On July 1st 2021, the Friends of Highgate Roman Kiln (FoHRK) ran its fundraising launch event to bring the kin currently in storage at Bruce Castle Museum out of the dark and restore it to its original home in a new visitor centre in Highgate Woods.

The launch event took place at Lauderdale House just down the road from the Woods and included a masterclass in replica Roman pot-making for a local youth group, the Fresh Youth Programme. Leading the masterclass was Duncan Hooson (Clayground Collective and Central St. Martin’s), who showed the budding potters not only how to refine clay from the local ground, but also how to make a pot in the style of the locally excavated Roman Highgate Ware.

Duncan’s expertise was captured on camera and was developed into a suite of publicly available educational materials. These materials continue to be used by FoHRK to run Roman pottery workshops in local schools and groups to increase awareness of the local area’s Roman heritage. Five groups of young people benefited from these workshops in the first year, with three more sessions in the diary before summer 2022.

The successful launch of the fundraising appeal for FoHRK has led to over 70% of the campaign’s target funds being met by individual donations. This is turn has resulted in renewed commitment from partner organisations such as the City of London and Haringey Council, and FoHRK’s plan to open the Highgate Wood visitor centre are considerably closer to realisation.