Lewisham Heritage

On Saturday 13 June at 12:30pm - as part of Lewisham Libraries' day-long event Raises Voices - join us for a Q&A with F***y Chiarello, writer, musician, and author of the ever-expanding compendium Basta Now: Women, Trans & Non-Binary in Experimental Music. In this extensive artist index, Chiarello documents and gives voice to artists who have historically been marginalised within experimental and avant-garde music scenes, challenging dominant narratives and rethinking who gets heard.

Chiarello will discuss the making of Basta Now, her approach to storytelling, and the political importance of documenting alternative musical histories. The event will explore experimental music as a site of resistance, collaboration, and possibility, as well as the intersections of gender, creativity, and cultural access.

This Q&A offers an opportunity to reflect on listening practices, visibility, and the need for inclusive archives of sound and practice.

Book via the link in our bio above.

F***y Chiarello is the author of novels, poetry and children's literature, edited by numerous French publishers. She notably wrote A happy woman, telling one month in New York with Meredith Monk. Basta Now (Women, Trans and Non-Binary in Experimental Music) is her first essay, and her first book in English; it has been released on Permanent Draft, a music label dedicated to finta* artists that she cofounded with Valentina Magaletti. Her work around Basta Now also takes the form of a column in a French quarterly dedicated to avant-garde music, Revue & Corrigée, a show on LYL Radio and an Instagram account, - a daily rendez-vous with a finta* musician.

On Sunday 31 May at The Bear Church in Deptford, the Heritage Lottery funded project Educating Deptford unveiled a Lewisham Council Maroon Plaque, celebrating the history of the Deptford Ragged School and it's later iterations, The Princess Louise Institute and Shaftesbury Christian Centre.

The Deptford Ragged School was founded in 1844, twenty-seven years before the State began providing education for all children. It was started in a loft over a cowshed by eight Christian men and women as a Day School and Sunday School.

Between 1844 and 2022, the educational institute grew, adapted, changed names and buildings several times, whilst the core values and aims of the Deptford based organisation remained consistent.
 
In 1953 the former Ragged School became part of the Shaftesbury Christian Society, and in 2007, the Society merged with The Bear Church, an independent church which began in an old public house on Deptford High Street in 1990. Today, The Bear Church and its charitable arm The Deptford Ragged Trust have redeveloped the school's Frankham Street site so that it can serve Deptford with events space, affordable rented housing for 18 to 30-year-olds, a cafe, a museum archive, and a new home for the Church.

The Lewisham Maroon Plaque installed on the Church facade serves to acknowledge this continuation of charity, support, and education through time, and to highlight a powerful part of our shared social and community history here in the borough.

Educating Deptford’s unveiling curtain included painted handprints by children from the current Bear Cubs toddler group, reflecting the Deptford Ragged School's historical engagement with the children of Deptford.

On Saturday 13 June The Bear Church will host a Community Heritage Festival, in celebration of the Educating Deptford project.

Slide 1) The Deptford Ragged School Maroon Plaque
2) The Bear Cubs curtain covering the plaque
3) Project manager Dr John Price giving a speech at the unveiling
4) Dr Katharine Alston and members of the Bear Cubs group unveiling the plaque
5) The plaque unveiled
6) Material from the Deptford Ragged School Archive
7) Flyer for Community Heritage Festival

Some examples of work from our collage and zine-making session at Deptford Lounge today.

Participants worked with copies of imagery and text from Arts Network's and Lewisham Heritage's respective archives to create new work in the spirit of Creativity and Wellbeing Week.

Thanks to all who took part!

Our Local Legacies:
Collage and Zine-Making Workshop

Wednesday 20 May, 11:30am - 1:30pm
Deptford Lounge, 9 Giffin Street, SE8 4RJ

Celebrate Creativity and Wellbeing Week and explore Lewisham’s arts and community histories through collage and zine-making at a free, relaxed workshop.

This year, Lewisham based charity Arts Network celebrate 30 years of reframing mental health and championing wellbeing through creativity in the borough. Join us to explore Arts Network's anniversary exhibition in Deptford Lounge and enjoy a creative session using Arts Network's and Lewisham's archives as source material.

[A zine (short for magazine or fanzine) is a handmade pamphlet that covers niche, personal, or unconventional topics].

Materials and refreshments will be provided. Free, booking required.

Images show a preview of some of the source material ready for tomorrow's collaging and zine-making.

The Broadway Theatre Catford presents a free lunchtime concert featuring The Compton Organ, Tuesday 23 June 1pm.

There will be a collection towards the organ's restoration. Today the Broadway's Compton (installed in 1932) is one of only four original theatre organs installed in its original venue and used regularly.

Arts Network are a Lewisham based charity who reframe mental health through creativity and community. 2026 marks their 30th anniversary.

To celebrate this landmark, and to mark Creativity and Wellbeing Week, Lewisham Heritage are joining Arts Network at Deptford Library next Wednesday for a free and relaxed collage and zine-making workshop.

Copies of images and documents from Arts Network and Lewisham Heritage's Archives will be your resource materials for creating new artworks, zines or booklets.

Join us in looking back at Arts Network's last thirty years in the borough, which now forms part of Lewisham's local history and heritage.

