In 2022, we awarded £80,000 to the Museum of London (now London Museum) to support an oral history pilot project called ‘My London Story’, in 9 schools. The museum worked with over 1,000 students, culminating in collecting the oral histories of 36 students for the museum’s archives and collections.
Fast forward to 2026 and the project, which is now called ‘Young Londoners’ Archive Schools Programme,’ has won the award for Learning Programme of the Year at the Museums+Heritage Awards. We are so proud to see how far this project has come in the 4 years since we funded it, reaching over 6,000 additional young people in 3 years, capturing the diverse lived experiences of London’s children. The museum has said that this project has been transformational for them from the engagement it has provided, through to collecting and the research aspects it has enabled. On top of winning the award, a display featuring some of these contributions from Young Londoners will form part of the collections on display at the new London Museum site in Smithfield when it opens later this year.