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Councillors Ruth Polling and Terry Stacy enjoy an old-fashioned cuppa at the new Islington Museum |
Museum pours over our history
£1m centre’s fascinating collection of artefacts tell story of the borough
IT’S been two years in the making, but a chorus of approval is expected to greet Islington’s brand-new £1 million purpose-built museum when it officially opens in Finsbury next Monday.
Paid for mostly out of a National Heritage Lottery grant, an entire ground floor at Finsbury public library in St John Street has been converted for the ultimate themed story of the borough.
Visitors will follow the fascinating saga of how Islington developed from a small sheep farming village called Iseldune to becoming a bustling city borough, with 180,000 residents, and the home of one of the world’s most successful football teams.
A bust of Lenin has pride of place at the exhibition. He lived and worked in Clerkenwell, and the bust once graced the Russian Embassy and later Finsbury Town Hall, but was eventually removed after repeated vandalism.
Letters and postcards from Islington people caught up in the First and Second World Wars will be on display, together with audio recordings from those who lived through the horrors of the Blitz.
There are also audio recordings from immigrants who moved to Islington in the 1950s from the Caribbean to work in the NHS.
And, for the first time, book covers that were stolen from Islington’s libraries and defaced by playwright Joe Orton and his lover Kenneth Halliwell are going on permanent display.
The pair were eventually prosecuted and jailed for six months in May 1962.
The museum features a pioneering gay section. In 1984 local Labour MP Chris Smith – now Lord Smith – famously opened a speech at an event declaring he was gay, making him the first openly gay MP at Westminster.
Councillor Ruth Polling, Islington Council’s executive member for leisure and equalities, said: “Islington’s history is some of the most exciting in London. Now we have a museum that is worthy of our past.
“This isn’t some dusty old room. It’s a modern, well-designed space, with lots of interactive ideas for visitors, including video and audio footage and quizzes.
“And it isn’t just about the rich and powerful – it shows clearly how everyday people lived and worked in the streets we know today.”
Cllr Polling said one of her favourite exhibits is a 1940s kitchen donated by a local resident.
There’s an Arsenal memorabilia section and a colourful exhibit of women’s dresses through the ages, going back to 1838.
As well as the permanent gallery, the museum will also have temporary exhibitions, the first of which celebrates the history of Clerkenwell. It also has an education room for lectures and children’s activities.
The museum, which is below Finsbury Library at 245 St John Street, opens to the public on Monday, May 12. Opening hours are 10am-5pm on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. It is closed on Wednesdays and Sundays. Entry is free. |
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