By Patricia Dark, Archivist
This year’s double Bank Holiday marks the historic Platinum Jubilee – the 70th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-serving monarch in British history, ascending the throne. There are events planned all over the Commonwealth and right here in Southwark: exhibitions, street parties, picnics, pageants, and concerts. Maybe you’re going to attend an event – or even organising one!
We have a favour to ask: whatever you do, please consider sharing your photos, videos, and mementoes of the weekend with Southwark Heritage for others to enjoy in years to come. Our collections have lots of photos, objects, and other material related to previous royal occasions. We’ve made a selection of them available online for everyone to enjoy, learn from, and use.
Council officers created some of that material, and heritage staff collected newspaper cuttings. The council probably bought some other photos, taken by photojournalists, from press agencies. But local people gave us a great deal of the material we hold on royal festivities, especially mementoes like tickets, programmes, flyers, and the like.
In fact, most of Southwark’s heritage collections come from the generosity of Southwark people past and present! They were keen to make sure that people in their future – our present – knew what life was like decades, even centuries ago. And that includes not just pictures and film that show us how places like Walworth and Bermondsey have changed, but things like letters and diaries that show us how they thought and felt about their world.
Today’s present is tomorrow’s past – and the times we’ve lived through in the past couple of years are unlike any Southwark’s ever seen. Southwark Heritage staff will do their part to protect the objects and records that document Southwark today for the people of the future, but we need your help to make sure we capture as many of the borough’s diverse stories as we can.
If you’ve got records or objects that tell modern Southwark’s stories, and you’d like to help us protect them for the future, please get in touch with Southwark Heritage staff at archives@southwark.gov.uk. If you don’t have email, you can phone us on 020 7525 0232. You can find more information about our collections and services on our website. If you’re interested in learning more about the borough’s past, keep reading – there’s lots more to discover on this blog!
Southwark Heritage Blog 