Beautiful Muscovy ducks at Valentines Park, Ilford, 1979 🦆

Our first acquisition of the New Year – this 1980 pen and watercolour work by Essex artist Frank Alwin showing the Ilford Playhouse on Cranbrook Road, Ilford, a former Grade II listed church building. (1/2)

Happy New Year from Redbridge Museum! 🥳

One more week left to look for our Christmas objects hidden by those naughty elves! Drop by anytime during opening hours to take part in Redbridge Museum's fun, free Christmas trail

Redbridge Museum is open today! Pop in for a wander through our displays if you’re in town 🚶

Merry Christmas to all from Redbridge Museum! 🎄

#Santa takes a break on Christmas Eve with a quick concert in this cover of photographic company Ilford Limited’s ‘Between Ourselves’ staff magazine for Christmas 1960 🎅 #ArchiveAdventCalendar @arascot.bsky.social

Have you found our Christmas objects yet? Drop by anytime during opening hours to take part in Redbridge Museum's fun, free Christmas trail!

Wishing our Jewish friends a peaceful last night of Hanukkah 🕎 The Jewish winter festival consists of eight nights marked with the lighting of a candle on a menorah, like this one in our Jewish Redbridge display. What are your Hanukkah traditions?

Anyone have any interesting #FestiveTraditions? Here’s the Valentines Swimming Club ready for a dip in the boating lake on Christmas morning, 1915! 🥶 #ArchiveAdventCalendar @arascot.bsky.social

Peek in through the not-so-frosty windows of our 1900 House this Christmas to imagine cosying up by the #WarmFire! ❄️ Can you spot some more Christmassy objects on display here? #ArchiveAdventCalendar @arascot.bsky.social

Don’t miss the Redbridge Museum Christmas trail! 🎄 Peek into our freshly decorated room-sets and displays to find Christmas objects hidden around the Museum by some naughty elves 🔎 Simply drop in anytime that we’re open (see poster for hours) and pick up a trail from the front desk to take part.

Local company Kelvin Hughes made navigational equipment from their factory in Hainault from 1917 until 2012, and rewarded employees and their families with big themed parties every Christmas! This one took place in the 1960s – can you guess the theme? #ArchiveAdventCalendar @arascot.bluesky.social

📢 Redbridge Museum will have slightly different opening hours during the Christmas period. Please take note of the times on our poster so you can plan your visit accordingly! We will resume our normal opening hours (Tues-Sat 11-5) from Friday 2 January.

Our new volunteer Maya has been listing our Kenneth More Theatre programmes and has found one for a production of The Wizard of Oz from Spring 1986. Follow the yellow brick road to Redbridge Drama Centre this Christmas to see The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: visionrcl.org.uk/events/the-w... #PantoDay

It’s Christmas Jumper Day! Are you going for a novelty jumper or a more traditional one, like this jumper featured on the cover of a 1940s knitting pattern purchased from a shop on Ilford Lane 🧶

Today’s #ArchiveAdventCalendar theme is #ChristmasCards – here’s one sent from Alf Harrison to his mother in Barking in the early 1900s 💌 Look out for this card on display in our 1900 House room-set this month! @arascot.bsky.social

Our August Newsletter is now up on the website to read (and enjoy!). We're all over the map this time with articles about Redbridge, Gants Hill, Goodmayes, Valentines Mansion, Barkingside, and Ilford. ilfordhistoricalsociety.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/...

Patients and a nurse make a Christmas pudding on the Children’s Ward at King George Hospital, Ilford, about 1930 🥄 #FestiveFood #ArchiveAdventCalendar @arascot.bsky.social

A slightly different but still beloved kind of Christmas #Tree for #ArchiveAdventCalendar today! 🌳 For Christmas 1993, carol singers gathered around the sweet chestnut tree on George Green as part of protests against its removal to make way for the M11 Link Road through Wanstead.

For today’s #ArchiveAdventCalendar treat, a brilliant shot of Library staff turned #CarolSingers with the Barkingside Silver Band on 20 December 1948 🎶 @arascot.bsky.social

One pampered Pekingese for #ExploreYourArchive #EYAPets! Here is the ironically-named Rags atop his velvet cushion in the yard of Grove Farm Dairy, Nightingale Lane, Wanstead, 1920s 🐶 🔗 Find out more about local rural history at Redbridge Museum: visionrcl.org.uk/museum

These are the contents of a small tin purse once owned by Elizabeth O'Donoghue, mother of Dennis and Reginald O'Donoghue, two soldiers who were both killed in the Battle of Passchendaele during the First World War. The items include letters, a postage stamp, small tools, pencils and jewellery.

Just a few of the very artistic shots in the archive of photographic company Ilford Limited, who set up in Ilford in 1879 and manufactured photographic glass plates, film and more from their factory on Roden Street until 1976. #Museum30 Find out more at Redbridge Museum: visionrcl.org.uk/museum

Any guesses as to what major local road is shown in this photo from our collection, taken in 1928? 🛣️ Hint: though it’s much busier today, it was once quiet enough for a mum and her baby in a pram to cross in the middle of it!

