DEPTFORD NEIGHBOURHOOD ACTION - DRAFT HERITAGE POLICY
Deptford Neighbourhood Action
DRAFT HERITAGE POLICY
SUMMARY
I do not intend that this summary be part of the Heritage Policy itself; rather it is a brief, introductory overview of the draft policy for the benefit of members of the Deptford Neighbourhood Action Policies Working Groups,
The draft Heritage Policy document, in its current form, begins overleaf and is given in four sections:
- The Heritage Cycle: this defines how the term ‘heritage’ is visualised throughout the draft policy document.
- The Policy Statement: this gives the broad, general direction of the draft policy itself and identifies the establishment of a Heritage Hub as the key direction of the draft policy.
- Policy Points: these represent specific areas to which the draft policy draws attention. More particularly, it refers to the proposed Heritage Hub and its activities, role and aims. You will note that I have not specified any organisational basis of the Hub at this stage (I believe the options would be an unincorporated association, a charitable trust, a charitable incorporated organisation, a charitable company or else some form of not-for-profit social enterprise[*]). This, I believe, would be a decision for later in the process and possibly with specialist advice.
- Appendix - The Project List: this refers to the projects that, under the terms of its draft policy, Deptford Neighbourhood Action supports, and would expect to support and promote as in early 2017. It is an addendum to the draft policy rather than part of the draft policy itself.
Richard Katona
April 2017
DRAFT HERITAGE POLICY - version 3.2
SECTION 1: THE HERITAGE CYCLE
Heritage, as defined in this policy document, refers to any meaningful cultural activity or entity that is:
a.inherited from the past,
b.re-imagined and re-fashioned in the present, and
c.bequeathed to the future.
This may helpfully be thought of as the Heritage Cycle.
Any inheritance, in order to survive, needs to be re-articulated (or re-imagined) and then acted upon (re-fashioned) in the present. It then may also require a conduit through which it may be transmitted to the future.
We may think of heritage-related activities and interventions as existing on all points of the Heritage Cycle.
In practice, of course, the heritage cycle contains discontinuities as well as continuities: some old things become lost from the inheritance, some retrievably, some not; other things are new additions. It should further remind us that inheritances can include unwelcome and negative bequests as well as those that are more celebratory and positive. ‘Heritage’ is not a term of solely positive aspect.
Yet the Cycle should also remind us that everybody lives in somebody else’s history (even if those somebodies are not yet born) and that heritage-related activities are as much about the responsibilities of bequest as they are about rights of inheritance.
SECTION 2: POLICY STATEMENT
2.1Heritage is as much about community engagement in the present as it is about the past. It is a term of both cultural and social description and has a notional plural – heritages – which implies that ideas of heritage may differ between different groups and even different individuals, especially in an area as diverse and pluralistic as Deptford.
2.2Heritage concerns itself not solely with past and present but also with intuitions of the future; the policy recognises that management and planning are as important as curation and stewardship.
2.3The policy recognises that, in a neighbourhood as diverse as Deptford, individual and group definitions of heritage and identity may be organised around senses of ethnicity, faith, grievance and shared victimhood, as much as they are organised around celebratory and historical narratives, and that this always holds a potential for conflict between and amongst groups.
2.4A key aim of the policy, then, is the establishment of a Heritage Hub that aims to promote Deptford as a place of positive social reflexes free from communal disharmonies and antagonisms.
2.5The Heritage Policy of Deptford Neighbourhood Action therefore contains the Policy Points given in Section 3 below:
SECTION 3 POLICY POINTS
3.1THE HERITAGE HUB
3.1.1Deptford Neighbourhood Action envisages the establishment and promotion of a Heritage Hub whose terms of reference shall be guided by this policy document but which will have responsibility for setting aims and objectives.
3.1.2Organisational Basis of the Heritage Hub: The Hub will be a voluntary membership body under a governing document, the terms of which shall be consistent with this and other Deptford Neighbourhood Action policies. The Hub shall be free to seek funding to procure for itself a more secure organisational basis.
3.1.3The Role of the Heritage Hub: The Hub will create conceptual space for local communities and individuals both to explore and define their own heritages. The Hub will not necessarily be an incorporated body itself, although it may invite representative membership from organisations such as local history centres, reminiscence groups, museums and so forth in order to achieve its aims.
3.1.4The Composition of the Heritage Hub:The Hub will strive to be fully collaborative and aim to be an enabling centre for individuals and groups, whilst still encouraging them to come together to pool shared definitions of heritage and identity.
3.1.5The Heritage Hub and Social Diversity:The Hub believes that all heritage-related activities should reflect and value Deptford as home to a patchwork of populations and educational, social justice and political movements - past, present and future - as part of protecting the heritage and identity of Deptford.
3.1.6The Heritage Hub and Cultural Pluralism: The Hub acknowledges that in multi-ethnic Deptford there are traditional, local heritages that do not speak to the majority of the inhabitants. The policy is to ensure routes through which alternative heritages can contribute to a wider sense of communal identity.
