Electric Piers’ curated Open House Festival collection.
For the Open House Festival this year we have invited six different individuals and collectives to curate strands of the festival programme. These collections and event are their chance to share with others the buildings, places and themes they see as worthy of celebration and exploration.
Dr Tola Dabiri is the Director of Electric CIC. Tola has worked across the cultural sector for almost 30 years, beginning her career in public libraries and archives.
Tola has worked at the Museums Libraries and Archives Council and The National Archives, and the UK Centre for Carnival Arts. As a she has developed and managed a number of successful projects including Carnival in a Box, Fundraising for Archives for The National Archives, and UKCCA’s HLF funded Carnival Archive Project.
Tola was awarded a PhD from Leeds Beckett University, for her research looking at orality and the intangible cultural heritage of British Caribbean Carnival.
Cheryl Bowen has an educational background in Cultural Management, history of art and design, Museums studies and art education. Cheryl has previously worked in East and South London for eighteen years in culture and heritage sector, her interests are in African Diasporic heritage and cultural communities in the UK, art education and cultural capital in South Yorkshire.
Windrush Legacies
Electric Piers commemorates the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the Empire Windrush with passengers from across the Caribbean at Tilbury Docks on June 22nd 1948. For our collection, we have been inspired by creative and public spaces which tell the story of Windrush legacies and the modern migration of people from global south to London. We have decided to explore a small selection of the buildings and spaces in London which have been inspired, developed and sustained through activism and determination of people from Africa and the Caribbean. These spaces are for the exploration of cultural identity, truth and knowledge for these diaspora communities, which after 75 years are thriving and here to stay.
You can find more information about Electric Piers CIC here.
The Black Cultural Archive was set up after a long period of campaigning by Len Garrison and others, as a permanent place to collect and preserve and celebrate the histories of people from African and Caribbean descent in Britain. The Lambeth based archive researches, interprets and exhibits African Diaspora history and heritage in its collections of documents, photographs and a small museum collection.
Opened in 2014, this Georgian Grade 2 listed building was redeveloped by architects Pringle Richard Sharratt. In 2015 the building won the new London architecture award for Building of the Year. This significant national and international site in Windrush Square, continues the story of the Windrush generation and the early African presence in the London.
2. Walking tour of New Cross and Deptford
Walking tours are a great way to see new parts of the city, buildings that normally go unnoticed and to be transported back to the past, whilst still standing in the present. The New Cross to Deptford history tour with Historian and Author S. I. Martin, explores buildings of African and Caribbean historical significance and sites of memory including 436 New Cross Road, the location of the New Cross Massacre, a fire which killed 13 young Black adults in 1981. The tour passes through a vibrant part of the London urban metropolis, with Georgian, Edwardian and modern architecture.
3. New Beacon Books
New Beacon Books is the only remaining independent Black publishing and bookselling company in the U.K. Established in 1966, New Beacon Books supplied African and Caribbean literature, it has been pivotal to the growth of the Black Education Movement, the Black Supplementary School Movement and current calls for the decolonisation of the national curriculum.
Located in the quiet streets near Finsbury Park, the publishing company and book shop continue to tell the story of the diasporic journeys of Caribbeans and Africans, along with education and learning, social justice which continues the legacy of the founders, John La Rose and his partner Sarah White.
Now run by campaigner and author Michael La Rose, (the son of founder John La Rose), New Beacon Books also hosts The George Padmore Institute which also provides research, information archives educational resources for students and the community. New Beacon Books also has a lively events programme of author and history talks.
4. Dalston C.L.R James Library & Hackney Archive
In the heart of one of Hackney’s diverse neighborhoods, near to the long-standing Ridley Road market, Dalston’s CLR James library and Hackney Archive building is a gateway to exploring the past, and fosters learning and knowledge of African and Caribbean history .
This multi-use building is the newest civic building in Dalston Square, which is also the site of a transport hub and recent development of residential buildings. This new building was completed in 2012 by Earle Architects, and brings together the CLR James Library and Hackney Archive to form an important symbol of Hackneys’ new urban exploration in Dalston.
The building commemorates the legacy of educationalist, activist and campaigner CLR James. The internal staircase grandeur takes you on a journey to the fourth floor via exposed structural elements.
Combining history on its doorstep and in the history being made , the CLR James Library and Hackney Archives are an excellent repository for the history of the new and established communities in this vibrant Borough of creativity and continual social activism.
5. The Africa Centre
Founded in 1962, The Africa Centre was originally opened to foster continuing good relations between Britain and the independent African countries after the end of colonial rule, and has hosted many iconic past and present African and Black British political and cultural leaders. Over the past sixty years, the Centre has developed into a beacon pan-African culture for the African and Caribbean diaspora in the U.K., with a vibrant programme of events. After over fifty years in Covent Garden, the Africa Centre opened its doors in its new location in Southwark, in a building retrofitted by architects Freehaus, in June 2022. This exciting multi-purpose building includes a restaurant, gallery and performance space.
6. The Friends of Huntley Archive: LMA
Founded by the friends of Jessica and Eric Huntley, publishers, booksellers and activitists, FHALMA (Friends of the Huntley Archives at London Metropolitan Archives) raises awareness of Black heritage by inspiring learning and sharing stories about history, education and culture political activism.
FHALMA is a charitable foundation, founded in 2013 by the friends of Jessica and Eric Huntley, and the Huntley Collections are deposited at the London Metropolitan Archives, along with the dedicated Huntley Room which hosts exhibitions and events using and inspired by the collection.
Along with the annual conference held at LMA in February each year, FHALMA also developed and delivered the No Colour Bar exhibition in partnership with LMA and Guildhall Art Gallery, which brought together an exhibition from the Huntley Collection, and important works by Black British artists.
Want to find out the opening times of the buildings and places in this collection, and the activities they are hosting? Click here!
