Local History - What's on

Our next exhibition Cockney Rebels: Popular Music in Tower Hamlets, 1624-2003 will run from 20 June 2024 – 21 February 2025 at Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives. 

Saturday 19 October 2024 - 21 February 2025

This small exhibition will explore the intersections between spaces, places and events in Tower Hamlets' Black music scene. Through youth clubs, bands, blues/shubeens (house parties), festivals, and people, we aim to uncover the diverse ways the community recollect Black music in the borough from 1970-1999.

With contribution and research from local residents Keira Blasse and Nick Friday, this exhibition narrates an intimate story of memory and joy through Black music culture and heritage in Tower Hamlets.

Do you remember what you wore to house parties in the 80s? What record shops did you go to for the latest tunes? Was there a favourite sound clash you remember? Come and share your stories with us.

The exhibition has been curated especially for the first floor landing space at Tower Hamlets History Library and Archives, outside the Reading Room.

Friday 10 January & Friday 7 February 2025, 10-11:30am

Come along to our Parent/Carer’s & Under 5's meet up, and explore historical records on the famous East End. A chance to meet other parents, enjoy a cuppa and look through our unique collection of maps, photographs, newspapers, pamphlets and much more.

A range of toys available for children ages 0-5 with a mini brunch and refreshments including tea & coffee.

No Booking required. Just drop-in!

Saturday 7 December, 2.00pm-3.30pm

Join historian Danny Wells as he explores Music Halls of the late Victorian and Edwardian periods. This illustrated talk celebrates the rambunctious nature of the entertainment, with characters such as Champagne Charlie, Little Tich, the ‘coster comedian’ Gus Ellen, George Robey-the ‘Prime Minister of Mirth’ and Vesta Tilley. And we mustn’t forget the much-loved Marie Lloyd, both the ‘Queen of the Music Hall’ and of the double entendre.

Danny’s talks are an eclectic mix of social and cultural history. Victorian Britain features strongly as does art history and gardens.

Saturday 16 November, 2.00-4.00pm

The 1960s saw an outpouring of musical talent from Tower Hamlets. Driven by the interconnected worlds of theatre, popular music and film, local musicians and singers had a strong sense of community and East End identity.

This event will screen a series of short archive documentaries on performers including Queenie Watts, Kenny Lynch, Lionel Bart and Georgia Brown who helped shape the popular vision of what the East End was. These films reflect the culture of music in Tower Hamlets, and how the performers navigated their identity as ‘Cockneys’:

This event is curated and facilitated by Bea Moyes, who is a Film Producer and Researcher, specialising in working with research-led film and public history. She is an Associate Lecturer at Birkbeck College, University of London, and CEA CAPA.

Saturday 2 November, 2.00-4.00pm

Expanding on themes from the In the footsteps of the East London Group exhibition at the Nunnery Gallery, Bow Arts and Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives invite you to delve into their archives to gain a deeper understanding of the historical, social, and political context surrounding the sites and buildings featured in some of the East London Group’s most iconic paintings.

Using a range of creative mediums, you will work closely with selected archival materials to dream up and map out your own mixed-media heritage walks through collaging, drawing, sketching, mark making, and photocopying source materials of interest.

By re-interpreting the archives through creative responses, we will connect the dots between sites of interest in the paintings of the East London Group and the streets and scenes of east London we know today.

All art-making materials will be provided – no experience with archives is necessary!

This workshop is in partnership with Bow Arts, and all bookings can be made via their website Bow Arts or link below.

Thursday 24 October | 5.30-8.00pm

The Ijaw (Izon/Ijo) people are from the Niger delta region of southern Nigeria, with a substantial diaspora community living across London and beyond. A National Heritage Lottery Fund project titled ‘Immigrant to citizen: the Ijaw (Izon/Ijo) people of London from the earliest times to the present’ aims to bring awareness and celebrate the diverse communities that have made London their home.

The early Ijaw community established their roots in Tower Hamlets with the purchase of a building in Mile End that provided a communal gathering space for pastoral care and cultural occasions. The project documents many of these early Ijaws, who arrived from the 1930s and lived in Tower Hamlets, through oral history interviews and written testimonies. We are very pleased to be taking in the materials generated by the project for permanent preservation.

This event will celebrate the presentation of their publication that documents the history and heritage of Ijaw people in London.

Drop in - no need to book.

