History House Weekend

Emily Hughes – Archivist

To celebrate Oxford House’s 140th anniversary, History House was launched as an exhibition and festival weekend. Our exhibition, hosted in our gallery, chronicles some of the hidden or perhaps unappreciated stories from Oxford House’s history – from our Victorian founders to women who started social action schemes here in the late 21st Century. 

Our exhibition launch included events run throughout the weekend of 7th – 8th June, starting with a film screening of East Endings (1993) and a following discussion with its director, Mark Jay. A diasphoric oral history recorded during a night at Bloom’s– then one of the last remaining kosher restaurants in Whitechapel – cartoonist Harry Blacker celebrated his 83rd birthday with friends reminiscing about the Jewish East End of the 1930s. 

Next, we hosted the Cockney Sikh Takeover, a night of 1970s tunes, discussion, and performance curated by Suresh Singh, otherwise known as the Cockney Sikh. Suresh was born in Spitalfields and became the first Punjabi punk, playing drums for Spizzenergi and touring with Siouzie and the Banshees. He read extracts from his book Memoirs of a Cockney Sikh, showed archive photographs of his family and childhood, and played music from his punk years in the East End of the 70s. 

Next, we hosted two talks by fantastic speakers, starting with Rebels & Reformers. This covered women’s diverse contributions to Oxford House and social movements across East London, given by social historians Michelle Johansen, Lucinda Matthew-Jones, and Maggie Pinhorn. Next was East End Shorts, a series of talks about Tower Hamlets Black history, Julie Begum on Bengali-led women’s activism, and a poetry reading by Chris Searle relating to East London’s long history of solidarity campaigns. 

The weekend culminated with the book launch of ‘Scattered: The making and unmaking of a refugee’ by Aamna Mohdin, hosted in partnership with Kayd Somali Arts & Culture. This event featured a vibrant conversation between Aamna Mohdin, sharing her journey as a refugee from Somalia to the UK, and Samira Musa, a British-Somali film and TV producer. 

The Somali Community have long been present at Oxford House, where migration in the 1980s and 1990s due to political struggle in the region saw it become a vital hub for Somalis in East London and beyond. History House hoped to acknowledge this close relationship – as essential services run at Oxford House such as ESOL, health clinics, and women’s services were esablished here by the Somali community, and Oxford House in ther 1990s was well-known for its Somali Cafe. We are also proud to display other work by Somali creatives, including a poem by Nomadic Libaax and a textile print by Hafza Studio. 

Other events at our packed History House weekend festival included a walking tour around Bethnal Green led by Alan Gilbey discussing East End history, a badge-making and oral history pop-up led by Eastside Community Heritage, and a pop-up cinema showing a range of short films about the East End, among many more. 

Visit us and get in touch

Following the History House weekend festival’s launch, our exhibition is now in place until December 2024. For more East End and Oxford House history, visit our new 140th celebration archive website, available here. Alternatively, get in touch at OHarchive@oxfordhouse.org.uk to come to the archive or share memories of your time at Oxford House. We hope to see you again for our 150th!