New Year, Old Hackney

Our reading list this January has been curated by Hackney Libraries in collaboration with Hackney Museum. The museum cares for over 9,000 ​objects, artworks, images and oral history recordings, and inspires many visitors every year – from schoolchildren to celebrated authors.

When better to look back at our local history, ancient and modern, than at the changing of the year? We have chosen a selection of books with links to items held in this vital local collection. Look out for object photographs alongside the titles on our list! And if you’d like to learn more, browse Hackney Museum’s online collections – they are full of photographs, detailed descriptions and histories. Visit the museum website at hackney-museum.hackney.gov.uk to find out more.

Hackney Museum is on the ground floor of the Technology and Learning Centre, next to Hackney Town Hall square, below Hackney Central Library. Why not visit both in one day? Borrow a book from our list, and immerse yourself in local history.

New Year, Old Hackney

A reading list curated by Hackney Libraries in collaboration with Hackney Museum

@hackneylibraries

Our reading list this January has been curated by Hackney Libraries in collaboration with Hackney Museum. The museum cares for over 9,000 ​objects, artworks, images and oral history recordings, and inspires many visitors every year – from schoolchildren to celebrated authors.

When better to look back at our local history, ancient and modern, than at the changing of the year? We have chosen a selection of books with links to items held in this vital local collection. Look out for object photographs alongside the titles on our list! And if you’d like to learn more, browse Hackney Museum’s online collections – they are full of photographs, detailed descriptions and histories. Visit the museum website at hackney-museum.hackney.gov.uk to find out more.

Hackney Museum is on the ground floor of the Technology and Learning Centre, next to Hackney Town Hall square, below Hackney Central Library. Why not visit both in one day? Borrow a book from our list, and immerse yourself in local history.

New Year, Old Hackney Reading List

Patrice Lawrence - Granny Came Here on the Empire Windrush

Sita Brahmachari - When Secrets Set Sail

Mike Nicholson - Museum Mystery Squad and the Case of the Moving Mammoth

Caroline Lawrence - The Thieves of Ostia

Glen Blackwell - The Blitz Bus

Emma Carroll et al - Make More Noise!

Emma Carroll and Lauren Child - The Little Match Girl Strikes Back

Alex Bell - A Most Peculiar Toy Factory

Tom Chivers - London Clay

Marc Morris - The Anglo-Saxons

Daniel Defoe - Moll Flanders

New Year, Old Hackney Reading List

Yael van der Wouden - The Safekeep

Barbara Blake Hannah - Growing out: Black Hair and Black Pride in the Swinging 60s

Daniel Sonabend - We Fight Fascists

Fatima Manji - Hidden Heritage: Rediscovering Britain’s relationship with the Orient

Hakim Ali - African and Caribbean People in Britain

Priyamvada Gopal - Insurgent Empire: Anticolonial Resistance and British Dissent

Daniel Rachel - Walls Come Tumbling Down

Dominic Sandbrook - Seasons in the Sun: Britain 1974-1979

Patrice Lawrence Granny Came Here on the Empire Windrush

Ava needs to choose an inspirational figure for school. Granny starts to tell her the story of how she came to London on the Empire Windrush, and Ava realises that her hero is much closer to home than she thought.

This extraordinary story, beautifully illustrated by Camilla Sucre and written by Hackney author Patrice Lawrence was inspired by our very own Hackney Museum! Explore stories like the one of Ava’s Granny and see a “grip” with your very own eyes.

Museum object: Suitcase, known as a “Grip”, 1955-1965, Hackney Museum

Sita Brahmachari When Secrets Set Sail

Immy and Usha set out on a quest through London accompanied by two bickering ghosts to find a series of magical objects that shed light on their family history. Decades ago, their adored grandma made a promise she couldn’t keep, and she can’t pass on to the other side until the girls fulfil it.

Packed with local history and adventure, showing how everyday objects can be the magical key to understanding our heritages and allowing everyone’s story to be told.

Museum Object: Mrs Pandit’s tiffin tin, 1900s-1920s, Hackney Museum

Mike Nicholson Museum Mystery Squad and the case of the Moving Mammoth

Hackney has an incredibly rich history of prehistoric discoveries, from the remains of legendary animals to tools like axes and scrapers.

Go and investigate further at the Museum, and read all about it at their blog. You’ll never look at places like Shacklewell Lane or the Nightingale Estate in quite the same way! Just don’t forget to read Museum Mystery Squad and the Case of the Moving Mammoth beforehand, to become an expert clue-hunter before you start your next adventure.

