What's On

All our sessions are run using Zoom, so download the app on your phone, tablet or computer and join in!

Are you over 60 and want to chat with other people your age? Then join our weekly Prime Time session every Monday, 10am - 11am

Email Sotiris.Kyriacou@towerhamlets.gov.uk and we will send you an invite to the next session

21 June
Greenwich Park is undergoing major renovation to reveal, restore and protect its unique heritage. Helen Wallis (Partnerships and Community Engagement Officer), gives us an update.
28 June
Sotiris presents his ever-popular quiz. Join us to see if you can get the answers!
5 July
Halima Khanom, from the Local History Library and Archives, presents ‘Wandering Stars’, a documentary about the history of Yiddish theatre in London, with an emphasis on the East End. 
12 July
Join us for Tea and Chat, when we will be discussing our favourite day trip places.
19 July
Con Maloney, from the Friends of Island History Trust, will be presenting and reading extracts from his recent book on the history of pubs on the Isle of Dogs.
26 July
Enjoy playing Countdown and see how many words and sums you can get against the clock!
 

Reading Friends brings people together to read, share stories, meet new friends, and have fun. We use reading – whether books, magazines, newspapers, or anything else – to start everyone chatting. 

See the Reading Friends page for more information on how to join.

Is English your second language and you want to practise speaking it with others? Then join our weekly Conversation Club. We have two sessions:

Wednesdays, 11am - 12noon.
Email Arif.Ahmed@towerhamlets.gov.uk and we will send you an invite to the next session

Fridays, 11am - 12noon..
Email Sumon.Miah@towerhamlets.gov.uk and we will send you an invite to the next session

Would you like to share stories and poetry to lift the mood? Possibly take a turn of reading out loud? Join our weekly Book Break group every Tuesday from 3 - 4pm.

Please email George.Gratton@towerhamlets.gov.uk who will send you an invite to the next session.

Talk about what you’re reading and make friends with other readers. We have two online books groups and you’re welcome to join either – or both

Kim by Rudyard Kipling
Wednesday 16 June, 6:15pm

Filled with lyrical, exotic prose and nostalgia for Rudyard Kipling’s native India, Kim is widely acknowledged as the author’s greatest novel and a key element in his winning the 1907 Nobel Prize in Literature. It is the tale of an orphaned sahib and the burdensome fate that awaits him when he is unwittingly dragged into the Great Game of Imperialism. 
 
It is available as an eBook and audiobook

• If you would like to join the group above please email Julian.Harrison@towerhamlets.gov.uk and you will be contacted with a login for the session which takes place on Zoom

The Ninth Child by Sally Magnusson
Thursday 8 July, 6:30pm 

'The Ninth Child' is a tale of well researched historical fiction filled with numerous famous figures, it is set in Scotland in the 19th century and tells the story of the construction of the Loch Katrine Waterworks, an engineering scheme designed to provide clean water to the people of Glasgow. Inspired by the mysterious death of the seventeenth-century minister Robert Kirke and set in a pivotal era two centuries later when engineering innovation flourished but women did not, The Ninth Child blends folklore with historical realism in a spellbinding narrative.

• If you would like to join the group above please email Atalanta.kernick@towerhamlets.gov.uk and you will be contacted with a login for the session which takes place on Zoom
   

You are welcome to join both groups. Staff involved will be able to guide you as to how to login

Idea Store Community Navigator health advice sessions have moved online to give one to one support. Community Navigators can help with:

•    Advice on keeping safe and healthy
•    Information about how the Council can help you
•    Information about other services and groups that can give support, including foodbanks, voluntary groups, financial advice services

They are also able to give extra support to vulnerable or isolated residents, for example making phone calls or emailing on their behalf.

If you would like to contact a Community Navigator email: navigators@towerhamlets.gov.uk

Bangladesh 50 Years
Identity and belonging in the East End before and after the Libreration War of 1971

2021 marks 50 years since the independence of Bangladesh. To mark the significance of this, Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives (THLHLA) and the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) are leading Bangladesh 50 Years, one of four projects that forms a part of the National Portrait Gallery’s offsite programme; Citizen UK, during its temporary closure to transform the gallery. 

Citizen UK is an exciting research and creative engagement project involving the borough archive services, local communities and contemporary artists. It is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

The project will conclude with a Bangladesh 50 Festival taking place February - March 2021, marking Bangladesh Independence Day (26 March) and the related anniversary UN International Mother Language Day (21 February),  kicked off by the launch of a creative commission which will sit in the public realm in Tower Hamlets as well as a exhibition curated by Citizen Researchers, informed by historical materials from Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives and the National Portrait Gallery. See more information

Online exhibition

From Town Hall to Local History Library & Archives: new online exhibition is now available.
A short history of our service and premises, 1861-2015 is based on research undertaken for last year's 50th anniversary celebrations of the borough.

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