All of out exhibitions are free. Exhibitions at Islington Museum and Local History Centre are listed below. Details are also available in our What’s On guide.
Our events and children's events are listed separately and the Islington events diary also provides details of all council events.
Exhibition at Islington Museum
14 October 2011 – 25 February 2012
In 1962 the aspiring playwright Joe Orton and his partner and mentor Kenneth Halliwell, who lived together in Islington, were each sentenced to six months imprisonment for malicious damage to Islington Public Library books. The offenders were found guilty of stealing and ‘doctoring’ library book covers with images from other sources or by adding new text and narrative. They also removed illustrations from library art books to ‘wallpaper’ their bed-sit at 25 Noel Road. During imprisonment Joe Orton embarked upon what was to be a successful but all too brief writing career, cut short by his murder at the hand of his jealous partner. ‘Malicious Damage’ tells the story surrounding the life and crimes of Orton and Halliwell in Islington and, for the first time at Islington Museum, offers the opportunity to view all of the surviving doctored book covers along with other material reflecting the life and work of the pair.
For more information, call 020 7527 2837 or email islington.museum@islington.gov.uk
Exhibition at Islington Local history Centre
27 January - 25 February
The Blueprint Theatre Company presents 'Don't You Forget About Me', an exhibition of photography celebrating 1980's Islington, before mobile phones and social networking changed our lives forever! The exhibition offers a unique snapshot of life in the borough during this vibrant and defining decade, a time of riots, strikes and demonstrations (some things never change) - and the Rubik's Cube.
'Don't You Forget About Me' is part of a yearlong project by Blueprint, which also includes 'Every Time I Think of You', a film based on reminiscences and interviews with local people, including Chapel Market traders and council residents, which will be shown at Screen on the Green in April.
Inspired by a renaissance of traditional British theatre and film, Blueprint's aim is to produce high quality and captivating work which appeals as much to the experienced theatre-goer as to those who would not normally engage with theatre. The exhibition and the film reflect their commitment to telling the stories and celebrating the lives of ordinary people in this extraordinary part of London.
For more information, call 020 7527 7988 or email local.history@islington.gov.uk
Exhibition at Islington Museum
9 March - 3 May
Working with educationalists and professional curators, students from five local schools and colleges have come together to produce an exhibition of work showing the development of visual arts from secondary school to pre-degree level.
Comprising of work by students from City and Islington College, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School, Holloway School, Islington Arts and Media School and Mount Carmel RC Technology College for Girls, this exhibition will not only examine the work of young artists themselves but will also give an insight into art education.
For more information, call 020 7527 2837 or email islington.museum@islington.gov.uk
Exhibition at Islington Local history Centre
3 March - 31 May
Charles Dickens (1812-1870), England’s most popular Victorian novelist, recorded life in Islington in fact and in fiction. He knew the area well and was particularly attracted to Clerkenwell. Dickens regularly visited this densely populated district, drawing influences for his work from the people that he encountered, the buildings that he passed and the scenes that he witnessed.
Dickens’s early descriptions of Islington and Clerkenwell are recorded in his 'Sketches by Boz' (1836), a collection of observational pieces. Further local settings appear in many of his works of fiction: 'Oliver Twist' (1837-9), for example, features locations from Angel to Smithfield and 'Our Mutual Friend' (1864-5) takes the reader to Holloway and to Belle Isle, an area of ‘noxious trades’ to the east of King's Cross Station.
‘A Twist in the Tale: Charles Dickens and Islington’ explores the great writer’s connections with the area. The visitor is invited to discover the places where his characters could be found, as well as the very streets upon which Dickens trod, his work creating an invaluable social and historical record about this unique part of north London during the Victorian era.
For more information, call 020 7527 7988 or email local.history@islington.gov.uk
Exhibition at Islington Museum
18 May - 25 August
An exhibition by the City of London and Cripplegate Photographic Society. During 2011 and the early part of 2012 the City of London and Cripplegate Photographic Society has been documenting the area around where it has met for the last 112 years. The consequence is an absorbing exhibition where the locations’ historic features encounter their modern-day counterparts. Urban landscapes, local communities and hidden histories are amongst themes explored and evocatively captured by Society members. Supplementing the results of this pictorial survey are images of Cripplegate, Clerkenwell and Finsbury’s past – people, places and events - taken from the extensive collections at Islington Local History Centre and Museum.
For more information, call 020 7527 2837 or email islington.museum@islington.gov.uk
Page Last Updated: 24 January 2012