When: Thursday, May 16, 2024, 6:00 PM - 7:30 PMWhere: Peston Lecture Theatre, Graduate Centre, Mile End
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On Thursday 16 May, the Mile End Institute is pleased to celebrate the publication of Professor Stephen Brooke’s new book, London, 1984: Conflict and Change in the Radical City.
In London in 1984, two very different cities came into conflict – one rooted in radical politics and the other shaped by Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative government. London was a city poised between two eras and identities, remoulded in conflicting ways by social democracy and neoliberalism.
London, 1984 explores the radical history of the capital in this tumultuous era, from a major anti-apartheid march in central London to an alternative childcare centre in Dalston, from a protest staged on the Thames against the Docklands development to tensions on housing estates in the East End around racial violence and policing, from a raid on a gay bookshop in Bloomsbury to the Greater London Council’s attempt to build a challenge to Thatcherism from County Hall. This is a story of struggles waged within the corridors of power, but also on the ground, in activist circles, in popular culture, and in daily life.
To explore how the stories of those who lived, shaped, and fought in London in a pivotal decade defined Britain and its capital today, Professor Matthew Hilton (QMUL) will be joined by the author of London, 1984, Professor Stephen Brooke, Hilary Wainwright (Co-Editor of Red Pepper magazine and former advisor for Ken Livingstone’s GLC) and Dr Camilla Schofield (University of East Anglia).
This event will take place in the Peston Lecture Theatre in the Graduate Centre, which is number 18 on this map of Queen Mary’s Mile End campus. Its What3Words locator is: ///feast.wicked.beyond. Doors will open at 5.45pm and we aim to start at 6pm sharp. It will be followed by a drinks reception with the speakers which all attendees are welcome to attend.