- 5th April: Xenia Trailblazing Women event at Hackney Archives
- 6th April: Talk – The Passmore Edwards Legacy by Dean Evans; Introduction Dr Nicola Stacey, Director Heritage of London Trust
- The life of Vivien Haigh-Wood Eliot – New Archives exhibition
- Hackney 300,000 BC – New Museum exhibition
- Do you remember Hackney in the 1970s to 1990s?
- 9th May: Excavations at Principal Place, Shoreditch – Online LAMAS lecture
- New Hackney Map: Footways.London/Hackney
6th April 2023 at 6.30pm Talk:
The Passmore Edwards Legacy –
The Man who built Libraries and more
A talk by Dean Evans
On 13 June 1896 The
Hackney Express and Shoreditch Observer reported on the laying of
foundation stones for an extension to the library in Kingsland Road, Haggerston
and for a new library in Pitfield Street, Hoxton. Both of these events were
carried out by the philanthropist John Passmore Edwards, who had offered to pay
for the construction of both buildings. And they were just two of more than
seventy public buildings he funded.
After Edwards had declared the Haggerston library stone “well and truly laid”,
Lord Monkswell, in proposing a vote of thanks, said that “Wise munificence such
as that gentleman had exercised was somewhat rare”.
Who was Passmore Edwards, what was at the base of his deeply held convictions, and what made him give away so much of his money?
Thursday 6th April 6.30pm
With an introduction by Dr Nicola Stacey, Director of Heritage of London Trust
Courtyard Theatre, Hoxton, Bowling Green Walk , 40 Pitfield Street, N1 6EU
A free event, but please book via thecourtyard.org.uk
Doors and bar open from 5.30pm
Hackney Archives
5th April –Xenia Trailblazing Women nomination event at Hackney Archives
Xenia provides a space for women from all backgrounds to connect, share and learn. Xenia are creating a walking trail/map of stories so that more people can find out about the fantastic women living and working in the borough!
Join us on Wednesday 5th April at Hackney Archives to help Xenia explore and collect women’s stories that you think should be included in their map.
Free exhibition about the life of Vivien Haigh-Wood Eliot, author and first wife of American poet TS Eliot
Drawing on archival photographs of Northumberland House Private Mental Hospital (Green Lanes, Finsbury Park), where Vivien was committed in 1938 and remained until her death on 22 January 1947, the exhibition presents a number of exploratory visualisations of the imagined day-to-day and emotional life of Vivien that reference, but are not limited to, known biographical facts about her.
– Until end of April
Hackney Museum
Hackney 300,000 BC – current exhibition
Hackney 300,000 BC: Meet the Neanderthal neighbours and curious creatures of the borough’s Old Stone Age.
This exhibition explores a distant past, when Hackney was like an African savannah and huge beasts roamed the landscape. Get hands on with objects hundreds of thousands of years old, and learn about the mysterious humans who made them, the Neanderthals.
Find out why Hackney is one of the most important archaeological sites from the Old Stone Age (Palaeolithic) in Britain, and the stories of the eccentric characters who led to its rediscovery.
Tour of ‘Hackney 300,000 BC’ exhibition with the curator (Booking required via eventbrite)
Visit Hackney Museum on Saturday 22nd April, for Hackney 300,000 BC Open Day.
Throughout the Easter holidays, you can learn about life in Hackney with fun hands-on activities.
Do you remember Hackney during the 1970s to 1990s? Hackney Museum needs you!
We are looking for people aged 55+ to take part in informal workshops at Hackney Museum and share their memories and experiences of living, working or learning in Hackney during the 1970s-1990s.
These small group workshops will cover different themes.
The dates and themes of the workshops are as follows:
Unions: Wednesday 12th April 2023
Politics and Campaigning: Wednesday 26th April 2023
Healthcare: Wednesday 10th May 2023
LAMAS Lecture Online
Excavation of a Roman Cemetery, hoard and prehistoric and post medieval remains at Principal Place, Worship Street/Norton Folgate, Shoreditch
Andy Daykin, MOLA
Prehistoric Society annual joint lecture with LAMAS
9th May 2023 – 6.30pm
The lecture will present the results of excavations carried out at Principal Place between 2011 and 2016. The site lies in the upper valley of the Walbrook stream and within an area of the northern extramural cemetery of Roman London. Remains on the site included the location of small pits containing pottery of Early Neolithic date from at least 24 vessels. Although the Thames valley and its tributaries, such as the Walbrook, would have been favoured locations for prehistoric occupation, evidence for early prehistoric activity has heretofore been largely restricted to individual finds of flint tools and waste such as Neolithic stone axes as found at Finsbury Circus and Liverpool Street station and a Bronze Age bronze ingot recovered to the west of the site at Clifton Street. The Principal Place assemblage is highly significant as it is the largest assemblage of its date recovered from the City and its environs.
The talk will also focus on the excavation of two areas of Roman cemetery including inhumations, cremations and a large hoard of late Roman coins. The lecture will also discuss the extensive remains of 17th-18th century buildings and yards and remains of the early 19th-century Curtain Road gasworks.
Lectures will take place from 6.30pm to 7.30pm – online – only via Zoom.
LAMAS Members are requested to book on Eventbrite via the Society’s website, https://www.lamas.org.uk/lectures.html.
Non-members are welcome but there is a charge of £2.50.
The coin hoard has been published as: An early 5th-century Roman coin hoard from London’s northern cemetery: Principal Place, Hackney Julian M C Bowsher Trans LAMAS Vol. 72, 2021, 15 – 28.
Also Note: LAMAS 59th Annual Conference of London Archaeologists
Saturday 25th March 2023 via Zoom
Footways London/Hackney
footways.london/Hackney a new map for Hackney. Encouraging people to switch their journeys to walking, it offers a network of quiet, interesting streets for walking with local features, histories and businesses marked out, interactively accessible online, and with printed copies available.