Museum object: Flint handaxe, 300,000 BC, Hackney Museum

Caroline Lawrence The Thieves of Ostia

The Thieves of Ostia is the first in the classic series The Roman Mysteries. Flaminia is a natural at solving mysteries, and eerie things are happening in Ostia.

She and her group of friends are ready to teleport us back to Ancient Roman times, thanks to the vivid writing of Caroline Lawrence, who will make you feel as if you’re really there. You can explore the traces of Roman London all over the city, starting with your local museum.

Museum object: Roman bowl fragment, 50 to 100 AD, Hackney Museum

Glen Blackwell The Blitz Bus

Emmie and Jack find themselves transported back to London in 1940, in the middle of the Blitz. They find themselves dodging falling bombs and trying to work out if the mysterious figure they keep seeing is a spy.

A time travel adventure perfect for young people. If you want to learn more, Hackney Museum is home to a gripping section on the Blitz. Or if it’s the double decker bus that caught your eye, then at the Museum you are in for a treat…

Museum object: Air Raid Warden’s box, 1939-1945, Hackney Museum

Emma Carroll et al. Make More Noise!

This incredible collection of short stories was compiled for the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage. Hackney’s history is woven through the pages of the book.

Patrice Lawrence is the author of the short story dedicated to Olive Malvery, the Anglo-Indian journalist whose work helped uncover appalling conditions for workers in Victorian London. The history of women’s activism in Hackney was celebrated in the 2018 exhibition Making Her Mark.

Museum object: Learn The Hackney Bop! (feat Elke Ukwuoma and Ivor Ukwuoma) on the Artburst Topic YouTube page

Emma Carroll, Lauren Child The Little Match Girl Strikes Back

This brilliant feminist reworking of The Little Match Girl tells the story of Birdie, who sells matches on the mean streets of Victorian London, while her mother works at the Bryant & May factory making matches for 14 hours a day. Birdie leads the factory workers out on strike, in a beautiful story about unity, courage and claiming agency.

At Hackney Museum a brilliant interactive display on matchbox making will help you see through Birdie’s eyes.

Museum object: Bryant & May’s matches, 1880-1920, Hackney Museum

Alex Bell A Most Peculiar Toy Factory

Victorian London. Five years ago, the toys at Hoggle’s Happy Toys factory came to life and started to attack children. The factory has been left abandoned, but 10 year old Tess finds out that it is reopening and that she must work there. When 6-year-old Oliver disappears, Tess must face her fears and uncover the truth.

A dark and humorous tale for 6+, which pairs up wonderfully with the magic of London’s iconic Pollock’s Toy Theatre and its long lost Toy Shop at 73 Hoxton Street.

Museum Object: Pollock’s Toy theatre character, 1850-1900, Hackney Museum

Tom Chivers London Clay

Tom Chivers takes us on a journey through the many layers that make up London to uncover what secrets lie beneath a city. Many of his tales intertwine with the history of our borough, from the echoes of Roman and Anglo-Saxon times to lost Shakespearean theatres.

Chivers tells the story of the submerged remains of the Rose Theatre, south of the river, but Hackney was once the home of the Bard’s very own theatre, the Curtain. A brilliant mix of history and folklore for lovers of London.

Museum object: Shakespeare bust, Hackney Museum

Marc Morris The Anglo-Saxons

Marc Morris’s bestselling book is a story of how the foundations of the England we know today were laid. Telling tales of famous and lesser known figures, this gripping history book picks out key themes to produce a compelling narrative of turbulent times.

The story of the Anglo-Saxons is inextricably linked to water. At Hackney museum you’ll be able to step close to an actual Saxon longboat, which was found in Springfield Park near the River Lea.

Museum object: Drawing of the Saxon long boat, which you can see in Hackney Museum. © Tom Berry

Daniel Defoe Moll Flanders

Moll Flanders is said to be Daniel Defoe’s spiritual autobiography. Defoe, who grew up in Stoke Newington, was one of the Dissenters of Newington Green, a group of nonconformists, free-thinkers and radicals who wanted to follow different ways of life to those promoted by the government and Anglican Church.

Defoe’s headstone is kept at Hackney Museum, while his resting place and memorial obelisk are at Bunhill Fields near Old Street.

Museum object: Defoe’s headstone, Hackney Museum

Yael van der Wouden The Safekeep

The Safekeep, shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize, is a powerful exploration of the legacy of WWII.

At Hackney Museum you can see the Safe Haven display to explore histories of Jewish resistance. This gold coin’s page in the online collection tells of Martin Sulzbacher who sought refuge from Nazi Germany in Hackney. Martin, his wife and children were all interned. The rest of the family stayed in Hackney and buried 160 gold coins for safe keep. Martin and his wife were reunited in London, and the coins were uncovered by builders in 1952.

