The Prince Philip Maritime Collections Centre’s Community Day returns on the 18th September, as we celebrate our community and their connection to the collection.  Our Community Day is our flagship event as part of our Heritage Open Day celebrations that run from the 13th to 18th September.

Heritage Open Days is England's largest festival of history and culture, bringing together over 2,000 organisations, 5,500 events and 46,000 volunteers. Every year in September, places across the country throw open their doors to celebrate their heritage, community and history.

You can join our celebration of our heritage and community by booking your free place to see, do and experience the wide range of activities honouring the collaborations and relationships The Prince Philip Maritime Collections Centre have formed over the past 12 months.

Community Day events

Experience our new Edible England Tour

Tours will run at the following times: 10am, 1pm and 3.30pm

Join us as we discover different food related items within our collection including many riches such as: ration bags from Captain Scott’s last expedition, snacks from the Titanic, unique condiments and London’s oldest coconut. In addition, discover where kitchen cupboard essentials such as tea, sugar, salt and potatoes come from and how they came to this small island.

Please note you will need to book tickets to the free tour in addition to the Community Open Day entrance tickets.

Find out more about the tours

Join us for the official opening of the Community Garden

Speeches start 12.30

Director of Royal Museums Greenwich Paddy Rodgers along with esteemed guests will officially open our new community garden.  Our community garden has been lovingly supported by local volunteers from the borough of Greenwich along with additional support from Marjorie McClure School and Royal Borough of Greenwich’s Youth Services.

Events and activities taking place throughout the day

See exhibitions created by local residents

Window into the Collection

Our new community garden is surrounded by artwork created by local learners from Newhaven School in partnership with art collective: Our Cube. Our talented local artists created a ‘Window into the Collection’ by illustrating themes and elements of the collection they believe would inspire the local community.

Community Treasures

Collecting is all about deciding what is important and valued. We collect things as a way of preserving stories. Creative practitioner and poet Claire Collison worked with local families over the Summer to discover ways of developing storytelling, critical thinking, literacy and learning through play. Come and see the items our participants considered important to them.

Bring in your own special objects and tell us the stories connected to them. Wrap them up and protect them like we do in the store, and take a photo of them to be part of our exhibition celebrating the treasures of our community.

Garden activities

Join our garden volunteers for activities from making lavender bags and creating seed tapes for next year. If you help long enough you may also be given a goody bag of fresh produce from the garden!

Teacup decorating

Take inspiration from the range of teacups and saucers in our collection to design your own personalised teacup. This family friendly workshop is facilitated by our Make do and maintain facilitator Lucy-Anne.

Traditional Chinese Tea Ceremony

Join us for a cup of tea and experience a traditional Chinese tea ceremony in our learning space with Chew Yeen Lawes  from Global Fusion Music and Arts.