Woolwich Works is honouring the Windrush generation with an exhibition that will transport visitors to an African or Caribbean front room from 1950s London.
The free Windrush Front Room, which will be in place until March 16, features decor from the time such as a home bar, plastic pineapple ice bucket, glass fish, a Bluespot radiogram, Jim Reeves LP and an Axminster pattern carpet.
The free exhibition also features a reading from the best-selling novel Twenty-Eight Pounds Ten Shillings, A Windrush Story, by the exhibition’s curator, Tony Fairweather.
Fairweather will also be hosting will also hosting a Windrush Front Room House Party on Friday night and Sunday Afternoon in the Front Room this weekend.
He told The Greenwich Wire the aim of the exhibition was to save artefacts that were important to the generation that came to Britain from Commonwealth countries after 1948, when the Empire Windrush first docked at Tilbury.
He said: “This Windrush collection is for the elders and future Greenwich and Woolwich generations to enjoy and learn about the brave young people who came from the Caribbean and Africa in the 1940s to the ‘mother country’ that they only knew through books. Many were aged between 18 and 23.
“Woolwich Works is the ideal place for this exhibition with its connection to the Thames that so many Windrush ships sailed down to the London ports.
“Many Windrush people disembarked at Woolwich, lived and worked on the docks and warehouses from the 1940s to the 1980s.
“We will be commemorating Greenwich and Woolwich pioneers from 1956 including Roy MacFarlane, who was refused a sales position at the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society, Stephen Lawrence, Baroness Lawrence, Orville Blair and Baroness Ros Howells.
“The Greenwich African-Caribbean Organisation dedicated a Juneberry Tree to the wonderful Dr Pamela Franklin and the Caribbean Social Forum plus there will be many more stories from the Greenwich and Woolwich community.”
The exhibition has kicked off a season of Windrush-themed events at Woolwich Works, including children’s authors KN Chimbiri and Juliet Coley reading from their books on Saturday, Fairweather will play tunes on his Bluespot radiogram on March 16 while a Mother’s Day show on March 30 will feature lovers’ rock star Carroll Thompson and comedian Felicity Ethnic.
The Effra Band, once the house band at the Effra Hall Tavern in Brixton, will also perform as part of the Woolwich Jazz Series on April 25.
More details about the events are on the Woolwich Works website.
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