Dig out old family photographs and explore your family’s history this winter break to help piece together a complete picture of the impact of Heathrow Airport.

Families are being urged to get talking to support the University of West London (UWL) and the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) as they work to capture the stories, sights and sounds of Heathrow Airport and its history for a lasting living archive.

Working with artists and community organisations, the People Powered project Heathrow: Our Local Airport will create an engaging visual response to the airport and its impact.

Now well underway, archivists are working with filmmaker Narvir Singh is working with secondary school pupils in the borough to use poetry, portraits, and photography to create a film exploring 75 years of continued development at the landmark.

Alongside this, stories collected from residents and workers will become part of the Heathrow Archive, a historical collection of documents and artefacts relating to the airport which is held by UWL.

The team is now calling on students, residents, and anyone who has worked on the site to share pictures, memories, or family stories from the past.

And for a second collection, families of South Asian origin are being asked to contribute to the dedicated Asian Heritage Oral History project. This will look at how people have built their lives and travel routines around the airport since it opened in 1946. Funded by the Heathrow Community Engagement Board (HCEB) this second section of work will focus specifically on the stories of the local South Asian community and their memories of the airport and the impact it has made on West London.

Professor Anthony Woodman, Deputy Vice-Chancellor at UWL, said:

Heathrow is a major aviation hub here in West London and where many people had their first taste of life in this country.

We have such strong links through our students, staff, and communities and we are excited to see what we can discover as we reach out to them all to share their experiences and paint a truly representative picture of how life has grown and adapted around this space over the past 75 years.

After being displayed at UWL, parts of the collections will move to the NPG once it reopens in 2023 following major refurbishment.