PINHOLE LONDON - Heritage Projects

Case study:

Enfield’s Forgotten Island

Photographic time travel: Discover the past, present and future

Pinhole London was awarded a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant for the Enfield’s Forgotten Island project, celebrating the heritage of Enfield Island Village and the historic Lee Navigation canal. Senior young leaders from the Enact community explored local archives to uncover historic images of the area, recreated them using handmade pinhole cameras, and developed their photos in a temporary darkroom. This creative initiative connected past, present, and future. The project was exhibited at the Museum of Enfield and as part of Open House at Enfield Island Village. A publication was also produced, available at Enfield Libraries and for purchase here.

Enfield Island Village is an urban village in the Borough of Enfield, located at the place where Greater London, Hertfordshire and Essex meet. It is bounded by rivers and canals, including the Lee Navigation, a 250-year-old canalised river which flows into the Thames.

To celebrate the heritage of an area facing significant environmental and economic challenges, senior young leaders from the Enact community worked with Pinhole London to identify historic images of the canal through local archival research at Enfield Local Studies and Archives.

Across a number of sessions and through the medium of pinhole photography, participants identified the original location of historic images, created their own personalised interpretation featuring themselves, and developed their photos at a temporary darkroom installed at the Enact community centre.

This photographic time travel honours the Lee Navigation’s rich heritage and aims to maintain it by inspiring a future generation of local leaders to recreate the images once again next century.

Enfield Dispatch Nº 75, December 2024 (20,000 copies), download your copy

Publication: Enfield’s Forgotten Island

ISBN 9781399992534 Order your copy

First image montage

This was made possible by money raised by National Lottery players.