An update on activities at Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust from board member and Charlton councillor Gary Parker:

I would like to update you on the work of the Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust (RGHT) which has been busy managing and developing their significant portfolio of Royal Borough of Greenwich heritage assets.

Much has taken place at the Trust over the last few month, and residents will be aware that Greenwich Heritage Centre i Woolwich closed its doors on 21 July to make way for Phase I of the Creative District development.

A new facility is in development with the Royal Borough of Greenwich with public access to a new Research Room. The Greenwich Archive Users Forum has been established and RGHT are working with the Forum to ensure access to the borough’s archive collections continues and can be enjoyed by many more residents in our community in the future. The Museum & Archive team are now based at Charlton House.

Pauline Watson, the archivist, has continued to deal with enquiries from the public by email and telephone since the closure of the Heritage Centre, and is looking forward to working with researchers in person again as soon as the new facility is up and running. At the moment she is carrying out some incredibly useful research into past repairs and maintenance of Charlton House since the 1920s, the Trust will be sharing some of its findings on its blog in the coming weeks. 

Layers of London

RGHT is providing the ‘Hub’ at Charlton House for a new project, Layers of London. Launched at an event last week, the project, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund in partnership with London Metropolitan Archive and University of London, aims to work with the community to record layers of ‘London’s rich past’. The first meeting at Charlton House saw a wide attendance, not only from the Charlton and wider Greenwich communities but from interested people across the south east. Some very interesting projects were shared at the meeting and anyone can take part by adding their story to the site. RGHT looks forward to seeing the content grow over the next two years as the project develops. 

Making Woolwich

The ‘Making Woolwich’ exhibition, from the Heritage Centre is the focus of the teams work now as they manage the redesign and relocation of the display to Woolwich Town Hall. This exhibition opened in December 2016 to celebrate the 300-year history of the Royal Artillery. Elements of this story will transfer to the Town Hall in November where new audiences can find out about the important story of the Royal Artillery in Woolwich and the men and women who have served in the Borough over the last 300 years. The rest of the Museum & Archive collections will not be mothballed during this period of closure. The Trust team will take this opportunity to develop a programme of exhibitions and events that will see the collections travel out into the community. 

WWI Centenary

As the centenary of the end of the First World War approaches RGHT has 4 Tommies’ from the There but not There project. If community groups are interested in loaning a Tommy for an event they can contact Edward@rght.org.uk for details. You can find out more about the First World War Victoria Cross recipients of the borough on the RGHT blog where each week the story of one of the four local heroes will be revisited. 

The new RGHT What’s On leaflet is now available. You can pick up a copy at Charlton House. You can also collect a copy of the Woolwich History Walk leaflet, designed and printed with a generous grant from the Ministry of Defence Community Covenant Fund. If you can’t drop into Charlton House, you can download the leaflet here www.greenwichheritage.org/visit/woolwich-history-walks. Alternatively, if you would like to take part in the walk or would like copies of either the adult or family version for your group please contact office@rght.org.uk and copies can be sent to you for display. 

I will publish a further report early in 2019.

Best Wishes, Cllr Gary Parker

The Charlton Champion is keen to know: do you use or visit Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust facilities? What do you think of their current plans? What could they be doing, and what are they are getting right (or wrong)? Let us know in the comments below (but keep it constructive, please!)

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