Neighbourhood Number Nine: New Horizons 1950s – 1980s

The exhibition New Horizons 1950s – 1980s considers the changing nature of the Lansbury neighbourhood over four tumultuous decades in the East End, addressing the impacts of industrial modernisation, declining docklands and the strategic relocation of communities to New Towns outside of London. Investigating how such dramatic changes in local industry, population and transport links shaped the neighbourhood, the display reveals how the fortunes of the local community were influenced by a complex web of political and planning ideologies – reaching far beyond the boundaries of the estate itself. Alongside archival photographs, drawings and original artefacts, the exhibition features a series of oral histories comprising of insights and stories from members of the local community both past and present.

The exhibition explored the forces that changed the fortunes of the Estate by undermining its initial intentions, whilst also finding new architectural genealogies in the development of the New Towns which adopted the same strategies and tectonic details as the original design. This included a panel discussion I chaired titled Working to Live and Living to Work? with Ken Worpole (writer and historian), Ruth Potts (co-founder, Bread, Print and Roses), Eddie Blake (senior architect, Sam Jacob Studio) and Holly Lewis (co-founder, We Made That) questioning the role of the industry in the neighbourhood’s design. Alongside this, a schools’ workshop was orchestrated with ceramic artist Matthew Raw in which they created their own versions of the Peggy Angus tiles which were integral to their school’s commissioning as part of the 1951 Live Architecture exhibition.

• https://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/museum-life/l...