Something heavy for #Museum30 – some of the dumb-bells in our collection once belonging to Victorian strongman Sydney Sewell (‘Ihonart’) who in 1913 set up a School of Physical Culture on Henley Road, Ilford, which offered fitness, bodybuilding and weightlifting training 🏋🏻

This bold and bright rainbow shawl was crocheted by Heather Wright in the first week of the Covid-19 lockdown in March 2020. In the second image, Heather is wearing the shawl during the Easter weekend in 2021 🌈 The shawl is now on display in the Moving Stories section of Redbridge Museum. #Museum30

A lovely piece from our collection for today’s #Museum30 theme of Stitch – a ‘Friendship Cloth’, owned and used by the donor’s grandmother, Sylvia Ashbridge of Grove Park, Wanstead, who had friends visiting for tea sign and embroider (or embroidered herself) their names from around the year 1870. 🪡

To remember Ilford citizens killed in the war, a memorial plaque and book was unveiled in Ilford Town Hall in April 1949. This is now available to view at Redbridge Heritage Centre.

It may not have been built for Bonfire Night, but this bonfire in Ilford on 9 May 1945 was for a bigger celebration – Victory in Europe after the Second World War. Resourceful as ever, residents have laid down the remains of an Anderson shelter to protect the road tarmac from the fire.

For today’s #Museum30, we’re re-sharing this Reel we made for National Doodle Day revealing the pages of an Ilford pupil’s school sketchbook from 1910! ✏️ www.instagram.com/p/DPEB_tZDCb5/

Spooky season may be over but there’s more than meets the eye to this miniature carved wooden figure from our collection! This is an example of a mechanical Kobe toy or doll produced as a souvenir in Japan in the early 20th century 👹 #Museum30

Excited for our first #Museum30 on Bluesky! 🏦 To reintroduce ourselves – Redbridge Museum & Heritage Centre is the local history museum and archive service for the London Borough of Redbridge. We explore stories of the diverse local people, places and events that make up the history of Redbridge.

Happy Halloween! Watch out for all things creepy crawly in your travels tonight 👀 These spooky spiders were handmade by local resident Gladys Harrison and now live very harmlessly in our museum store! 🕷️

See Black History Month out this week with our short film ‘Memories of Windrush’, exploring the memories and experiences of Redbridge’s Windrush generation using interviews by Redbridge Museum & Heritage Centre from 2002 to 2018. 🔗 Watch online: www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYC1...

The next talk in the series is, well you can see - it's one of mine and I'll be speaking on the subject of Parks & Recreation. 7 for 7:30pm start on Monday 10th November in the Gloucester Room in the library in Ilford.

Excited for the half term? Join us everyday this week for our fun, free Families Trail! 🔍 📅 Saturday 25 October to Saturday 1 November 🕚 11:00-16:00 (drop in) 📍 Redbridge Museum, 2nd floor, Redbridge Central Library

Today is Ilford’s Charter Day – when the town officially became a Borough by Royal Charter on this day in 1926 📜 Crowds lined the streets to welcome the Duke & Duchess of York who visited Ilford to mark the occasion. 🔗 Visit 'Village to Suburb' at Redbridge Museum to discover more: vrcl.uk/museum

Here’s a spotlight on some of the objects in our display about South Asian Life in Redbridge – glass bangles worn by Gujarati women on special occasions and an incense holder featuring the Hindu deity Ganesh used in religious ceremonies. Happy Diwali to all our friends celebrating tonight! 🪔

A wonderful blog about our collections and display on Redbridge's Jewish stories by Dr Rachel Lichtenstein 👇

This Black History Month, discover Redbridge’s historic connections to the transatlantic slave trade and the campaign for abolition in our permanent exhibition at Redbridge Museum. Open Tuesday – Saturday 11:00 – 17:00, Free admission 🔗 visionrcl.org.uk/museum

A new acquisition! We were recently bequeathed a collection of material relating to Little Gearies of Barkingside, including this album of photographs compiled by the donor who carried out extensive and detailed genealogical research into the Edenborough family that once lived there.

Recently spotted on Ilford High Road – the F. W. Woolworth ‘ghost sign’ still in place beneath the new Superdrug store signage being installed this week. Woolworths opened in Ilford in 1912. In 1938, the exterior was renovated in the attractive white Art Deco style that still stands today.

On 22 June 1948, the Empire Windrush docked in Essex, the first of many ships and planes bringing around 500,000 Caribbean migrants to Britain from 1948 to 1971. Discover the stories of Redbridge’s Windrush generation in this new permanent exhibition at Redbridge Museum. 🔗 visionrcl.org.uk/museum

We've been nominated for the Redbridge Arts & Culture Award in the Ilford & Redbridge Business Awards 2025. If you've enjoyed our Museum displays, temporary exhibitions, schools sessions, events, or our friendly and accessible Heritage service, give us a vote! 🔗 bit.ly/4ocW2Tk

OPEN NOW: Redbridge and the Second World War An exhibition by Redbridge Museum marking the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. 📅 Until Saturday 30 August 2026 📍 First floor, Redbridge Central Library 🎟️ Free admission 🔗 vrcl.uk/museum-ww2

Sylvia Pankhurst is known for her fierce fight for the women's vote but her activism went further than the Suffragettes - she also opposed fascism and colonialism, campaigning against the Italian invasion of Ethiopia while living in Woodford in the 1930s. 🔗 Discover her story: sylviapankhurst.com

Celebrate Black History Month with Redbridge Museum through our exciting displays, film screenings, and more! 🔗 See what’s on: visionrcl.org.uk/black-history-month

A great action shot of Woodford Rugby Club players in 1983! 🏉 The Club was formed in 1924 and used a pitch next to the Woodford Wells Cricket Club in Monkhams Lane, Woodford. They later moved to a ground in Highams Park, where they still play today. #NSHD2025 @sportingheritage.bsky.social

‘Redbridge and the Second World War’ opens soon on the 1st floor of Redbridge Central Library, Ilford. Visit our website or follow this account to stay tuned for more updates. 🔗 vrcl.uk/museum-ww2