Thursday 17 October, 6.30pm-8pm

Several traditional folk songs make reference to Ratcliff Highway (modern day The Highway). Malcolm Barr-Hamilton will examine the history of the street's notoriety and of the several folk songs associated with it, still popular in folk clubs today.

For over twenty years Malcolm was the much-beloved Borough Archivist for Tower Hamlets. He now works part-time as Archivist for the English Folk Dance and Song Society at Cecil Sharp House.

Thursday 10 October, 6.00-8.00pm

Did you know that videos start deteriorating after 30 years?

The New Black Film Collective and London’s Screen Archives present an evening of films from the 1970s-2000s filmed in Tower Hamlets on the themes of love, community, protest and racism.

The event will also explore why it is important to protect and preserve your own personal collections. Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives and London's Screen Archives will host a workshop on how to care for your documents, photos and films (digital, VHS, super 8mm etc), including a chance to get hands on with old film formats.

This workshop is part of The New Black Film Collective and London’s Screen Archive’s project ‘Undocumented’ delivered with the support of the BFI, awarding National Lottery Funding and Tower Hamlets Council.

3 Aug - 30 Sep 2024

This exhibition by local artist Clare Smith responds to events and themes inspired by the Poplar Rates Rebellion of 1921. Alongside her artwork there will be archival material exploring this history of defiance by local politicians and social reformers in Poplar.

The exhibition has been curated especially for the first floor landing space at Tower Hamlets History Library and Archives, outside the Reading Room.

Wednesday 21 August 10am-2pm Victoria Park FREE

We will be hosting a stall in partnership with Studio Futurall
You can view our pop-up exhibition featuring collections from the current exhibition Cockney Rebels along with Zine-Making and a few musical surprises.

Victoria Park has a long history of combining music and heritage with a community focus.

Thursday 5 September, 6.30-8.00pm

Alan Dein, compiler of the album "Music Is The Most Beautiful Language In The World: Yiddisher Jazz In London’s East End 1920s To 1950s", presents the remarkable story of long-forgotten Jewish-themed jazz 78rpm discs when swinging hot dance bands were still all the rage on the streets of East London. Alan will reflect on the musical stories of East London's Jewish community from singers, songwriters, conductors, and cantors to musicians, managers, proprietors of record shops and club owners.

Saturday 17 August, 2.00-4.00pm

Join us for a discussion with East End punk rock royalty John Wardle aka Jah Wobble (Public Image Ltd, Jah Wobble & The Invaders of the Heart) and Suresh Singh aka The Cockney Sikh (Spizzenergi), as they share their early years living, working and playing music in the borough. Prepare to be dazzled by stories of their musical journeys through the East End and beyond. This event will be chaired by our own Heritage Co-ordinator and Indie Legend Debbie Smith (Echobelly). Prepare to be dazzled by stories of their musical journeys through the East End and beyond.

1 June - 26 July 2024

This exhibition by Judit Ferencz comprises hand-made books and booklets which trace the lifecycle of the East London council estate Robin Hood Gardens (1972). Judit’s onsite drawing practice documented everyday life on the estate in the years leading up to demolition. The exhibition, based on her PhD at the Bartlett, offers an opportunity for local residents, students and professionals in the industry alike to rethink the value given to the inhabitation of architecture and to reimagine a future where considerations of social and environmental sustainability are vital to processes of conservation and heritage listing.

The exhibition has been curated especially for the first floor landing space at Tower Hamlets History Library and Archives, outside the Reading Room where a significant part of the archival research took place. NB: Please check venue opening hours before visiting.

This exhibition is part of the London Festival of Architecture.

Saturday 20 July, 2.00-4.00pm

Join Con Maloney, author of BOOZERS, BOMPERS & BRIDGERS, as he explores live music and entertainment in public houses. After which there will be a listening session of an album called Look In At The Local - recorded at the Waterman’s Arms on the Isle of Dogs in 1964. You'll also have a chance to take a deep dive into our musical collections that didn’t quite make it into the exhibition.

Saturday, 6 July, 1-3pm 

We will be hosting a creative workshop with community organisation Trapped in Zone One. 

