Our Stories

Raphael Park, awarded to Eastside Community Heritage

Raphael Park has anchored Havering life for over a century, and this project captures its personal significance through the voices of local residents. Led by Eastside Community Heritage in partnership with Friends of Raphael Park, the project will gather oral history interviews and vox pops capturing memories. Residents will co-design collages printed onto an eco banner, displayed across the park railing alongside a pop-up exhibition and downloadable audio trail.

Trevor’s Stall, awarded to Rufus Boothe, Poppy Boothe and Sam Goodey

Trevor’s Stall tells the story of Trevor Boothe, a second-generation Windrush descendant, aspiring photographer turned market trader, and a beloved figure on Romford Market from the late 1970s through the 1990s. A family-led documentary directed by his grandchildren, the film traces Trevor’s Jamaican roots, his family’s arrival on the Empire Windrush, and the vibrant market culture that shaped a generation of Havering’s working-class young men. With contributions from playwright David Eldridge, who once worked on Trevor’s stall himself, and an original score by local musicians, the project culminates in a public screening at Lumiere Cinema.

Choral Traditions in Havering, awarded to Rebecca Amissah

Havering has been singing for over a century. From St Edward’s Church Choir, founded in 1915 and affiliated with the Royal School of Church Music since 1946, to gospel groups, hospital staff choirs and community sing-alongs, the borough has a rich and largely untold choral tradition. Professional singer and choir leader Rebecca Amissah is bringing these voices together for the first time. Drawing on decades of community music-making across Romford, she will unite five choirs including Gospel Essence, BHRUT Choir, St Edward’s Choir and The BIG Sing in a mass choral performance at St Edward’s Church, where Havering’s choral story began.

Pixels and Pioneers, awarded to Frances Bardsley Academy for Girls

Frances Bardsley Academy is the second oldest secondary school in Havering. As it approaches its 120th birthday in 2026, ten of its current students are going on a journey into its past. Working in partnership with Eastside Community Heritage and photographer Hannah Davies, the students will dig into FBA’s archive to uncover stories that have never been told. Students will research in archives, interview former pupils and staff, and use digital and creative skills to reimagine historical material in new ways. The stories gathered will be brought to life in an interactive exhibition at the Appleby Gallery, with a digital archive as its legacy.

Stories That Stay, awarded to Arts Outburst

Harold Hill was built as a post-war overspill estate, bringing families from inner London into a new suburban landscape. The everyday stories of the people who arrived, adapted and built a community are largely untold. Centred on Hilldene Shopping Centre and the surrounding Farnham Road area, this project will uncover and celebrate the lived histories of Harold Hill through the voices of the people who made it home. Over generations, Hilldene has been where people shopped, met, worked, grew up and built relationships. It is a place of continuity, familiarity and shared experience. Five to eight audio portraits will explore themes of arrival, identity and resilience in a moment of change as the area undergoes regeneration.

Village Voices, awarded to the National Trust at Rainham Hall

The project builds on Rainham Hall’s existing oral history programme, which has already gathered over 110 interviews, and will work in close partnership with Rainham Muslim Women’s Circle to document new communities arriving, settling and making Rainham their home. Village Voices will see the creation of oral history recordings and life-size photographic portraits platforming experiences of belonging across generations. The work will be launched as part of the Global Village event, supported by Essex Diversity Project.

Shout Book, awarded to Open Sound Music and Research

Over two and a half years, the Romford Ceilidh Band has delivered more than 150 free, open-access sessions built on the belief that folk should be accessible, feminist and anti-racist in practice. Anyone can attend, learn and join in regardless of experience. The weekly sessions close with a Shout, an hour of communal singing where songs are shared, debated and reshaped collectively, blending Essex traditions with global influences that reflect Havering’s evolving identity. This project will preserve that living tradition in a Shout Book: a vibrant community songbook featuring around 100 songs, each with lyrics, chords and a short narrative drawn from contributor interviews revealing the origins and meaning behind every piece.

