What is Heritage?

When you hear the word ‘heritage’ what do you picture? Old buildings? Family ancestry and genealogy charts? Museum exhibits? All of these ideas are true, but there’s so much more to this word. From broad concepts like food, music, language, and natural landscapes, to individual forms like embroidery, football, and open-air markets, heritage encapsulates more than just ‘history’. In short, heritage is the process of how and why people today care about the past; how the past is actively used, negotiated and renegotiated in the present and for the future. Heritage is frequently separated into cultural and natural (e.g. Rom Skatepark vs. Bedfords Park), and tangible and intangible (e.g. a listed theatre building vs. a traditional dance). However, these distinctions are not always useful as cultural, natural, tangible, and intangible heritage are regularly tangled together.

How is ‘heritage’ decided?
Heritage is often a top-down process, with experts facilitating what from the past should be highlighted in the present. Examples include international organisations such as UNESCO, where to be eligible for the World Heritage List a site must have ‘outstanding universal value’ and meet a number of established selection criteria. While this type of professional-led heritage selection can make sense in certain contexts, in general, what is considered heritage should be constantly defined (and redefined) by community public voices. This means not everyone will agree on what is heritage, what is important, what should be saved, or what should be destroyed. The goal is not for unanimous agreement, but to create ongoing conversations.

Uncovering Havering’s Heritage
Do you live or work in Havering, or actively engage with its communities? We’re looking to uncover and share Havering’s heritage and want to hear your ideas! As a starting point, it’s helpful to think about what makes Havering home – what makes it exciting, comforting, creative, historic, diverse, fun? There will be upcoming projects about this heritage, how we define it, and how we share it. If you’re interested in joining future projects please contact alyssa@haveringlondon.com.