'Celebrating Brick Lane with the creation of a heritage mural in the borough. Join us for one of two workshops to help co-design a mural depicting the rich heritage of Brick Lane'

Wednesday 3 July 2024, 6.00-7.30pm (Online)

Join us for a talk with artist and researcher Judit Ferencz and architectural historian Peter Guillery, as they explore the relation between the archive and Judit's onsite works at the Robin Hood Gardens Estate leading up to the demolition. 

Image by Judit Ferencz, Alphabet book for Robin Hood Gardens, 2022

A Teams link will be sent to all those booked before the session. 

Thursday 20 June, 6.00-8.00pm

 Join BBC broadcaster Alan Dein for a reception to mark the launch of our major new exhibition Cockney Rebels, curated by staff at Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives.

 From ‘The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green’ to ‘Bonkers’, the people of London’s East End have always appreciated a good tune. Our unique history, shaped by its connection to the river as a source of inspiration, work, and migration, has produced an extraordinary musical legacy, spanning everything from folk songs and sea shanties to music hall, jazz, punk, the Asian underground and grime.

 Featuring over a hundred rare items selected from the collections held here on Bancroft Road, this exhibition explores how our borough and its people have inspired and shaped popular music, both locally and globally, over four centuries.

 Light refreshments provided. All welcome – please book to reserve your place.

Saturday, 22 June, 1pm-4pm, Idea Store Canary Wharf 

Come and join us at one or both of our pop-up stalls on 'Changemakers' of the East End. You can see our display of zine's produced in the research workshops, take the 'Changemakers' Quiz and make your very own zine!

No booking required just drop-in on the day!

Thursday 13 June, 6:30-8pm

What and who are the Humanities for? Manjapra will explore powers of the Humanities with reference to specific case-studies. He will focus on archiving, technology, documentation, and data performances that take place in communities, outside the structure of universities. Retooled Humanities practices, embedded in community organizations, are essential for successful responses to the greatest social, political, and ecological needs of our times.

Kris Manjapra, Stearns Trustee Professor of History and Global Studies at Northeastern University, and Director of the Northeastern Arts & Humanities Social Action Lab, is the author of books on transnational colonial and anticolonial history, including, most recently, Black Ghost of Empire (Penguin, 2022). He works with collaborators across Northeastern’s global campus network on projects in the engaged and digital humanities.

All are very welcome!!

Saturday 18th May 1-4pm & Saturday 1st June 1-4pm

Often archives are thought of as static and decided – holding the material of our past, and ordering our collective histories. But archives are never done, never decided. Archives are speculative. Archives always contain gaps and breaks that archivists and writers read into and imagine beyond. Work by artists and writers such as Black Quantum Futurism, Juliet Jacques, and Shola Von Reinhold shows how queer and anticolonial practices can reimagine history and make new futures through archival research.

Join us for a series of archival and writing workshops; you can come to one or all three sessions (introductory session took place on 8th May). Participants will have the chance to investigate Tower Hamlets Local History and MayDay Rooms archives, working with selected materials to reimagine and reconstruct histories, and using creative writing practices to make your own speculative fictions and radical counter-realities. Hosted by archivists and organisers from Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives and MayDay Rooms, and writers and lecturers from Queen Mary University of London, workshops will focus on the history of activism and community organising in East London, and how this material holds the seeds of futures yet to be written.

Schedule:

Workshop 2, Saturday 18th May, 1-4pm

Narrating the archives: A guided session in which we’ll encounter materials from the archives and work with them using a combination of archival methodologies and creative writing practices. Book here

Workshop 3, Saturday 1st June, 1-4pm

Speculative futures: We’ll head into the future - any number of possible futures! - and build on archival methodologies and creative writing practices to make new worlds. We’ll share what we have written and put together our own archive from the workshops. Book here

‘Uncovering the Archive’ is free a programme for young people (18-25) on archives and archiving developed by MayDay Rooms in collaboration with other radical spaces, groups and people in London!

All sessions will take place at Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives, 277 Bancroft Road, Stepney E1 4DQ

Thursday 30 May, 6pm-8pm

With a subtle twist of the title based on the book Complicity by Jay Bernard, the closing event for the group exhibition What we have become showcases the work of a group of local young people from Mile End Community Project on their creative response to the exhibition exploring the impact of archives on collective and personal identity and how art can possibly help us understand modern day Britain.

