“Warner” properties were built in the from the late nineteenth century until the mid-twentieth century, with many of the properties taking the form of distinctive red brick self-contained flats.
The project was initiated by artists Lucy Harrison and Katherine Green in 2014. Following research about current residents of the estate, in 2014 an exhibition took place in the former Warner rent office on Brettenham Road E17, including archival and new photographs, documents and oral history recordings, funded by Waltham Forest Council.
In 2016 a second stage was initiated, managed by Rendezvous Projects. This stage expanded the initial research with a group of volunteers who carried out further oral history interviews, archive research and contributed to community events, and a programme of collecting photographs from current and former Warner residents. An exhibition (funded by Arts Council England and local business sponsorship) took place for six months at Vestry House Museum, providing a context and venue for many of the peripheral events, and a mobile phone app was produced and launched in 2017. The app, along with the events and volunteer programme, were funded by a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.