Introduction

This exhibition takes you back to London 80 years ago, a decade some see as ‘the real start of the 20th century’.

The 1920s began with London struggling to find its feet. The First World War had bankrupted the economy and had left people’s lives and beliefs shattered. By the end of the 1920s the mood had changed. London was looking to the future and coming to terms with such novelties as skyscrapers, ‘talking pictures’ in the cinemas, robots, divorce, the BBC and Labour government. Londoners had more choices in their lives than ever before.

The new London forged in the 1920s was a culturally diverse place plugged in to international ideas. From America came the joyous exuberance of jazz. From Russia came ballet and Bolshevism. From India and Ireland came challenges to the old assumptions of the British Empire.

The exhibition offers you a panorama of this colourful decade of change and choice. It also invites you to think about your own life. How did the 1920s shape the London we know today?