The Stag at the Bus Stop, awarded to Jon Bilbrough

At 1am, an artist came face-to-face with a stag in the middle of the road. Elegantly poised beneath the streetlights of an East London bus stop – an image that has inspired this story. Havering is a gateway between the city and the forest, and nowhere is that more powerfully felt than at Dagnam Park. This project will see the creation of an original music composition drawing on the sounds of the forest and the recorded stories of the community that surrounds Dagnam Park. In partnership with the Friends of Dagnam Park, Deer Aid, the park ranger and local residents, the project will also co-create an audio trail led by renowned nature expert and storyteller Chris Salisbury.

Life is Like a Dice, awarded to Ahava Community

For fourteen years, Ahava Community has sheltered over 2,100 people experiencing homelessness in Havering. This project honours that journey by inviting twenty-one past and present community members to share their stories through art and music. At its heart is a gold-leafed rotating dice sculpture, its six sides bearing 3D-printed impressions of participants, a symbol of fortune, fragility, and resilience. Each participant receives a miniature resin replica to keep. An exhibition at Hope Cafe will document the shelter’s history through the commissioned artworks.

Havering’s Hair Story, awarded to Lucy Pitman-Wallace

Havering’s hair salons are more than places to get a trim. They are spaces of belonging, confession and community. Through the facilitation of an experienced theatre director, this project will document memories of local residents’ hair journeys, gathering stories that span race, gender and age to transform this social history into a piece of theatre performed by five Havering residents at The Other Stage at Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch.

Nest, awarded to Roslyn Bilbrough 

Lining the path way of Havering Country Park, towering sequoia trees are a sight to behold, guarding the forest like giants from another age. Nest will is an original lullaby telling the story of how a family found refuge in these Redwood trees during COVID. A short film will narrate this this lullaby. Aimed at children and families the film covers themes around nature, letting go and slowing down. The film will be a magical, visual exploration of the Redwood trees through video footage and narration, moving into a recorded version of the song, involving local children participants, resting in dens and nests and potential animal puppetry. 

Sisters of Collier Row, awarded to Nikky Akinwande

Through a 5-minute documentary, three sisters will reflect on their childhood memories of growing up in Collier Row, sharing stories of local community spaces, schools, friendships and everyday experiences that influenced their confidence, ambitions and sense of identity. Although each followed different paths in life, there is a common thread that connects us: the impact of the place we called home. The documentary will be told through interviews with the three sisters, supported by archive photographs, family memories and visits to locations that hold personal significance. Together, these stories will create a portrait of a community that has quietly shaped generations of local residents.. 

Poetry Pantry, awarded to Serena Slack-Robins of S.M.I.L.E

‘Poetry Pantry’ will be a new play based on a community project at the charity ‘S.M.I.L.E. London & Essex’ on the High Street in Romford. ‘S.M.I.L.E. is a local charity helping families break the cycle of poverty and homelessness.’ Building on an established community creative writing club, service users of the pantry will be interviewed for insights into their lives and journeys to living in Havering. These verbatim interviews will be curated into a series of poetic monologues, interwoven with scenes from the daily activities of the S.M.I.L.E. The verbatim play will be an interactive experience where audience members are invited to join us as service users and volunteers to see the valuable work the charity provides and the human stories of our communities. 

Folk, awarded to James Bulley

‘Folk’ tells the story of Romford Market and its surrounding area’s history through the creation and recording of two timeless folk songs, drawing from in depth research into previously unrecorded local folk songs from the surrounding area. The songs tell the story of an imagined trio of musicians that came to the market alongside the traders and entertained its audiences over the last 779 years. Drawing on extant traditional folk music of the area, the project team will co-create, record and perform two new folk songs that carry on a vibrant tradition of folk singing and ballads that exists in Essex, unfolding the story of Romford Market, its musicians and its history. 

