February at the Brunel Museum
Love is in the air this February at the Brunel Museum! From falling in love with London again in Picture the City, learn about those whose love has been marginalized by society in our Rainbow River pub crawl, we’ve got plenty to keep your and your loved ones busy this February at the Brunel Museum.
Rainbow River Virtual Pub Crawl
Thursday 24 February | 7pm to 8.30pm | £13 online only
Pubs and Bars have a long history of being safe havens and places where same-sex couples can express their love for each other in a safe space. After a successful debut in 2021, historians Sacha Coward and Sheldon Goodman return with their virtual pub crawl of east London’s LGBTQ+ history. From a Victorian pub marooned amidst post-war housing to sharing a glass of Mother’s Ruin at the Widow at Masquerade, and even the Brunel Museum itself, fellow revellers discover the stories of love and heartbreak in the pubs of the east end.
Until 20 March | Free. Admission to the Museum applies.
The Bank of England Museum has taken some of the wonderful landscape paintings from its collections to the streets of London for a new exhibition that will explore the layers of history visible across the capital.A reproduction of the painting Lower Thames and Limehouse Reach (1940) by Arthur Burgess (1879–1957) will be outside the Museum for all visitors until 20 March 2022. The exhibition will be available to view online on Google Arts & Culture and can be accessed via a QR code on the reproduction painting.
The Museum, which sits on the site of the Thames Tunnel, has been chosen as the final stop on the exhibition tour, inviting reflection about how London’s physical and economic landscape has changed. The painting shows dockworkers moving precious cargoes during the Second World War, but the docklands have been an essential part of London’s trade for much longer. Its proximity to the docklands was one of the reasons Rotherhithe was selected for the site of the Thames Tunnel, the site on which the Brunel Museum sits today. Visitors to the Museum can discover this longer history and the ingenuity that built the tunnel.
Picture the City Family Workshops
Monday 14 to Friday 18 february | 11am to 1pm, 1.30pm to 3.30pm
Coinciding with the Picture the City exhibition with the Bank of England Museum, families will be encouraged to reflect on the changing face of London’s docklands. There will be the opportunities to meet those who lived and worked in the Docklands, from Marc Brunel who’s Thames Tunnel owes its existence to its proximity to the wharves and docks where cargo was stored, to the dock worker Ben Tillet who decades later demanded better pay and conditions for Dock workers.
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