After a lot of behind the scenes work here at Rom over the past couple of years, working with a number of partners, friends and colleagues the National Lottery, via their Heritage Lottery Fund have approved us a grant of £59,300 towards the story of Rom.
As you can imagine there is a huge amount of work that goes into this kind of application, bringing in all manner of experts to help with the bid to create something that can really appeal to a wide group of people and get not just the Rom regulars interested but an entirely new audience to visit Rom.
This is part of HLF’s “Our Heritage” funding programme and is designed to get our foot in the door with the various funding bodies to ensure a long term future for the park.
The bid is a celebration 40 years of the park. The official title for the project is “The Rom Skatepark : Celebrating 40 Years of Rad” and will include…
- A two day celebratory weekend BMX and Skate Jam on July 14th and 15th 2018
- A unique one off street art piece by renowned international artists “The London Police” .
- The production of a documentary film : Rom Boys: 40 years of Rad
- A new interactive website and digital archive at www.romskatepark.co.uk
- Filmed interviews of key figures in Rom’s history
- Skate deck building and design workshops by The Far Academy
- Reminiscence lecture by skate historian Professor Iain Borden
- A two week exhibition on Rom’s history at Havering Museum in Romford in March 2019
The London Police
There will be multiple opportunities for volunteers throughout the summer and we encourage as many people to get in contact with us as possible to really bring the park alive for its 40th anniversary celebrations.
We’re seeing this as just the beginning of a new chapter in Rom’s history – we want as many people as possible to engage with the park and bring it back to it’s former glory.
Now we have official recognition by a major national organisation we’re hoping to introduce a range of new programs and projects over the next few years.
If anyone is interested in sponsoring the park please get in contact with us as we have a number of options available.
Also we now have an online shop where you can buy Rom merchandise and renew your membership.
We still need as many of you to sign up for membership to keep our doors open so we’re doing a special offer through the month of May. Read more about it here.
