambeth.

Preserving our own heritage and using it to help connect local people with the opportunities and challenges in Lambeth today is something that I am very keen about, and so I am really excited that Lambeth Archives and the Lambeth Local History Forum have put together such a rich and innovative programme.

One of the really important things that the festival does is to open up the histories of Lambeth’s peoples and places and to make them relevant and interesting for residents and visitors. With that in mind, there are talks, films, music, exhibitions, walks and workshops covering a whole spread of interests and from just about every geographical perspective: everything from Charlie Chaplin and Lambeth Music Hall to Victorian gardeners and orchid growers. For the more hands-on, there is a paper-cutting workshop in the National Trust’s smallest and only Lambeth house on the Wandsworth Road, as well as an urban sketching tour of Brixton.

One particular pleasure of the festival is the chance it offers to explore some of the hidden corners of our extraordinary borough. This year there will be tours of Brixton Market, Streatham crypt and graveyard, Norwood Cemetery, Brixton Windmill, Henry Tate’s gardens in Streatham, and one of Lambeth’s least-known museums, Clockworks in Norwood. Then there are the guided walks of particular areas and the quirkier walks exploring unusual aspects of our borough: a bat walk, botanical walks, walks along some of our underground rivers, and a Brixton tour in the footsteps of the Windrush generation.

There are over 40 different events to choose from with the opening event of the festival, the Lambeth Local History Fair, at Norwood Library on Saturday 2 September, with local society stalls, talks and walks.

I hope to see you there and at many other events during the month.