Museum object: Sulzbacher's coin, Hackney Museum

Barbara Blake Hannah Growing out: Black Hair and Black Pride in the Swinging 60s

Barbara Blake Hannah was one of the very first Black women reporting on TV. The loss of her job, as a consequence of the enormous pressure and hate mail from viewers, set her onto a journey of self-discovery. She embraced her identity instead of feeling suffocated in her attempts to emulate whiteness.

Explore Hackney Museum’s collection of hairdresser and barber shop objects, signs and posters that celebrate the history of African and Caribbean hair and style in Britain.

Museum object: A poster of African women’s hairstyles, 2013, Hackney Museum

Daniel Sonabend We Fight Fascists: The 43 Group and the Forgotten Battle for Post-war Britain

Daniel Sonabend takes us back to post-war London telling the history of the 43 Group. Set up by Jewish servicemen after WWII, the group tirelessly organised, infiltrated meetings, and broke up street demonstrations to stop the rebirth of the far right.

Hackney is featured prominently in the book, with stories of Ridley Road, and the years of mobilisation and protests that saw Jewish communities confronting and winning against Neo-Nazi agitators.

Museum object: Invitation card: How to Fight Anti-Semitism, 1940-1956, Hackney Museum

Sarah Wise The Blackest Streets

With this compelling social history of the Victorian slums of East London, Sarah Wise vividly portrays a turbulent time, drawing our attention to how a period of great enlightenment was in fact built on great inhumanity. Almost 6,000 people were crammed into 15 acres of rotting dwellings, where the mortality rate was twice that of the rest of the area.

At the museum you’ll be able to discover what home meant and looked like in various eras and areas of Hackney.

Museum object: “GLC” gas cooker, 1925-1955, Hackney Museum

Fatima Manji Hidden Heritage: Rediscovering Britain’s relationship with the Orient

Throughout Britain's galleries and museums, civic buildings and stately homes, objects and works of art point to a complex national history of colonialism, migration and cultural exchange. Portraits, sculptures and even buildings expose the diversity of pre-twentieth-century Britain and the misconceptions around modern immigration narratives.

Fatima Manji searches for a richer and more honest story of a nation struggling with identity and the legacy of empire.

No museum object. Text reads instead: Hackney Museum’s collections and displays tell the stories of migration to the borough from the Romans and Anglo Saxons onwards through objects and oral histories.

Hakim Adi African and Caribbean People in Britain

This seminal text explores the history of Black people in Britain from the earliest times to the present. Rich with sources, it documents both collective movements and individual histories so that they can still be heard today.

The book features the writer and abolitionist Olaudah Equiano, and mentions the famous review that Mary Wollstonecraft wrote of his work. His daughter, Joanna Vassa, is buried in Abney Park Cemetery.

Museum object: Hakim Adi speaking about the book on a public talk hosted virtually by Hackney Museum. Available on their YouTube page.

Priyamvada Gopal Insurgent Empire: Anticolonial resistance and British dissent

Shortlisted for the British Academy Book Prize in 2020, Insurgent Empire by Cambridge Professor of Postcolonial Studies Priya Gopal traces back all the histories of the major anticolonial struggles.

She shows that Britain’s colonial subjects were not merely victims of empire but also agents whose resistance both contributed to their own liberations and shaped Britain’s ideas about freedom. The work of CLR James is interwoven across the pages of this urgent book.

Museum object: Anti-racist badge featuring CLR James Week, 1985, Hackney Museum

Daniel Rachel Walls Come Tumbling Down: the music and politics of Rock Against Racism, 2 Tone and Red Wedge, 1976-1992

Daniel Rachel’s compelling work tells the story of 16 years of music and political activism: three key movements that rose and fell. Each shaped and got shaped by the music of a generation. It’s the voices of the artists, musicians and politicians of the time that Rachel uses to chart this pivotal period in history.

Victoria Park was the stage for the landmark concert in 1978 where photographer Syd Shelton immortalised bands such as The Clash and X-Ray Spex performing in front of 80,000 people.

Museum object: Rock against Racism badge, 1978, Hackney Museum

Dominic Sandbrook Seasons in the Sun: Britain 1974-1979

In this colourful book, the late 1970s are recreated in all their chaos and contradiction. A profound argument about the future of the nation was being played out, in families and schools as well as through pop culture icons, music and TV. These years saw the peak of trade union power - and the rise of Thatcher.

Hackney features several times in the book, and the events depicted would have featured in the iconic Hackney People’s Press.

Museum object: I Read Hackney People’s Press badge, Hackney Museum