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A lot of people try to efface the memory of their teenage years as soon as they escape their parents’ clutches: embarrassing diaries get packed away in boxes, photos are buried deep in the cloud, and bands that used to fuel your entire existence are cast aside like dirty old t-shirts. But there’s something pretty special about youth culture, so a brand new museum is springing up to preserve all the artefacts that could easily be lost to history.
The Museum of Youth Culture is headed up by Jon Swinstead, who’s built up an 100,000 item collection of treasures that document Britain’s hidden teen history, from rockers’ leather jackets to ravers’ badges to modern day school leavers’ hoodies. It’ll open on Friday May 15, in the basement of a new apartment block in Camden. And now we’re only a few weeks away from the great unveiling, things are really starting to take shape.
Swinstead’s collection started life three decades ago, when he started collecting photos of youth subcultures and storing them in his shed. First, he set up photography agency PYMCA. Then, Jamie Brett approached him with the idea of turning his finds into a museum. A big public call-out followed, with people from all over the country sending in their treasures and sharing the stories of their messy adolescence with the world.
The museum comes after pop-up showcases at We Out Here festival, and on Shaftesbury Avenue. It looks like it’ll be a more permanent affair this time round. With support from City Bridge Foundation and the National Lottery Heritage Fund, it’ll operate as a public event space, youth club and Rough Trade shop.
Step through its doors and you’ll find rough and ready polished concrete floors, and a bright red mod scooter sitting in the middle of its memorabilia-filled cafe space.
There’s plenty of space for gigs and events, as well as low-level soft seating to encourage people to sprawl out and relax in these graffiti-scattered spaces.
There’s an omnivorous approach to curation here, too, with relics from 20th century London like scrawled-over phone booths, Sony Walkmen and giant speaker stacks sitting alongside objects that chronicle modern teen life.
When it opens, the museum will be free to enter, except for ticketed special events. So turn up, peer at eight decades worth of subcultural memorabilia, and maybe you’ll even be inspired to revisit some buried memories of your own.
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