skip to Main Content

New heritage project at St Margaret’s House will celebrate early boxer Daniel Mendoza through community led activities!

St. Margaret’s House has been awarded a grant of £58,601 by The National Lottery Heritage Fund for the exciting heritage project “Mendoza Mania” to take place in Bethnal Green starting April 2022.

“Mendoza Mania” investigates the heritage of Daniel Mendoza a boxer (1764-1836) who lived for a time across the road from St Margaret’s House where he’s credited as writing the first ever sports biography. It’s a local story and highlights issues relevant today: anti-Semitic hate, sporting heroes and masculinity.

Members of our local community, all ages, genders and backgrounds, will rediscover Mendoza through heritage and community activities and be inspired to create work together that showcases the heritage and what it means to us today.

We’ll do this by delivering community activities focused on heritage. There’ll be heritage and research workshops leading to an immersive exhibition in Paradise Gardens, a dance film based on the Mendoza boxing style and a Community Play!
There will also be an opportunity to create art exhibitions based in the Mendoza story.

St. Margaret’s House will provide the space, tools and inspiration for a community investigation into Daniel Mendoza and his relevance to contemporary society. People of all ages and backgrounds are invited to get involved as the three strands have a wealth of opportunities.

Participants will get to visit the London Jewish Museum, benefit from talks from Queen Mary’s University, conduct walks and visit Tower Hamlets Archives to help them create the exhibitions, dance film and play.

Along the way they will get to meet and work with a variety of creatives and partners including Voicebox a theatre company who have expertise in working on projects themed around masculinity, artists Milou Stella and Kazuko Hohki, Choreographer Maisie Newham, local residents who currently live in Mendoza’s home and the East End Jewish Celebration Group.

“The story of Daniel Mendoza’s life is fascinating yet relatively unheard of in the wider public. It’s so exciting to have the opportunity to investigate the life and times of this East End pioneer; exploring the good and the bad of an 18th
Century sporting role model. With ever increasing stories around the current climate of sport meeting geo-political concerns and the tackling of hate and racism, now seems like the right time to dive into and learn from similar
themes experienced by our ancestors.”

George Paris, Programme Manager, St. Margaret’s House

“Mendoza Mania!” will be launched in early April where we are looking for people who are interested in Boxing, East End and Jewish Heritage to come forward and get involved in events, talks, walks and workshops leading to an exhibition in July. If
you want to express an interest or find out more about the project you can email stuart@stmargaretshouse.org.uk or call 020 89802092 and ask for Stuart.

About St. Margaret’s House

St. Margaret’s House

St Margaret’s House is an arts and wellbeing community hub based in Bethnal Green. We work in partnership with local people, artists and practitioners to create healthier and happier communities. Using arts in non-traditional places, we celebrate
everyone as an artist. We provide welcoming spaces for everyone to learn, create, exercise, relax, play, eat, shop, make friends and come together. Find them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

About The National Lottery Heritage Fund

Using money raised by the National Lottery, we Inspire, lead and resource the UK’s heritage to create positive and lasting change for people and communities, now and in the future. www.heritagefund.org.uk.

Follow @HeritageFundUK on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and use #NationalLotteryHeritageFund

Further information

For further information, images and interviews please contact Stuart Cox on (02089802092  and stuart@stmargaretshouse.org.uk ).

This Post Has 0 Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back To Top