A Home Away From Home: Exhibition and Events Celebrating The India Club
A Home Away from Home: The India Club | Hotel Strand Continental, 143 Strand, London WC1R 1JA | 30 January – 1 March 2019 | FREE (Ticketed Timeslots)
Having recently come under serious threat from redevelopers, The India Club’s unique space on the Strand has remained an important political and social meeting place since the 1950s. The National Trust’s poignant new exhibition A Home Away from Home: The India Club will celebrate and shine a light on the rich cultural history of this iconic establishment.
Initially for migrants arriving from the Indian subcontinent, The India Club’s remit gradually spread to a wider intellectual community and rapidly became a major hub for the early Indian diaspora in British society. Although best known for its links to the India League, it also had one of the first Indian restaurants in the UK. With such a significant cultural and political history, it is no wonder that the India Club was saved from redevelopment in 2018 after an extensive campaign, attracting support from over 26,000 people in the local community.
Allowing visitors an insight into those who considered the Club a ‘home-away-from-home’, The National Trust’s oral exhibition of fascinating interviews includes conversations with freedom fighters and descendants of founding members to current regulars and lovers of the Club, such as academics and BBC reporters. Events alongside include a documentary screening and an on-site cooking class.
Events as part of the exhibition
Comfort Food Stories Supper Club | 2, 9, 10, 23 & 24 February | £40pp
6.30 – 9pm
‘Comfort Food’ is an intimate experience combining audio storytelling and dining to bring people’s emotional food memories to life.
Migrateful Cooking Classes | 5 & 19 February | 630pm – 9pm | £35pp
‘Migrateful’ is a cookery and language initiative where asylum seekers, refugees and migrants struggling to access employment due to legal and linguistic barriers, teach their traditional cuisines to the public.
Chocolate Films Screening at the Migration Museum | 8 February | 6:30pm – 8:30pm | £5pp
Chocolate Films is a social enterprise which uses its profits to support a workshop programme that enables over 2000 children and young people to learn filmmaking skills each year. Alongside the debut screening of a specially produced documentary about the India Club’s history, Chocolate Films will present rarely seen archive footage relating to South Asian migration in the UK. This event will be taking place at the Migration Museum (www.migrationmuseum.org).
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