Anna Kerr

Hackney hasn’t always been saturated with overpriced sandwich shops, natural wine bars, mullets and platform Doc Martens. While the canal-side Hackney Wick is being hailed as an alfresco dining hotspot by Aperol-wielding drinkers on TikTok, some artists are trying to preserve the history of an area that has become an HQ for the young and trendy. Opposite the Hackney Picturehouse, Hackney Museum’s new photographic exhibition ‘At home in Hackney: a community photographed 1970 to today’ explores the celebrations, disruptions and everyday lives of the borough’s people. The collection documents the way the area has been transformed from the 1970s until now, painting a vivid picture of what Hackney is and has been: a mosaic of cultures, religions, music and activism. Photograph: Sarah Ainslie The seeds of the exhibition were planted almost three years ago when the award-winning photographer Tom Hunter approached the museum with the idea of showcasing the community. ‘The exhibition is a celebration of the radical culture that has made Hackney – which is such an embracing and exciting place to live,’ says Hunter. ‘Hackney, being the East End, has always been a place of immigration,’ he says. ‘It has an amazing history, from the Huguenots, to the Jewish, to the Vietnamese, to the Turkish; it’s almost a stepping stone for people to arrive [in London], bringing their cultures and diversity.’ Photograph: Don Travis Museum officer Jessie Goodison-Burgess echoes these sentiments. ‘The

Many London women are calling for heightened support of Black-owned hair shops after a shocking viral video appeared to show an unnamed woman being ‘strangled’ by a shop worker in the store Peckham Hair and Cosmetics earlier this week. The widely-circulated clip showed a male, South Asian shop worker with his hands around an unnamed customer’s throat following an alleged dispute about a refund. The woman was arrested on accusations of theft and assault and later bailed pending further enquiries, while the worker reportedly faces no charges. A protest organised by community group Forever Family, with support from UK domestic abuse charity Sistah Space, took place on Rye Lane, Peckham yesterday (September 12) in response to the viral video and arrest, which fuelled pre-existing frustrations among south London women that many hair shops are not Black-owned.  ‘This is a longstanding issue that Black women, or Black people who identify as women, face when they go into these spaces,’ said Savannah, a protestor. ‘These are hair shops that are meant for Black women and we are often racialised, and type-casted [in these spaces].This is a boiling over of that.’ Protestor Cleopatra Thompson echoed these sentiments, stating that she too has felt unsafe in such stores. ‘I’ve been followed around and watched like a hawk in these shops in south London,’ she said at the protest. ‘I don’t want to spend a minute or a penny more in these shops that don’t respect me.’   She added: ‘It’s ironic –

Do you find miniature models very adorable and oddly satisfying? Of course you do – who doesn’t? Well, get ready to awww and oooh, as a 30,000-square-foot miniature world is coming to London which will provide views of UK cities and landmarks that the best rooftop bars could only dream of. Leisure experience developer Pocket Planet has announced that it will be opening a land of pure, tiny escapism on Oxford Street. The experience will feature tiny versions of landmarks not just in London but throughout both the UK and the rest of the world.  The mini world will be complete with teeny-tiny moving planes, trains, vehicles, and boats. It’ll also be enhanced with audio and visual effects, all intended to make you feel like you’ve shrunk right down, ‘Ant-Man’ style. Some of the world’s tip-top modellers and interior designers are working to bring the miniverse to life, taking inspiration from the world’s leading miniature attractions including Small Worlds in Tokyo and Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg.  Pocket Planet CEO Mark Vlassopulos promises the new model will take things to a new level, saying that it ‘will be a visual delight, both for the models and the ground-breaking audio-visual elements’.  The attraction apparently intends to attract over a million visitors per year and will occupy a prime spot right between Marble Arch and Bond Street tube station at 500 Oxford Street.  Pocket Planet retail and café will open in Spring 2024, while the exhibit will open in early 2025.