Bloolips was a gay musical comedy theater group formed in 1977. It was influenced by the Gay Liberation movement and the beginning of punk and it responded to them with the concept of dressing up in Drag and being camp and performing. Three of the founding members described themselves as working-class and from Hackney.
The area’s music hall traditions shaped some of the group’s performance ideas as they found inspiration in local stars like Marie Lloyd. Bloolips toured in Germany, the Netherlands and New York at the height of the AIDS epidemic, and showed alternative gay experiences and entertained audiences with their camp and funny musical songs.
@unfinishedhistories is recording these groundbreaking alternative histories of theatre, including Lavinia Co-op, a radical drag legend and original Bloolips cast member. Ahead of a performance at as part of the borough’s LGBTQI+ History Month Lavinia popped into Hackney Museum to tell us about the group's history.
From the 1600s onwards, the British had a presence in India in Surat, Calcutta (Kolkata), Madras (Chennai), Bombay (Mumbai), and from the late 1800s, the northeast of India around Assam which was being exploited for tea cultivation. Many of the women the British employed as ayahs came from these areas.
During the 1800s and early 1900s there was a growing demand for ayahs, leading to a steady rise in the number arriving in Britain.
In the early 1800s a newspaper report suggests William Rogers was asked by the East India Company to provide shelter and lodging for an abandoned ayah in his home just off Fenchurch Street, in the City of London. Rogers treated her so well that in a few short years he was running a lodging house for ayahs. This business had four different locations in Aldgate and various people running it until it moved to Hackney just before 1900.
These pioneering women from South and South East Asia served the British as children’s nannies, nursemaids and ladies’ maids. Find out more about their stories in Hackney.
he social, economic and political composition of Hackney in the latter 20th century made it a fertile ground for activism. From the 1970s onwards, the area was a hotbed of social and political organising on a truly vast amount of issues. Campaign badges were an important tool of communication, with individuals often wearing numerous badges to show what causes they supported, and as a result developing large personal collections.
Since 2023, Hackney Museum has been hard at work adding 303 badges owned by residents involved in campaigns on a wide range of issues such as the anti-nuclear movement, healthcare, feminism, workers’ rights and international liberation struggles.
Enjoy this small snapshot of some of our recent additions.
A clip from 'Carnival: A Tropical Isles Tale', a film showing young people getting ready to take part in Hackney Carnival.
Film made Nick David and Jack Flynn in 2016. Tropical Isles is a carnival band based in the Rose Lipman Building in Hackney. They take part in Notting Hill Carnival and Hackney Carnival every year.
Watch the full film in Hackney Museum's temporary exhibition 'Making Carnival: 50 years of Mas, Music and Movement in Hackney'.
Open until 31 December.
A glimpse into the life of Ridley Road Market, c. 2010. Stop motion by Arnau Oriol.
Watch the full thing, and other films exploring Hackney's past and present, on our Youtube channel - youtube.com/@hackneymuseum8003
Lincoln Rahamut made this child’s costume for his daughter Sarah-Jane (aged 7) to wear at Notting Hill Carnival in 1990.
Mas costumes are not designed to last. Jessie at Hackney Museum describes the rare opportunity - and challenges - of getting this costume ready for display.
Discover more at our free exhibition 'Making Carnival: 50 Years of Mas, Music and Movement in Hackney.' Until 31 December.
Ahead of the return of Hackney Carnival this weekend, academic, consultant and member of Soca Saga Boys Rena Kydd-Williams shares the historical context of characters and dances in the procession, and what carnival means to her.
Learn more at our free exhibition 'Making Carnival: 50 Years of Mas, Music and Movement in Hackney.' See details here - https://hackney-museum.hackney.gov.uk/whats-on/current-exhibition/
All images copyright Hackney Council.
What goes into assembling a Queen costume before carnival?
Watch Marva & Stephanie Antoine of Hackney-based Mas band Tropical Isles as they install one of our latest displays at the museum.
Our free exhibition 'Making Carnival: 50 Years of Mas, Music and Movement in Hackney' opens 10 September until 31 December 2024.
Details and plan you visit here - https://bit.ly/3wZ2Tu6
Music - Pax Nindi, 2022
Sharing the rich, diverse and inspiring histories of our amazing Borough.