Hare Street Tours, awarded to Natalie Bays of Girls Do Tours

Hare Street’s proprietors, rebels and residents will be debunked, and its myths validated, from (now) Main Road’s powerful and tyrannical past. This project would produce a phenomenological history tour with the intention of supporting local residents to enjoy the place where they live. This important transitionary area between Essex and London is filled with stories of change that rarely have their profile raised, despite relevance. Filled with lords, landowners and nationally relevant architecture and coupled in modern history too with Exhibition Road. The research programme of this work would be with local consultation and oral history gathering from local residents and would aim to seek out diverse histories of the area too. In turn, guiding a local tour production to the parts of history most important to local people in this area.

A Guided Tour of St. Francis Hospice, awarded to Anita McCarthy

For more than 42 years, Saint Francis Hospice has been part of the fabric of Havering life. Every year, thousands of local people pass through the doors as individuals who need palliative or end-of-life care, carers, loved ones, volunteers, supporters and staff. Yet many of the stories connected to the hospice remain untold. This project will preserve and celebrate these stories through a community-led video that explores Saint Francis Hospice and its unique place within Havering-atte-Bower. Rather than telling the story through dates and milestones alone, we will take viewers on a guided walk through the hospice, its historic grounds and the surrounding village. Along the way, individuals under our care, carers, bereaved relatives, volunteers and supporters will share memories connected to specific places within the hospice and the wider community.

The Dagnem Idol, awarded to Joe Lichtenstein 

Four thousand years ago, someone pressed a small carved pine figure into the peat of these Thames-side marshes. We call it the Dagenham Idol now; it was lifted from the marsh just across the Beam, the river that gives Beam Park its name. This matters to Havering because Beam Park is usually told as a brand-new place with no past, yet has one of the deepest pasts in London. A series of workshops and interviews with Orchard Village and Beam Park residents will directly inform an original, hand-drawn animated film. Their voices and experiences will be an integral part of the film to be shared with Havering’s community.

Rainham Heritage Game, awarded to Lauren Gee of Dicing with Life

This project explores Rainham’s rich, underrepresented history as an agricultural powerhouse that once fed London, told through the story of the famous Rainham Lettuce. Local market gardeners pioneered early-season crops, and the Rainham Lettuce became a nationally prized crop known for its quality and early harvest. We will tell this story through the lens of a custom tabletop board game. The game will feature characters based directly on real historical figures—from 19th-century growers to market stallholders. By transforming historical research into interactive gameplay, we aim to reconnect Havering’s current community with the soil, history, and people that shaped the borough’s unique landscape. It celebrates Rainham’s agricultural identity in a fresh, playful, and intergenerational way.

We Exist, We Belong, awarded to Hannah Davis of Kaleidoscope 

We Exist, We Belong tells the story of LGBTQ+ people in Havering claiming visibility, safety, and joy in the public spaces that shape everyday life. This project responds to the feeling of being edited out of public life. Through the lens, we aim to capture what once was in Havering, and what is now for LGBTQ+ people. Through an editorial photography series made with local community members, the work will say clearly: we exist here, we belong here, and Havering is our home too. The photographs will celebrate real people (not models) showing up authentically, proudly, and loudly, creating a visual statement of belonging that is both defiant and hopeful. The series of photos will be accompanied by short clips capturing the photography alongside lived experiences of queer people in Havering. Documenting the evolution of the local queer scene.

The Cardrome, awarded to Lee Barham

The Cardrome Learner Centre on Upper Rainham Road has been a central point for learner drivers in Havering since 1955, marking over 70 years since it was first opened. It’s a commercial site much talked about because of how rare it is to allow learner drivers and under 17s to be able to try out their future driving skills on a 12 acre road simulation. Although not the first of its kind, its presence in Havering has formed a rite of passage for many different people within the community. From its past to present, the mapping of the Cardrome’s history, anecdotes from those that have used the Cardrome to help better their lives to those that are currently using it and allow me to be a part of their journey too. This project will be told through 4-5 stories stitched together as an anthology in a short film.