Free exhibition of photographs by Debra Rapp and Marion Davies of 80 East London businesses displaced by the 2012 Olympic Games.
Dispersal: Picturing Change in East London is on at the V&A East Museum on Level 3, 107 Carpenters Rd, London, E20 2AR, and it's free to visit. It runs until Sunday 4 April 2027, so you've got plenty of time to fit it in.
The exhibition grew out of a specific moment in East London's recent history: the relocation of 284 trades and businesses from the Lea Valley, between Stratford and Hackney Wick, to make way for the 2012 Olympic Games. Realising that a huge chunk of the area's working history was about to vanish, photographers Marion Davies and Debra Rapp spent 2005 to 2007 systematically documenting those spaces. They ended up with an archive of images covering 80 businesses — everything from belt-making and zinc galvanising to salmon smoking. The colour photographs are all by Debra Rapp, the black and white by Marion Davies, and the show was put together in collaboration with Juliet Davis.
What makes it work is the location. After you've gone through the images, you're taken out onto the Level 3 terrace to look over the very ground they record. The Northern Outfall Sewer's towpath, now known as The Greenway, still runs beneath the embankment right there. It puts the photos in context: you see the images of the workshops and then look out over the land they once occupied.
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Beyond the archive, the work asks a broader question: how to revive industries and cultures of making while supporting new creative practices across our cities. It's as much about what comes next as what was lost. The museum is open 10.00-18.00, and entry is free.
