We will be launching our immersive, interactive website, celebrating and unfolding the rich history of 5 Caledonian Road and the people whose lives have passed through it.
At the event, there will be a preview of some of the short films on the website, introduced by the young volunteers who made them, a live conversation between a volunteer and interviewee, followed by a short Q&A. You will then be able to explore the 5 Cally Road website.
5 Cally Road: 60 Years of Books and Activism is an oral history project celebrating one building's significant role in British radical politics. 5 Caledonian Road, or 'Peace House' has been the location of many grassroots organisations including Peace News, the Gay Liberation Front, London Greenpeace, Lesbian and Gay Switchboard and War Resisters International. It is also the home of Housmans Bookshop, one of London's last remaining radical booksellers.
Since last summer, On the Record has been working remotely with a group of 25 young volunteers, aged 18-25, to research and document the history of this building and conduct oral history interviews with people whose lives have passed through the building. The volunteers have used this material to inspire short creative responses including soundscapes, verbatim radio plays, queer monologues, poetry and music videos.
The website is an immersive, interactive experience, where we will premiere the volunteers’ creative responses. Visitors will be able to rummage through the works we have created and the extensive digital archive of photographs, audio recordings and documents collected by the project. Visitors will be led by curiosity and chance, evoking the experience of browsing in a bookshop.
