Museum of Croydon

Name: Museum of Croydon
Address: Croydon Clocktower, Katharine Street, Croydon, CR91ET, GB
Telephone: +442082531022

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Museum of Croydon

We share the stories of Croydon's people, past and present.

01/09/2026

All good things must come to an end...

Join us in saying goodbye to Grayson Perry's 'Essex House Tapestries: The Life of Julie Cope' with a free evening of music, crafts, and more on Wednesday 16th September, 7-9pm!

Grayson Perry's 'Essex House Tapestries: The Life of Julie Cope' are on display in the Museum of Croydon until the 19th September. Open Wednesdays-Saturdays 10am-4:30pm. Free, no booking required.

27/08/2026

Have a story that needs to be told? Join us for a night of story-telling, poetry, and music with all manner of lovely folk hosted by Storytime London!

Grayson Perry's Essex House Tapestries: The Life of Julie Cope will be on display at the Museum until the 19th September. In the artist's words, the tapestries represent 'the trials, tribulations, celebrations and mistakes of an average life'.

In celebration, we will be running an evening of storytelling and music inspired by the tapestries. We will have stories from a splendid line-up from Storytime's collective and the night will be hosted by Storytime members Kofi Achina & Adam RW as well as music and two open mic slots.

⏰ Thursday 17th September | 7:30-9:30pm (doors at 7pm)
📍Clocktower Café, Croydon Clocktower, Katharine Street, CR9 1ET
🎟 Tickets are £9.50. Book via Dice using the link 🔗 in our bio.

20/08/2026

Join us for an evening with local historian Lindsay Ould exploring shopping, entertainment, and the home economics movement.

Access to Grayson Perry's 'The Essex House Tapestries: The Life of Julie Cope' exhibition begins from 18:30. The talk starts at 19:00 with a Q&A session following.

⏰ Thursday 10th September | 18:30 - 20:30
📍Museum of Croydon & Central Library, Level 1, Croydon Clocktower, Katharine Street, CR9 1ET
🎟 Tickets are £5 including a drink. Book via Eventbrite: https://tinyurl.com/f3c6rtz8

19/08/2026

🔑Are you ready?

Booking for London Open House Festival open at midday today. Make sure you’re registered, logged in and ready to book on the Open House Festival website (link below) at 12pm.

What's on this year at the Museum of Croydon and Croydon Archives?

🏺Curator and archivist-led tours of our collection stores
🖼 Exhibition: Grayson Perry's Essex House Tapestries: The Life of Julie Cope
🏬A brand-new exhibition showcasing Croydon's Architecture

And much more!

This year's Open House Festival takes place 12-20 September. The Museum of Croydon is open and free to visit on Wednesdays-Saturdays 10am-4:30pm.

Booking is advised for tours: https://tinyurl.com/mry5rk97

15/08/2026

🎻 Announcing our newest digital collection: SAMUEL COLERIDGE-TAYLOR 150

Did you know one of the world's most celebrated composers had Croydon roots?

Today would have been the 151st birthday of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and our new digital collection preserves the story of Croydon's celebrations marking the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth last year.

From performances and exhibitions to community projects and creative commissions, the collection captures how Croydon came together to honour a remarkable local legacy.

Why is this digital collection important?
💛It celebrates a globally significant figure connected to Croydon
🎵 It documents a major community heritage project
📚 It creates a lasting digital record for future researchers
🌍 It helps make Croydon's cultural history more accessible to everyone

Digital archives don't just preserve the past – they preserve how communities remember, celebrate and reinterpret their heritage today.

Read more about the collection in our accompanying blog post: https://museumofcroydon.com/sct-digital-collection

Photo Credits:
Images 1 and 2: London Mozart Players © Marc Gascoigne
Image 3: Glenn Foster Photography
Image 4: Crispian Blaize
Image 5: The BRIT School

13/08/2026

Announcing the next book!

