Cockney Rebels: Popular Music in Tower Hamlets, 1624-2003
Thursday 20 June 2024 - 21 February 2025
Discover the extraordinary story of popular music in London’s East End at the major new exhibition Cockney Rebels: Popular Music in Tower Hamlets, 1624-2003 at Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives.
From Elizabethan ballads to the birth of grime, this first-of-its-kind exhibition takes visitors on a journey spanning four centuries, exploring how the East End and its people have inspired and shaped popular music. Featuring an array of over a hundred rare and unique items — such as broadside ballads, sheet music, paintings, posters, records, tapes, and ephemera — it will a cover a diverse range of musical styles divided into four chronological sections.
NEW BOOK OUT NOW!
Cockney Rebels: Popular Music in Tower Hamlets, 1624-2003
Edited by Robert Jones
ISBN: 9781036906122
Price: £12.00
We are thrilled to announce the publication of Cockney Rebels: Popular Music in Tower Hamlets, 1624-2003, the companion book to our current exhibition.
Extending across 66 lavishly illustrated, full colour A4 pages, this book features highlights from the exhibition plus brand new essays expanding on the themes it explores. These include 'The Ballad of the Hamlets', a genre-spanning history of popular music in the East End by lead curator and local studies librarian Robert Jones, 'The Cockney Soundscape' by broadcaster Alan Dein, and 'Library Music' by archivist Andrew Lewis, a deep dive into the role played by our own library service in bringing music to the people. It also includes the key to 'who's who' in the exhibition poster and a link to our exclusive Cockney Rebels playlist.
Yours for just £12.00, the book is are available to buy at Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives and Brick Lane Bookshop.
Email localhistory@towerhamlets.gov.uk to request a copy via post.
The first section takes a deep dive into the roots of popular music in the East End, from folk songs and sea shanties to the Victorian music halls and pub singalongs. The second explores the influence of migration and American popular culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including klezmer, jazz, swing, and calypso. Moving forward, the third focuses on the rock ‘n’ roll years from the 1950s to the mid-1970s, taking in pop, mod, psychedelia, glam rock and more. The final section covers everything from punk, disco, soul, and reggae in the late-70s, through post-punk, goth, dance, Britpop, and Asian underground to the early grime scene at the turn of the millennium.
Famous names such as Lionel Bart, Helen Shapiro, Small Faces, Fleetwood Mac, Billy Ocean, and Dizzee Rascal are showcased alongside lesser-known but impactful artists like Max Bacon, Stepney Sisters, Bow Gamelan Ensemble, and Joi Bangla Banned.
There is also an events programme which ties in with the exhibition via our What's On page. Cockney Rebels is on show until February 2025.
Onsite exhibition opening times
- Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 10am – 5pm. On Monday and Friday lunchtimes, the exhibition will be closed for lunch between 1 - 2pm
- Thursday 10am – 7pm
- 1st and 3rd Saturdays of the month, 10am – 5pm
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