Thank you to everybody who has signed here. This petition is the biggest and most effective argument we have to persuade Greenwich Council and the Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust that things have to change - and that if we all work together costs can be kept down.
We are expecting a new plan from the Trust to be put out soon and then it will go to a Council Scrutiny Panel. We will report to you all on that.
Meanwhile the issue has got all tangled up with the Council's bid to be the London Borough of Culture - they didn't get it but they were a 'Mayor’s Cultural Impact Award' winner. They’ll get up to £200,000 to deliver a project -which I think is planned as a collection of life stories of residents.
Meanwhile - below we've put a report and some comments from the Greenwich Industrial History Facebook Page.
and so - Carry on signing - or rather getting all your friends and relations to sign
THE COUNCIL- THE MUSEUM AND THE ARCHIVE
Richard Buchanan writes ..................
"At the last Greenwich Planning Alliance/Borough of Greenwich Planning meeting, future work in the department was discussed. 'Heritage' was mentioned and changes to 'Developer Engagement Practice'. The scope of what was in mind was not described, but the Greenwich Heritage Centre was almost certainly not included.
Developers of major projects should be made aware that the Royal Borough is in need of a permanent premises to house its Borough Archive and Museum (temporally, sans museum, at Anchorage Point) preferably in single location. This could be in two or three floors of a large building, and constitute their S106 (or whatever) provision.
The Leisure Centre now being built in Woolwich (bringing with it a clutch of oversize tower blocks to pay for it) is a case in point.
Greenwich Industrial History Society, together with the Greenwich History Society and other similar bodies across the Borough, have suggested the Greenwich Heritage Centre could be re-established at the:
- the whole area between Bathway and Calderwood Street in Woolwich, which includes the 'Old Town Hall'
- Borough Hall, Greenwich (this is not the section which has just got planning permission for flats- its the big hall, and the old Met.Borough Council suite and some offices)
- Within the Royal Artillery Barracks when the MOD leaves.
Support for the Greenwich Industrial History Society petition for the Greenwich Heritage Centre has now passed 2300.
Mary Mills adds.....................
I have been talking to Council officers, stressing need for the Archive to allow browsing. And also the Museum should be restored to reflect local achievement and diversity.
The Council have press released their 'consolation prize' win, having not won the Year of Culture bid. They say:
"We are very pleased that we won an award from the London Borough of Culture process. The very first time the Council had succeeded in doing so. Our bid was all about local people telling their own stories and now we have won a secondary prize for a project to be delivered in 2026, we will be rescoping the project and will announce more details in due course.
And another contributor ..........................
Thank you , I am sure that for many of us, the time to access these invaluable archives to our ancestors who shaped the Greenwich, Charlton and Woolwich areas is fast running out. I would hope that a speedy solution by a Borough which has been granted with a Royal status is actioned without delay.
And - thanks to the History Mill for tagging all of this.
And THANK YOU OUT THERE EVERYBODY WHO SUPPORTS THIS PETITION