For our next session we will be reading something a little bit different - Olivia Laing’s The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone. Afterwards we will take a moment to explore our current exhibition, Grayson Perry's 'Essex House Tapestries: The Life of Julie Cope'.

⏰ Saturday 12 September| 11:00 - 12:00
📍 Clocktower Café, Croydon Clocktower, CR9 1ET
ℹ Free, no booking required.

About the book:

When Olivia Laing moved to New York City in her mid-thirties, she found herself inhabiting loneliness on a daily basis.

Increasingly fascinated by this most shameful of experiences, she began to explore the lonely city by way of art. Moving fluidly between the works and lives of some of the city's most compelling artists, Laing conducts an electric, dazzling investigation into what it means to be alone, illuminating not only the causes of loneliness but also how it might be resisted and redeemed.

29/07/2026

Announcing our new collection: Routes to Roots!

In our newest , members of Croydon's Anglo-Indian and South Asian communities share stories of migration, family, identity, belonging and life in the borough through interviews, podcasts, films, photographs and theatre performances.

From memories of Surrey Street Market and Stanley Arts to reflections on arriving in Britain and building new lives in Croydon, these personal stories form a powerful part of Croydon's collective memory.

The collection includes:
💬 Oral history interviews
🎤 Podcasts
📽 Documentary film
🎶 Performance recordings
🖼 Photographs
📰Promotional posters

Digital archives help us preserve voices, memories and experiences that might otherwise be lost, making Croydon's heritage more accessible to all.

📍 Available now through the Croydon Archives catalogue - https://archives.croydon.gov.uk/records-relating-to-the-croydon-strand-of-routes-to-roots-a-south-asian-heritage-project

23/07/2026

Come and explore Creative Health for yourself with a family-friendly afternoon of fun!

Visit the Creative Health exhibition at Museum of Croydon and then join local artists to try your hand at a range of activities supporting health and wellbeing across the borough. From singing to drama or arts & crafts, there's something for everyone.

⏰ Saturday 8 August | 2-4pm
📍 Croydon Clocktower, CR9 1ET
ℹ All activities are free, all resources are provided and no experience is needed to take part. Learn more at www.museumofcroydon.com/whats-on

Each activity will repeat 3 times across the afternoon, starting at 1pm, 2pm, and 3pm so you can try out a range of different artforms across the afternoon. Capacity for each workshop is on a first-come first-served basis, with opportunities to join activities in the middle of sessions if space allows.

21/07/2026

We loved having create these brilliant live portraits of visitors to our exhibition opening for Grayson Perry's 'Essex House Tapestries: The Life of Julie Cope'!

Want to learn to draw your own fashion portraits? Come along to one of our fun and friendly Dress Up & Draw workshops:

⏰ Thursday 23 & Thursday 30 July | 7-9pm
📍 Level 1, Croydon Clocktower, CR9 1ET
ℹ Tickets from £7.50, booking required: https://tinyurl.com/59ek2299

This workshop creates joy and laughter as participants have fun learning basic fashion illustration skills - whilst dressing up in outrageous outfits. It's a feelgood event where you get to be an artist, a fashionista and a model too.

Mixed media materials and clothing is provided. All garments are easy to slip on top of your own. There is absolutely no pressure to perform!

Part of the Grayson Perry 'Essex House Tapestries: The Life of Julie Cope' exhibition event series.

20/07/2026

Join local artist and illustrator Ruffle in this fun, relaxed comic drawing workshop! Learn to tell your own stories through comics art inspired by Grayson Perry's 'Essex House Tapestries: The Life of Julie Cope' exhibition coming soon to the Museum of Croydon.

⏰ Saturday 15 August | 2-4pm
📍 Level 1, Croydon Clocktower, CR9 1ET
ℹ Tickets £7 or two for £10, booking required: https://tinyurl.com/mpv4wdch
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Address

Croydon Clocktower, Katharine Street
Croydon
CR91ET

Telephone

+442082531022

Website

http://www.museumofcroydon.com/

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