Woolwich Works will be throwing open its doors later this month to show off the history of the Royal Arsenal as part of the Heritage Open Days festival.

Free tours of Woolwich Works will be on offer on the open day, on Sunday September 21, along with talks and activities.

The Chineke! orchestra, one of the resident artistic companies at Woolwich Works, will also hold an open rehearsal.

Local historians Steven Peterson and Ian Bull will give a talk about the history of the Royal Arsenal. Paterson is the founder of the Royal Arsenal History website, which documents the story of the military complex, which closed in 1994, and its relationship with Woolwich.

Thames mudlarker Nicola White will share artefacts from her collection, with objects that tell the stories of the soldiers, sailors, lightermen and others who had lived and worked in the area.

There will also be a one-off talk from Kristopher Jacobson, Yola Jacobson and Dawn Langton, the great-grandchildren of the suffragette Adelaide Knight, who will tell the story of their great-grandmother and her husband Donald Adolphus Brown, who once rescued a box of fireworks from the complex during a fire, avoiding a larger catastrophe.

The Heritage Open Days festival is on the same weekends as the separate Open House Festival, which is also hosting Woolwich-themed events, although those are now fully booked. 

Liat Rosenthal, the head of creative programming at Woolwich Works, said: “We are delighted to be part of the National Trust’s Heritage Open Day 2025 and to bring such a broad programme of events to Woolwich on Sunday September 21.

“We are all very privileged to be able to work in and act as stewards for these beautifully restored buildings, with such a rich and illustrious past going back some 300 years.  We are excited to invite members of the public to discover more.” 

At the start of the year it was revealed that Woolwich Works – which opened four years ago this month – was on track to make a profit for the first time, albeit aided by a mystery “substantial donation” to the independent trust that runs it.

The venue is part of a cultural district that cost the council £45 million – £14 million more than it had told residents it would cost. The cultural hub had to be bailed out with a £2 million council loan after suffering poor attendances, followed by a £300,000 “sponsorship deal” from a council-owned company, which the authority had tried to keep secret.

However, its fortunes have picked up since then, with the Brassworks festival returning to Woolwich this Saturday.

For full details of what is happening for the open day, and to book free tickets, visit the Woolwich Works website.

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