Hometown Pride: Community-led culture in Thamesmead
A new publication highlighting the vital role of culture in creating successful places is being launched by Peabody.
Published: 08/10/2025
Making culture part of everyday life is central to our plan to improve, grow and look after Thamesmead. Across the town we’re working with communities and partners to create places to go and things to see, all year round. Launched today, Hometown Pride: Community-Led Culture in Thamesmead, tells the story of this important work, highlighting our approach, learning and impact. Adriana Marques, Assistant Director of Cultural Programme and Strategy, tells us more.
Culture makes places work.
Teenagers flip through graphic novels in a buzzing library, while retirees craft with a local artist. A community-run festival brings together diverse communities, making prime-time news.
A once-abandoned social club hums with creativity, housing artist studios, a thriving community cafe and garden. Vibrant murals brighten underpasses and hundreds of daily walks. Local artists and their neighbours dream up community projects.
In a public square, a new gallery and community radio station overlook roller skaters and a monthly market.
Investing in culture has transformed Thamesmead over the past eight years. From launching new cultural spaces and supporting locals creating their own creative projects, to hosting large-scale events that inspire and unite, we’re putting creativity at the heart of the town. And it’s thriving in ways we never imagined.
Culture makes us better listeners. By giving local people more control and supporting new groups, we’ve gained insights and built connections we might otherwise have missed. Through initiatives like our resident Festival Advisory Board, which drives the award-winning Thamesmead Festival, and local young curators commissioning Turner Prize-winning artist Jasleen Kaur for our first permanent artwork, residents are empowered to put their mark on their hometown.
Culture is collaborative. Together with grassroots groups, renowned artists, key partners including Bow Arts, TACO!, Greenwich+Docklands International Festival, and our colleagues at Royal Borough of Greenwich and London Borough of Bexley, we’re shaping Thamesmead’s vibrant cultural identity. The result? A town with pride and purpose.
Hometown Pride: Community-Led Culture in Thamesmead showcases how Thamesmead has become a home for culture. This approach has also informed our wider work at Peabody, which goes beyond housing to consider how whole places function better. Every neighbourhood has its own distinct personality – and they work better when community and culture are in harmony.
Now, we want to inspire and guide others to use culture as a catalyst to create distinctive, inclusive and sustainable neighbourhoods – places that are not just lived in but loved.
This publication shares the principles and practices we’ve developed, and the lessons we’ve learned along the way. It captures what is just the beginning of an exciting new chapter for ‘the town of tomorrow’.
Welcome to Thamesmead.