Gallery access
London, Sugar & Slavery gallery
10am-5pm, Monday-Sunday
The gallery is on the third floor and is wheelchair accessible via lift.
A free display exploring the central role food plays in Black enterprise and identity in South East London
London’s African and Caribbean food businesses are not just about buying or selling. They are vitally important spaces – untangling questions around politics, culture, heritage and resistance in an ever-changing city.
From shopping centres to street corners, from market spaces to living rooms, entrepreneurial food businesses have thrived across South East London.
“I started with £250, I bought a box of Ackee, a box of callaloo, box of yam and box of sweet potato…”
Junior, market stall owner
This free display at the Museum of London Docklands spotlights four African and Caribbean businesses and their owners, exploring how they are much more than the services and goods they provide. The businesses featured are:
Feeding Black: Community, Power & Place includes recipes, objects and recorded stories from the business owners Kaleema and Kareema Shakur-Muhammad, Eugene Takwa, Junior and Tafeswork Belayneh, along with TikTok and Instagram cooking videos of traditional African and Caribbean dishes with a contemporary twist. The display also showcases newly commissioned photography by Jonas Martinez and an original soundscape by Kayode 'Kayodeine' Gomez.
Download the free Smartify app to explore more stories behind the display – open your phone, scan the objects, and you’ll discover even more exclusive content. Listen to the audio guide.
Feeding Black: Community, Power & Place is part of the museum’s Curating London contemporary collecting programme, with funding from Arts Council England.
“The project as a whole, and the physical exhibit's location in the Museum of London Docklands’ London, Sugar & Slavery gallery provides an important and unique opportunity to reflect on modern food culture and existing legacies around sugar and London’s involvement in the transatlantic slave trade.”
Aleema Gray, Community History Curator (Curating London)
London, Sugar & Slavery gallery
The gallery is on the third floor and is wheelchair accessible via lift.
We've partnered with Pop Brixton and environmental charity Hubbub to create a set of recipes that will use up your leftovers.
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As part of the Museum of London Curating London programme, funded by Arts Council England, staff from our curatorial and engagement teams are working together on London Eats.
Find out more