Lenthall Road Workshop
Date
1975
History
The Lenthall Road Workshop (81 Lenthall Road, Haggerston) was started by three women in 1975 as a community screen-printing and photography project. Local groups and individuals were offered a cheap and friendly space to learn skills and use the equipment to make their own images and posters.
From making posters of women racing in wheelchairs and protesting on the streets, to teaching printing and photography, the Lenthall Road Workshop encouraged the local community, especially women and girls, to empower themselves.
The collective made a unique contribution to the local and national community arts movement and feminisms of the 1970s and 1980s.
After many years of Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government (1975-1990), the funding for non-profit making, radical community projects like the Lenthall Road Workshop was reduced and eventually withdrawn. The workshop then became a one-women enterprise celebrating the Lesbian and Gay community.
The Lenthall Road Workshop was the focus of the exhibition 'Women on Screens: Printmaking, photography and community activism at Lenthall Road Workshop 1970s–1990s' at Hackney Museum 14 May – 31 August 2019.
For further information about the Lenthall Road Workshop, please see our blog series exploring its history of activism, skill sharing and empowerment at https://hackney-museum.hackney.gov.uk/category/lenthall-road-workshop/.
From making posters of women racing in wheelchairs and protesting on the streets, to teaching printing and photography, the Lenthall Road Workshop encouraged the local community, especially women and girls, to empower themselves.
The collective made a unique contribution to the local and national community arts movement and feminisms of the 1970s and 1980s.
After many years of Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government (1975-1990), the funding for non-profit making, radical community projects like the Lenthall Road Workshop was reduced and eventually withdrawn. The workshop then became a one-women enterprise celebrating the Lesbian and Gay community.
The Lenthall Road Workshop was the focus of the exhibition 'Women on Screens: Printmaking, photography and community activism at Lenthall Road Workshop 1970s–1990s' at Hackney Museum 14 May – 31 August 2019.
For further information about the Lenthall Road Workshop, please see our blog series exploring its history of activism, skill sharing and empowerment at https://hackney-museum.hackney.gov.uk/category/lenthall-road-workshop/.