News from Barking & Dagenham – June 2025
Carnival quite Caribbean
Now that the carnival in Notting Hill is attracting more and more people, other districts are also trying to organise a similar summer event. The ‘Carnival’ has been celebrated in Notting Hill since 1966, back then with 500 participants. This year, the celebrations will take place from 23 to 25 August and the organisers are expecting 50,000 people to take part in the events, with the number of visitors set to exceed the million mark. In Barking and Dagenham, the organisers are more modest. After all, this is only the tenth carnival in the borough.
But a big spectacle is also planned here, on 12 July in Town Square in Barking, where colourful, daring costumes will also be on display and there will be a steel band competition beforehand. Professional street dancers will show off their skills and school groups will also be performing. A ‘carnival village’ offers creative workshops.
Museum opens its warehouse
For many years, the Witten team’s programme of visits to Barking and Dagenham has included the neighbouring Olympic site, first as a huge construction site and more recently as the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Parc. It’s still all about records, currently one of the world’s largest museums. The Victoria & Albert Museum has now opened its ‘East Storehouse’ to visitors. 50,000 objects, 350,000 books and 1000 collections can be viewed and studied. These range from Picasso’s largest work, the 10 x 11 metre ‘Ballets Russes Le Train Bleu’ carpet, to historical Buddha figures, the film costumes of great stars and the instruments of famous musicians.
The warehouse takes up four floors of the building, which was used as a media and television centre during the Olympics.
