Wandsworth Town is a place with a long history of welcoming new communities. From the Huguenots and Quakers of the 17th century, to residents and businesses in New Acres making Wandsworth their home today – a sense of belonging is essential to the place’s identity and has shaped the evolution of the settlement through history.
For this year’s London Festival of Architecture, we were able to share this lesser-known heritage with a London-wide audience. Locally, partners across the cultural and community sectors built valuable new connections, strengthening local community capacity and bringing new audiences to Wandsworth Town.
Over the month of June, 30 events took place across the neighbourhood. These activities demonstrated how partnership working can create impactful interventions that connect people to place and to one another.
The programme was initially built around core insights gathered from previous engagement work in the town centre. Residents had called for better links and connections , more activity in underused spaces, greater recognition of local heritage and more opportunities for young people. LFA came at the perfect time for us and our partners to respond to these priorities together and test new ideas through collaboration and commissioning.
The development of the Festival was ultimately shaped however by the ambitions and insights of our local partners. They asked:
- How can public spaces foster community?
- How can culture help people connect to their neighbourhood?
- And how can public art help both new and long-standing residents feel that they belong?
The Royal College of Art, Hochschule Hannover University of Applied Sciences and Arts, and 121 Collective collaborated to build a pavilion within a neglected natural space at the confluence of the Thames and Wandle rivers. The project responded to the Western Riverside Waste Authority’s centre across the water and invited visitors to rediscover a lesser-seen part of Wandsworth by prompting us to reflect on belongings and the transience of things.
(c) Sites & Situations Research Lab
Elsewhere, the Wandsworth Town Property Partnership and the National Opera Studio transformed Chapel Yard through community gardening, mural painting and a special opera performance from the chapel’s balcony. This curious combination of activities reimagined the potential of Chapel Yard and brought to life a welcoming community destination, creating opportunities for residents, businesses and visitors to come together away from the intensity of Wandsworth High Street.
(c) Jane Lam
Working with Sambrook’s Brewery, we celebrated Neville Gabie’s public artwork ‘The Dinner’, ten years after it was commissioned by Futurecity as part of the Ram Brewery redevelopment. In conversation with Susie Gray and John Hatch, Neville discussed the role of public art in fostering a sense of belonging in new developments.
(c) Crispian Blaize
While bringing partners together is an established part of the council’s role in placemaking of all kinds, LFA provided an opportunity to deepen those relationships and explore what could be achieved through a cultural lens in a short space of time.
The Festival acted as a platform for cultural organisations, businesses, residents and community groups to collaborate around a common goal: how do we build a strong sense of belonging in Wandsworth Town?
