Culture and heritage have the potential to be embedded in everything we do. This includes culture-led regeneration and there is an exciting opportunity to further develop the existing cultural and heritage clusters making connections across the borough.
In the heart of the Thames Estuary Cultural Production Corridor, Eastbrook Studios and Wharf Studios, the Ice House Quarter and Linton Road are establishing the borough as a key destination for culture and heritage.
We are ready to nurture national partnerships and investment to support the delivery of the Culture and Heritage Strategy 2024-2030. It is bold in its premise positioning ‘People + Place + Creativity = Power’. Partnerships and collaboration will be crucial to achieving this across the culture, heritage and arts sectors with the aim of enriching lives, fostering an inclusive and vibrant cultural community, to celebrate the rich heritage of Barking and Dagenham.
The borough is home to nationally significant heritage sites such as Barking Abbey, now a Scheduled Ancient Monument, Eastbury Manor House, a Grade I Listed Elizabethan Gentry House, and Valence House Museum, a Grade II* Listed Manor House with an area of Medieval Moat. The borough’s Archive, part of Valence House Museum’s Collections, holds many key documents relating to the history of Barking and Dagenham. These include the original plans for the Becontree Estate, property deeds dated to the 15th century, and the largest National Collection of papers relating to the Fanshawe Collection. The Collections and Archives hold an extensive Photographic and Film Collection, with important items documenting the civic life of the borough over the decades.
Barking and Dagenham has been identified as a key location in the Royal Society of Arts Heritage Index focusing on leveraging its unique cultural and industrial history to foster pride and community-led regeneration. Our recent designation as a National Lottery Heritage Fund ‘Heritage Place’ will offer the opportunity to generate vital and significant funding to support unlocking the potential of the heritage on our doorstep and connect residents to heritage in the places they live, work and visit.
We have big ambitions to catalyse the burgeoning arts, heritage and culture sector, supporting cultural organisations to grow and develop a strong cultural offer for residents. Our work over the past few years to achieve that has been boosted by our relationships with Arts Council England who are working with us as a ‘priority place’ to develop local cultural infrastructure.
Our cultural programme has supported the work of local and national artists, and we have developed ambitions partnerships with national organisations including Tate and the Serpentine Gallery. The newly established Women’s Museum, commissions and produces exciting contemporary art made by women, transgender and non-binary artists, platforming the heritage of those whose stories have historically been at the margins.
New Town Culture, is highly innovative and integrates creative practice into social work, has led to systemic changes in how social care and youth justice is practiced in the borough (and beyond). The uniqueness of this model has been the successful integration of the arts and social sectors through taking a ‘creative social work approach’ to working with users of services most at risk.
Pen to Print, believe everybody should have a chance to tell their story and aim to build a network of expertise and support for aspiring writers in Barking and Dagenham and sharing this with a wider national and international community.
Inspiring Futures, the borough’s Cultural Education Partnership, has relationships with large major institutions supporting the local cultural infrastructure. It plays an important role working with young people to build their aspiration and to connect them to opportunities in creative and cultural industries.
These programmes demonstrate the transformative power of creative and cultural practice as a tool for self-expression, building confidence, inclusive growth, social justice and systemic change.
We want to further establish Barking and Dagenham as a vibrant cultural destination where residents enjoy an inclusive arts and cultural offer - an offer that reflects the cultural diversity of the borough and connects people through arts, cultural, and creative experiences. Together we are unlocking the creative potential of our people and place.
| Measure | LBBD | London | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross Value Added (GVA) for creative and cultural sectors per head (£) | £674.99 | £8,883.77 | £2,707.19 |
Please note: This is the latest available data as at 1st February 2026.
Culture and Heritage Strategy 2024 to 2030
London Borough of Barking and Dagenham