Heritage
Heritage connects us with our identity, our sense of self, wellbeing and belonging. In developing our winning bid for London Borough of Culture, thousands of conversations highlighted how deeply cultural heritage matters to our communities.
In 2024, a study by Historic England affirmed what many already know - Wandsworth’s historic parks, buildings, and monuments contribute to making it one of the happiest places to live.
We are working closely with local heritage partners, charities, national museums and heritage institutions, Roehampton University and the Wandsworth Heritage Service on a range of projects that celebrate the rich and diverse heritage of the borough, as well as support young people into heritage careers.
Our Music Our Freedom
Memory Boxes
Memory Boxes for Dementia, in partnership with the University of Roehampton and local organisations, will bring Wandsworth’s rich heritage collection into care homes and community spaces. These bespoke interactive time capsules—filled with sensory objects, archive materials, and recordings—will be used to spark connection, trigger memories, and support wellbeing for people living with dementia.
Wandsworth Heritage Festival
Nominations open for the Wandsworth Green Plaque Scheme 2025
Help us to commemorate the borough’s important and historic people, places, events and buildings.
Have Your Say: Nominate Locally Listed Buildings
This consultation provides the opportunity for you to tell us what buildings, spaces or features are important or significant to your local area or community and why. At present, many existing entries do not have descriptions or assessments of local importance, and this consultation seeks to address this. The responses collected from this consultation will be used to update the local list for the Borough by providing descriptions of each site and a summary of their local importance. We will also recommend new entries where they meet the criteria. Further information on the Borough’s local list can be found by clicking on the tile below titled ‘What is a Local List?’.
We are keen to ensure that the list reflects the full diversity of the borough and those parts of its history which have maybe not been fully recognised or represented already. Examples of sites on the local list are below and can include landscapes, buildings and structures.
Share Your Story with Story Catchers
Are you a Global Majority person aged 65 or over with experience of living or working in Wandsworth?
Story Catchers is a cultural heritage project that gives young Global Majority creatives from Wandsworth the opportunity to document the voices and memories of African, Caribbean and South-Asian elders within the borough. These oral histories will be added to Wandsworth’s archives and preserved for future generations, as part of Wandsworth's legacy as London Borough of Culture 2025. Through interviews with community members, the Story Catchers will record and preserve individual stories and lived experiences using audio, film and photography.
Key areas of interest for interview topics include: how religion and culture shape identity in the diaspora particularly within Sikh communities, stories of migration from Southeast Asian communities, spotlighting local African/Caribbean food business owners and market vendors and the lives and stories of South Asian women in Wandsworth.
What taking part will involve:
- Meeting with a Story Catcher for an initial introduction
- Arranging a time for the main interview to be recorded
- Granting permission for your story to be preserved in Wandsworth's archives, with the option to opt out if needed.
- Receiving a £30 supermarket voucher as a benefit-in-kind for your participation as an interviewee.
All participants will be treated with the utmost respect and consideration.
If you're interested or would like to learn more, please contact: creativewandsworth@wandsworth.gov.uk