£756,616 funding secured to progress Canning Town Old Library Transformation – Newham Council

The transformation of Canning Town’s old library into a modern and valuable community asset celebrating Newham’s heritage has reached another milestone after securing a funding grant of £551,743 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and £204,870 from financing the decarbonisation of the public sector.

National Lottery Heritage Development Grant funding will kick-start the next phase of the project, which will include working with residents and community groups to organize the centre’s programme, as well as finally starting the process of protecting, cataloging and relocating the neighbourhood’s archive collection. These will be stored in a state-of-the-art, purpose-built archive and displayed alongside the neighborhood’s museum collections in the converted old library building. The latest milestone is part of the Council’s commitment to deliver the Building Newham Creative Future cultural strategy.

Stuart McLeod, Director of England – London and South at the National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “Not only will Newham Heritage Center revitalize a Grade II listed building in the heart of Canning Town, it will also transform access to Newham’s fascinating stories and collections and make a permanent home to celebrate the borough’s heritage. We look forward to working with the team to progress their plans to apply for a full grant at a later date.”

Public sector decarbonisation funding of £204,870, secured by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, will further the project’s decarbonisation ambitions; to install decarbonisation measures and bring the building to an industry-accredited ‘BREAAM Very Good’ rating, which for a Grade II listed building will be an exemplar in the borough. It will allow the installation of heat pumps to replace the aging gas heating system, the provision of solar panels and several other measures to improve the thermal efficiency of windows and walls throughout the building.

Through the current phase of development, which runs until July 2025, Newham Council will work with residents, community groups and partners to create recruitment opportunities, along with establishing processes to activate the space to transform it into a true community space for the Canning Town neighborhood and beyond.

• Care and access to collections – planning and piloting conservation, cataloguing, digitizing and relocating collections, starting volunteer programs and building community engagement
• Engaging people with planning – working with residents, community groups and young people on interpretation, consultation, co-production and governance
• Communications, Marketing and Branding – strategy development and delivery, co-production of project branding with residents, project launch during NHM 2024
• Resources & Recruitment – ​​Recruitment of new staff positions and specialist consultant support
• Capacity building, training and skills development – ​​staff skills audit and training, volunteer recruitment and training, development of the work placement framework for the delivery phase
• Partner activities – activities with UCL East, V & A East, Newham Music, IROKO, Royal Docks and East London Foundation Trust and activities to explore new partnerships.

Canning Town Old Library has been granted full planning permission and listed building consent in October 2023.

Construction work is due to start in the summer of 2024, following a competitive tender process currently taking place to appoint a contractor to lead the construction phase of the project.