Thamesmead Times: Revisited! is an ongoing project where people in Thamesmead get together to explore a collection of local newspapers from the late 1980s and early 1990s. The newspapers were collected by local resident Richard Cullern and donated by his son, Steve Cullern.
The first iteration of the project started off with people reading the old newspapers and picking out the articles, adverts and images that spoke to them. They let me know which ones they wanted to use, I found them, scanned them in and printed them out so that they could collage them together into new front page layouts.
Everyone collaged together two layers – one blue, one black and then used the risograph printer at TACO! Print Studio to scan in and print the layouts to create two-colour risograph prints.
We held a celebration exhibition of the new prints alongside the old newspapers at the Moorings Sociable Club on 29 November 2025. The prints have subsequently been shown at the Nunnery Gallery and Thamesmead Social at the Lakeside Centre.
The second iteration of the project was based at Thamesmere Library, where people made pages for a collective zine that we then printed, collated and stapled at the TACO! Print Studio. The zine is now available for people to read in the Local History section of the library.
Thamesmead Times: Revisited! has been supported by The London Community Foundation through the Thamesmead Community Fund and TACO!