LONDON A-Z An alphabetical journey through the capital's museums Island History Trust
Location: 197 East Ferry Road, London E14 3BA [map] Open: Tue, Wed & first Sunday of the month (1:30-4:30pm) Admission: free (Open Days £2) Brief summary: Docklands in black and white Website:www.islandhistory.org.uk Time to set aside: dependent on family connections
The Isle of Dogs is no island, more an East End tongue hanging down within the Thames's snakiest meander. And while the E14 postcode may now may be best known for its shiny towers and financial dominance, that's only the very latest part of the story. The history of the peninsula stretches back to medieval times - first a marshy outpost, then the very heart of international trade, then a place of belching industry. But one constant presence has been the island's community - a group of people isolated by geography and bound together by circumstance. This museum celebrates their resilience.
The Island History Trust base themselves in a community centre at the foot of the Isle of Dogs, down where the genuine residents live. Long before property developers sought to build riverside flats and waterside towers, a motley assortment of working class terraces grew up to provide the docks and their supporting industries with personnel. Some of these streets are delightful (Thermopylae Gate, anyone), others merely post-warestates built up on the site of bombed out back-to-backs. Over the years many of the former residents have moved away, priced out by incomers, but when the Trust holds an Open Weekend they pop back for a natter and some tea and cake. There's much to remember.
5000 large black and white photographs take up a lot of space. They're all filed away in cardboard boxes, lovingly laminated and carefully catalogued. Sit at one of the centre's tables and you can flick through the Industrial selection, sit at another and a century of schoolchildren beam out. Someone's gone to a lot of effort to try to name all the people and locations in the photos, and if you have a particular Docklands resident in mind you can try to track them down using a very detailed card-based indexing system. Be warned, they may be grinning at a street party, or looking distinctly under-nourished, or wearing an especially ridiculous hat. (God help us if pancake-sized flat caps ever come back into fashion) (I'll give it three years)
While I sat looking through a box of street scenes, one former lady resident started hunting through a neighbouring pack of sporting photos. "That's your Uncle Frank," she told the intrigued youngster tagging along beside. "And that's my brother Albert, all dressed up for the football, he did love his football. He used to play in four different leagues - Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon, Sunday morning and Sunday afternoon - and he signed up under a different name each time because officially he wasn't allowed to play in more than one." With a grin of recognition on the boy's face, that was another family legend safely entrusted to the next generation.
Many people seemed to be using the Open Day as an opportunity to meet up with old friends, neighbours and former schoolmates. There were gossipy chats in every corner, with the volunteers' tea and homemade cakes going down a storm. Barring a few tagged-along grandchildren I did feel like I was the youngest person in the room by about 20 years, but I was made more than welcome all the same. A couple of very informative display boards explained the industrial and social history of the area - the latter surprisingly more interesting than the former. And it was also fascinating to find out, through those extra-special very ordinary photographs, a lot more about the ordinary lives of a century of genuine East Enders.
If you ever had relatives down on the Dogs, or if you're a more recent arrival to the area with an interest in its past, I know that Eve and her volunteers would be more than pleased to welcome you. Normally their collection's open in an upper room on the first Sunday of the month, with photos to explore and publications to peruse. For a rather broader experience (and tea and cakes), the twice-yearly Open Weekend continues today and tomorrow from 11 til 6. Few communities can boast such a comprehensive repository of the everyday. by DLR: Mudchute
The Isle of Dogs is no island, more an East End tongue hanging down within the Thames's snakiest meander. And while the E14 postcode may now may be best known for its shiny towers and financial dominance, that's only the very latest part of the story. The history of the peninsula stretches back to medieval times - first a marshy outpost, then the very heart of international trade, then a place of belching industry. But one constant presence has been the island's community - a group of people isolated by geography and bound together by circumstance. This museum celebrates their resilience.
While I sat looking through a box of street scenes, one former lady resident started hunting through a neighbouring pack of sporting photos. "That's your Uncle Frank," she told the intrigued youngster tagging along beside. "And that's my brother Albert, all dressed up for the football, he did love his football. He used to play in four different leagues - Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon, Sunday morning and Sunday afternoon - and he signed up under a different name each time because officially he wasn't allowed to play in more than one." With a grin of recognition on the boy's face, that was another family legend safely entrusted to the next generation.