Free to attend. Materials and refreshments will be provided. Find more information in our bio.

Wednesday 20 May, 11:30am-1:30pm,
The Library at Deptford Lounge.

Book in the bio.

Images :

1) 2014. This mosaic was created by Arts Network members and the public. It was inspired by the statistic: ‘1 in 4 people will experience a mental health problem of some kind each year in the UK’.

2) 2025. ‘Collective Portals’ at Dulwich Picture Gallery, oil pastel on fabric.
In June-July 2025, Arts Network led workshops centring creativity and wellbeing at Dulwich Picture Gallery, inspired by the exhibition Gated Canyons by artist Rachel Jones. Over five weeks, participants added colour, marks, shapes, patterns, and drawings to this collective artwork, responding to the exhibition as well as to each others’ creations during the sessions. These workshops were open to both Arts Network members and the public, as part of an ongoing partnership with Dulwich Picture Gallery.

3) 2025. Mosaic. In July 2025, Arts Network took part in the Deptford X Festival by opening their studio to the public. This event provided a wonderful opportunity for the local community to learn about Arts Network, explore the work they have created over the years, and collaborate on a community mosaic. The mosaic was started by members of the public and later completed by Arts Network members.

1st May – a day when many traditions to mark the vitality of spring take place - is an opportune time to share this recent accession to the Lewisham Heritage collection, soon to be catalogued and made available to view by appointment.

This collection of photograph albums, scrap books, and paraphernalia documents the activities of The Wheatsheaf Morris during the 1970s-1980s. The Wheatsheaf Morris were a morris dance troupe who practiced in Brockley and performed both within the borough and at festivals across the country. The troupe took their name from the emblem of the cooperative movement - also suiting the dance tradition's associations with spring and fertility.

Slide 4 shows a newspaper clipping reporting on a May Day dance on Blackheath in the early 1970s, whilst slide 5 shows a certificate from Lewisham Music, Drama and Dance Festival 18 May 1973, where The Whatsheaf Morris won first place in the English Folk Morris Dances category.

Slide 1) Wheatsheaf Morris rosettes and photograph album
Slide 2) Black and white photo of three Wheatsheaf Morris members dancing on a road
Slide 3) A Handbook of Morris Dancing by Lionel Bacon
Slide 4) Newspaper clipping reporting on Blackheath May Day celebrations
Slide 5) Lewisham Music, Drama and Dance Festival certificate, 1973
Slide 6) Black and white photograph album and album documenting the Nine Daies Wonder tour, 1977.

Explore Lewisham’s community histories through collage and zine-making at a free, relaxed, creative workshop at Deptford Lounge on Wednesday 20 May.

As Lewisham based charity Arts Network celebrate 30 years of championing wellbeing and creativity in the borough, revisit and reinterpret examples of community resilience and ‘critical hope’ that live within our archives. Create new work inspired by moments from our shared histories.

Free to attend.

Materials and refreshments will be provided.

Find more information in our bio.

Wednesday 20 May, 11:30am-1:30pm,
The Library at Deptford Lounge.

22 April is Stephen Lawrence Day, championed by The Stephen Lawrence Day Foundation, which serves to foster a more equitable and inclusive society by creating opportunities for marginalised young people in the UK.

Stephen Lawrence was born in Greenwich. As a child he was a member of the 34th Woolwich Cub Scouts and attended Blackheath Bluecoat Secondary School. He was an aspiring architect, and in 1991 began a work placement at the Arthur Timothy architect firm. At the age of 18, on 22 April 1993, Stephen was murdered in an unprovoked racist attack in Eltham.

The long journey towards seeking justice for Stephen’s murder uncovered institutional racism within the Metropolitan Police. In 1998 Sir William Macpherson led a public inquiry into Stephen’s murder and the failed police investigation. “Nothing can compensate for the loss the family suffered in Stephen’s death at the hands of violent racists on 22 April 1993. His legacy must be the root and branch change that has to take place in society”, said Macpherson.

In 1999, The Home Office established the Lawrence Steering Group to monitor the implementation of the recommendations from the Macpherson Report. This pictured Conference Report documents a conference held at Lewisham Town Hall on 24 September 1999 to discuss implementation at a local level.

In 2007, the memorial and community hub named the Stephen Lawrence Centre opened on Brookmill Road, Deptford. The centre was designed by architect David Adjaye, and a Nubian Jak blue plaque dedicated to Stephen is mounted on its exterior wall. The centre now serves as the home of charity organisation Blueprint for All (formerly the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust), which continues to work with young people, communities, and organisations to create an inclusive society.

Images:

1) Nubian Jak Blue Plaque dedicated to Stephen Lawrence, Stephen Lawrence Centre, 39 Brookmill Road, SE8 4HU.
2) Stephen Lawrence Centre, 39 Brookmill Road, SE8 4HU. Courtesy Price & Myers.
3) Ending institutional racism. A conference on implementing the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report. Friday 24 September 1999. Lewisham Town Hall, Catford. (305.8 PAMPHLET).
4) Stephen Lawrence

Goldsmiths, University of London is currently running a series of free Community Lectures, every Wednesday 5-6:30pm in LG01, Stuart Hall Building. See below for listings and visit Goldsmiths University events page for more information.