Updated December 2025
Exhibitions at the V & A (and more)
10-2023
The Cinema Museum
The Cinema Museum is a museum in Kennington. Its collection was founded in 1986 by Ronald Grant and Martin Humphries, from their own private collection of cinema history and memorabilia. Its current building was once a workhouse where Charlie Chaplin lived as a child.
The workhouse has a link to cinema history as Charlie Chaplin lived there as a child when his mother faced destitution. The museum runs a programme of talks and events and is currently open by appointment for tours.
The Cinema Museum boasts an idiosyncratic collection of film memorabilia, including posters, art deco cinema chairs, ushers’ uniforms from the 1940s and ’50s, tickets, ashtrays and popcorn cartons, as well as an archive boasting hundreds of books, an estimated one million plus photos and 17 million feet of film.” At its events volunteers regularly dress in original cinema attendants’ costumes.
February 2018
Vase from the second-class main staircase on the Queen Elizabeth (About 1938)
Winnie-the-Pooh
The Cartoon Museum is a London museum for British cartoons, caricatures and comic strips owned and operated by the Cartoon Art Trust. It has a library of over 5,000 books and 4,000 comics. The museum issues catalogues and features a changing display of over 250 exhibits from its collection of over 4,000 original cartoons and prints. The museum is “dedicated to preserving the best of British cartoons, caricatures, comics and animation, and to establishing a museum with a gallery, archives and innovative exhibitions to make the creativity of cartoon art past and present, accessible to all for the purposes of education, research and enjoyment.
Car exhibition (September 2019)
Battersea Power Station
December2025
Battersea Power Station is a decommissioned coal-fired power station located on the south bank of the River Thames.
The building comprises two power stations, built in two stages, in a single building. Battersea A Power Station was built between 1929 and 1935 and Battersea B Power Station, to its east, between 1937 and 1941, when construction was paused owing to the worsening effects of the WW II. The building was completed in 1955. “Battersea B” was built to a design nearly identical to that of “Battersea A”, creating the iconic four-chimney structure.
“Battersea A” was decommissioned in 1975. In 1980 the whole structure was given Grade II listed status; “Battersea B” shut three years later. In 2007 its listed status was upgraded to Grade II. The building remained empty until 2014, during which time it fell into near ruin. Various plans were made to make use of the building, but none were successful.
In 2012, the site was developed to include residential, bars, restaurants, office space (occupied by Apple and others), shops and entertainment spaces.
The station is also notable for its appearance on the cover of rock band Pink Floyd‘s tenth studio album Animals. (1977)
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