3.2.AIMS OF THE HERITAGE HUB
3.2.1The Mission of the Heritage Hub: The Heritage Hub shall seek to balance the advantages and disadvantages of change by preserving and protecting local heritages as accessible resources for residents and visitors to enjoy, whilst allowing for positive change and development to be handed down to the future.
3.2.2The Urban Environment:This aim of the Heritage Hub will be to enhance, preserve and protect the special, local character of the Deptford Neighbourhood Action area in all its features, including architecture, heritage artefacts, and the townscape (both above and below ground). The Hub aims to recognise and celebrate the nature of the prime residential neighbourhoods, centres for retail, industry, culture, leisure, healthcare, education and learning and others, revealing and restoring where necessary:
- with the highest quality of materials and skills;
- with the assurance that business developments respond to the town’s character;
- with regard to the restoration of heritage features;
- with regard to the protection of important properties and other significant features of the built environment;
- with regard to the protection and promotion of vistas and river access, and
- with resistance to tall buildings and other developments inconsistent with the towns unique scale.
3.2.3Historical Research and Retrieval:This aim of the Heritage Hub will be to support interventions that seek positively to research neglected or forgotten histories that can be brought fruitfully back into the Heritage Cycle. Examples of this might be market gardening and Deptford ware pottery, not necessarily to revive them but to re-articulate them in a contemporary context.
3.2.4Heritage-building: This aim of the Heritage Hub will be to encourage contemporary activities that establish conduits through which heritage-related activities can inform and enrich future populations through the Heritage Cycle. Examples might be oral histories, reminiscence projects and community festivals, celebrations and anniversaries.
3.2.5Geographical Identity:This aim of the Heritage Hub will be to promote a sense of cross-cultural Deptford identity, including living experiences of personal mapping and psychogeography, also including recognition of the town’s riverside and maritime associations. The Hub also reserves for itself the responsibility to interest itself in the heritage concerns of contiguous areas that historically have made up the town of Deptford, such as New Cross, Hatcham, Deptford Strand and Deptford St Nicholas,
3.2.6Visibility and Tangibility: This aim of the Heritage Hub support projects that make heritage visible and tangible, such as those suggested in the Project List that accompanies this policy.
APPENDIX – THE 2017 PROJECT LIST
The following are examples of the projects that are or should be supported under the terms of the Deptford Neighbourhood Action (DNA) Heritage Policy.
The List is not exhaustive nor is it an integral part of the policy itself; it is an addendum. It should also be noted that these are not all projects that DNA will seek to lead or undertake directly itself.
It should be open to all to submit project proposals to the DNA Heritage Hub for considered inclusion on the list. It is expected that this be kept under review and updated more frequently than the Policy Document itself would be.
CURRENT ORGANISATIONS AND PROJECTS:
DEPTFORD WORKING HISTORIES: DNA supportsDeptford Working Histories’ community history research and community history events as well as similar activities undertaken by other organisations.
THE LENOX PROJECT: DNA supports the Lenox Project as it would also support other major, site-specific projects
OLD TIDEMILL WILDLIFE GARDEN, SAYES COURT GARDEN AND OTHER OPEN SPACES: DNA supports Old Tidemill Wildlife Garden and Sayes Court Garden projects. It would also support other such community projects that fall within the scope of Deptford Neighbourhood Heritage and Green and Open Spaces Policies.
FUTURE AND ASPIRATIONAL PROJECTS:
DEPTFORD LOCAL HISTORY CENTRE AND ARCHIVE:DNA supports the establishment of a Deptford Local History Centre, including a digital and archival centre, where historic records and archives relating to Deptford can be housed, nurtured, discovered and shared.
DEPTFORD IDENTITY PROJECTS: DNA urges the local authority that street signage should respect the identity of the ancient and historic town of Deptford. Signs at the edge of town that say ‘Welcome to Lewisham’ are not only demeaning of the Deptford identity but are misleading for travellers who really are looking for the town of Lewisham. DNA also supports the retrieval of ‘lost’ heritage icons such as the High Street anchor and the Dockyard clocktower.
BIOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH PROJECTS: DNA supports research into the lives of ‘Deptfordians past’, such people as William Blue, John Caesar, Kath Duncan, John Gast, Margaret McMillan, Mary Robertson and so forth (and beyond the ‘usual suspects’ such as John Evelyn, Peter the Great, Samuel Pepys, etc.)
HERITAGE TRAILS:DNA supports research into and the establishment of a Heritage Trail – or Heritage Trails – highlighting, for example, the connections between Deptford and the river, historic buildings and landscape, property usage, social justice and cultural diversity.
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[*] A summary of the options may be found at I must add that, however, that although I have had some legal training in this field I am not qualified to vouch for that document’s accuracy. RK