New Heritage Project

From Waterloo Bridge, image by Charlotte Frearson

Social enterprise Coin Street Community Builders has received a Heritage Lottery Fund grant to run an inter-generational community project to explore local history and heritage in the Waterloo area in London. The project, Waterloo Sights and Sounds, aims to investigate and document changes to the urban and social landscape using photographs, oral histories, audio description and soundscapes to build a multifaceted picture of Waterloo’s ever-changing environment, community and culture.

Laura Reynolds, Community Programmes Manager says:

There will be a variety of talks, walks and workshops looking at archaeology, architecture and community involvement in the area. Using digital media as our main exploration tools, we aim to reach people of all ages and backgrounds, creating accessible, interactive resources for all. We’re thrilled to receive this grant – a focus on heritage is particularly important to our local community because Waterloo is a rapidly changing area with a rich and varied history, and many largescale developments are planned for the near future. Like many areas of central London, it retains original buildings from historical eras including churches, factories, schools and the riverside. Exploring these will develop understanding of the processes of urban change, creating a platform for information-sharing and debate, informing future developments through knowledge of the past and how it can be recognised and used to shape the future”

Waterloo Sights and Sounds will be centred on community involvement, with participants given the opportunity to help plan, develop and deliver activities from the start. The project will culminate in an interactive exhibition in Autumn 2013, showcasing research, information, memories and soundscapes aimed at everyone from children through to older people. Selected resources will be collated for use in local primary and secondary schools; learnings will also be shared with the Imperial War Museum and Morley College, as well as local libraries and archives.

Waterloo Sights and Sounds follows Coin Street’s previous HLF project, Living Memory, feedback from which indicated a strong desire by community members to continue discovering their local heritage. Heritage activities form part of a wider programme of community activities for local people of all ages delivered by Coin Street Community Builders.