Thursday, 16 May, 6:30-8pm 

Online : Zoom (link will be sent on the day)

Utilising the archive as a mode of expression and social document, this panel discussion with the artists participating in the exhibition, will explore the gaps within the archive that invite us to engage critically with the silenced voices and obscured histories that underpin its very existence and its relationship to artistic practice. Based on the writings of Stuart Hall and his essay 'Constituting the Archive', the panel will discuss how the archive has influenced their work and the connection between memory and meaning.

 Participating artists

Diesen Pamben, Kelly Wu, Rudy Loewe, Holly Graham, Basil Olton

Saturday 20 April, 11am-1pm 

Using memory and examples of archival textiles from the Tower Hamlets collection, costume and set designer Veronika Seifert will lead a collage workshop with text, texture, sculpture and imagination.

All ages welcome (children to be accompanied by adults)

Limited capacity of 15 participants

Join us for the launch of our new exhibition with a tour by curator Basil Olton. Participating artists Holly Graham, Diensen Pamben and Kelly Wu will also share their working processes and how they responded to the themes of the exhibition.

Saturday 16 March, 11am-1pm

In partnership with The Women's Library at LSE, we will be exploring how women in the East End resisted and fought for their liberation. Whether it was for voting rights, better living and working conditions, equal pay or better health and family care, you will have the opportunity to look through material from both our collections.

There will also be a badge-making activity for those who feel inspired to mark their own mini protest!

Saturday 2 March, 2-4pm

A screening of short films made by participants of the Hyenas in Petticoats women's radical filmmaking course led by Katy McGahan and Mizgin Mujde Arslan at Newington Green Meeting House in 2023. These short documentary films cover a range of topics including environmental activism, gentrification, concepts of home, women's relationships with the city, love and loss. Tower Hamlets is an important location in several of the films, including Carol Gyasi's 'First Whispers' and Susan Croft's work ‘In search of Margaret Wynne Nevinson’.

Artists: Katy McGahan, Mizgin Mujde Arslan, Kirsty Edginton, Catherine Phillips, Madeline Hartley Salim, Lydia Julien, Noemi Menendez, Lili Ly, Carol Gyasi, Susan Croft

Thursday 29 February, 6-7.30pm

1970s Britain witnessed housing struggles for many working class communities across the country. Racialised groups, like the growing Bengali community in Tower Hamlets, faced additional hardships owing to structural racism and the rise of far right racist attacks by the National Front. In her book From Sylhet to Spitalfields, Shabna Begum explores how the longstanding Bengali community resisted the housing crisis amidst the violence and discrimination, by squatting. In this workshop we will be revisiting material from our archives used for the book: examining how records are used to uncover hidden narratives, and discussing the radical history of the Bengali squatter's movement.

Shabna Begum is interim CEO at the Runnymede Trust, the UK’s leading race equality think tank. 

Thursday 22 February, 6:30-8pm

There is no public recognition of African people who lived in the East End 300 years ago. We’re launching a groundbreaking project researching in the archives and producing new creative work which gives life to these neglected lives and stories.

The aim of the project is to identify the places, spaces and networks in which African people lived, worked or socialised during the period of operation of the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

Join us at our launch event to find out more and how you can get involved!

If you can’t come along, this information will be posted on the project website and social media platform with regular updates about our activities, discoveries, and creative re-imagining throughout the year.

Saturday 17th February, 2-4pm

In this workshop with Fatima Rajina and Hajera Begum from Nijjor Manush, we will investigate anti-racist resistance and advocacy from local communities through archival material from MayDay Rooms and Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives. What social and political hardships have communities faced in Tower Hamlets since the 1970s? What lessons can be learnt from their radical histories? And how do we apply these teachings to contemporary struggles? Join us in exploring grassroots activism and strategies of resistance.

MayDay Rooms is an archive, resource and safe haven for social movements, experimental and marginal cultures and their histories.

Nijjor Manush is an independent campaigning group that aims to educate, empower and organise Bengalis and Bangladeshis in the UK.

Thursday 15^th February, 6-7.30pm

You are invited to an evening of writing and discussion, where you will explore photos, records and memories of the LGBTQ+ community in Tower Hamlets. East London-based writer and facilitator F. Zeeshan Choudhury will provide writing games and activities to interact with these archival materials. As well as sharing your work, there will be a discussion exploring elements of our queer past and ways it can be brought into the future.

This workshop is for all people 18+ who want to find strength and inspiration from the past, as well as writers looking to see how archival material can inform their work.

