Welcome to the 2026 Lambeth Heritage Festival
Organised jointly by Lambeth Archives and the Lambeth Local History Forum, and now in its fourteenth year, the Lambeth Heritage Festival takes place at different venues across Lambeth throughout September and this year it offers over 80 events and activities, each with the shared aim of celebrating the history and heritage of our borough.
It is vital that Lambeth’s people and places is shared as widely as possible, with residents, communities and other Londoners. We all need to preserve the history of our borough for generations to come, as well as using it to help connect local people with the opportunities and challenges in the borough today. This year’s programme is rich and innovative, and the varied and attractive mix of events it contains offers something for everyone, as well as reflecting our diverse communities. This year, these include talks, author events, exhibitions, walks, building tours and children’s workshops, each uncovering different aspects of Lambeth’s collective histories.
The Local History Fair always takes place on the first Saturday of September. It moves around the borough and this year it is at Brixton library, with a full day of talks, walks, and building tours as well as stands and bookstalls. This year is also the 75th anniversary of the Festival of Britain on the South Bank, a local and national moment that will be celebrated and explored through an all-day event at St John’s church, Waterloo.
Among the festival’s quirkier offerings are an urban sketching tour of Brixton, night walks in Norwood Cemetery, a cycle ride along the course of the River Effra and a ‘mince’ around Vauxhall in the footsteps of Lily Savage. You can explore the hidden corners of our borough by joining tours of Brixton Market, St Leonard’s crypt, Lambeth Archives, the Clockworks or Lambeth Police Court Brixton Windmill, Henry Tate’s gardens at Park Hill and the National Trust’s smallest property, the home of the Kenyan poet Kenyan poet Khadambi Asalache on Wandsworth Road.
Lambeth Tour Guides Association members are offering a rich variety of themed walks, including Brixton’s Black Herstory, the Irish community of South London and artist tours of Stockwell and of Vauxhall and Kennington
Once again, the Lambeth Heritage Festival showcases some of the best things happening in Lambeth. I hope that you will find something of interest here and I look forward to celebrating our borough and its history with you.
Cllr Natalie Kane
Cabinet Member for Inclusion, Democracy and Culture.