Thanks to a recent Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) award of £44,900, the residents of Church Street, North Westminster will soon be working with local charity Vital Regeneration to learn about and get involved in conserving the rich history of their local neighbourhood.

Vital Regeneration’s ‘TimeFrame’ project teams culture with learning, participation and conservation.  This community focused initiative will explore the contrasting cultural heritage of Church Street, focusing on its changing patterns of diversity during the post-war period.

Angela McConville, Chief Executive at Vital Regeneration said; “We are really looking forward to working with a team of 20 young ‘heritage fresh’ local volunteers.  Our ultimate aim is to see the volunteers evolve into local historians, so that by the end of the project they will be equipped to communicate the heritage of their own, ever evolving, community”.

The charity will select young people, aged 13 to 19, who have never before engaged with their local heritage and help them to capture, record, archive and share the experiences of a range of local people, spanning different age groups and ethnic backgrounds.  Information gathered by the team will be collated and shared with the local community and wider audiences.  It will contribute to the collection at the Westminster Archives, be exhibited at local community settings and feature at artistic venues across London. 

Angela continues; “Having worked in this neighbourhood for more than 15 years, we know that Church Street has a vibrant and diverse history.  We are delighted to have the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to use this local history as an inspiring and engaging hook for young people – into learning, into volunteering and most importantly into an active and positive relationship with their local community”. 

Ends

Notes to Editors:

For press enquiries, images and interviews please contact: rash@vitalregen.org

About TimeFrame

The Church Street community in north Westminster is an inner-city London neighbourhood that has a distinct character because of its rich and diverse cultural and ethnic histories.  At the centre of this community is a vibrant local market on Church Street that reflects this rich heritage.  It is a place where new arrivals intermingle with longstanding residents, some with family histories dating back 100 years.

There are more than 30 languages spoken locally.  The neighbourhood has a higher proportion of residents from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups (BAME) than the London average.  It has a significant number of people from Arabic and Bengali speaking communities.  The Pupil Level Annual School Census 2009 identified the main home languages of primary and secondary school pupils as 27% speaking Arabic, 22% Bengali/Sylheti and only 19% speaking English as their main home language.

The Church Street area as we know it today is about to undergo another period of major structural change.  Recently, Westminster City Council established a new ‘master plan’ for the long-term redevelopment of Church Street which aims to regenerate the area.  Called ‘The Futures Plan’ it sets out to improve services, transport links, accessibility and local housing.  This represents the start of another period of significant managed change.

 All this history and regeneration will be explored and captured by volunteers partaking in the ‘Timeframe’ project.

 About Vital Regeneration

Vital Regeneration is a registered charity working to transform London's most deprived neighborhoods.  They develop social, environmental and economic programmes, so that people and communities fulfill their potential through learning, employment and enterprise.  Their vision is for everyone to have equal expectations and opportunities in life and not to be seriously disadvantaged by where they live.

For more information about Vital Regeneration please visit: www.vitalregeneration.org

 About Heritage Lottery Fund

Using money raised through the National Lottery, the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) sustains and transforms a wide range of heritage for present and future generations to take part in, learn from and enjoy.  From museums, parks and historic places to archaeology, natural environment and cultural traditions, we invest in every part of our diverse heritage.  HLF has supported 30,000 projects, allocating £4.7billion across the UK, including just over £893million in London alone.  Website: www.hlf.org.uk.