Wednesday 24 January 2024, 6.00-7.30pm

How do Jews of different generations commemorate the Holocaust today? How effective are national memorialisation initiatives in the UK and Europe? In the decades that followed World War Two, what was the response of the East End’s Jewish community to the genocide? Can Holocaust remembrance ever be non-political?

Join Barnaby Raine, David Rosenberg and Nadia Valman as they discuss these questions and more, from a personal, national and local perspective.

Saturday 20 January, 2-4pm

Join us for the long-awaited FREE launch event of the exhibition ‘This is Our History’ produced in partnership with Tower Hamlets Schools Library Service. The launch event will be a fun-packed afternoon suitable for the whole family, including badge-making, collage map activities and tote bag printing. We will also have some surprises to bring to life some of the unknown stories of the East End. The exhibition features artwork produced by school children who attended workshops at Tower Hamlets Local history Library & Archives.

Light refreshments will be available throughout the afternoon. ‘This is Our History’ was supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Wednesday 17th January, 6.00-7.00pm ONLINE

It is said that the brutal murder of Altab Ali on 4 May 1978 was a turning point that led to the mobilisation of an anti-racist movement by the Bengali community in the East End. This period marked a political awakening amongst Bengalis who had been long suffering violent racist attacks and housing discrimination in the locality. Join Ansar Ahmed Ullah as he explores what led to the summer of protests in East London, how the Bengali community forged alliances with other community and political groups, and how the movement developed in the following decade. This event aims to provide a wider historical and political context to Paul Trevor's photographs in the current exhibition Brick Lane 1978: The Turning Point at Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives.

Thursday 16 November, 6.30-8pm

Join us for a discussion with curators and historians Nadia Valman, Tamsin Bookey, Rehana Ahmed and Alan Dein responding to Everything is different, nothing has changed; the three sound art installations in the context of the East End's social and public history. 

This event is part of the Being Human Festival. 

Sunday 8 October, 11am-1.00pm

Explore London’s Jewish East End with Professor Nadia Valman and Dr Vivi Lachs of Queen Mary, University of London, who present a free guided walk through East London’s Jewish past based on their Arts and Humanities Research Council project on English and Yiddish literature and song of the East End from the 1880s to the 1950s.

Saturday 2 September, 2-4pm

Join our librarian Robert Jones in exploring materials related to our sound collection. There will be a talk about the types of sound recordings held at Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives and an opportunity join us for a selected listening session.

Thursday 7 September, 5-7pm

The making and unmaking of narrative has been key to the anti-racist, social and housing justice battles won and lost around the East End over the last century. This informal conversation with Dr Fatima Rajina and Tasnima Uddin, founding members of the Bangladeshi/Bengali-led campaigning and solidarity group Nijjor Manush since 2017, connects the historical themes of Syma Tariq's audio artwork Delay lines with a focus on the narrative challenges, complexities and tactics involved in the group’s ongoing activism. They will speak particularly about grassroots organising within the Save Brick Lane campaign.

Thursday 28 September, 6-7.30pm

After World War II many East Enders permanently left the neighbourhoods where they had grown up. For Jews whose parents and grandparents had arrived in the East End in the Victorian period this also signified the end of the vibrant Jewish community life that had developed here in the first part of the twentieth century. In this online talk Professor Nadia Valman of Queen Mary University discusses how Jewish writers remembered their childhood in the East End of the 1930s.

Saturday 16 September, 2-4pm

This workshop will centre around a transcript from an oral history interview made by the writer Caroline Adams. The interview’s subject was a Bengali immigrant to the UK called Nawab Ali who arrived here in 1939, just before the start of World War II. His story is extraordinary and reflects the richness and hardships of the lives of immigrants to this country and the East End specifically. Participants will be invited to read sections of the text and edit together their favourite parts of Ali’s story for further discussion in an informal group setting. The workshop will begin with an introduction to Alastair Levy’s exhibited work My Home In Morgan Street (2023).

Thursday 24 August, 5.30-7.00pm

All are welcome at this public launch event for the exhibition.

Produced in collaboration with researchers at Queen Mary, University of London and Birkbeck, University of London, who have been exploring what the East End meant to generations of migrants, Everything is different, nothing has changed uses archival audio to offer new interpretations of Tower Hamlets’ past.

Refreshments provided, speeches at 6.15pm.