London Photo Gallery - Art Exhibitions & Special Events

Peoples Unite! How Southall changed the country (September 2025)

Gunnersbury Museum is hosting an exhibition about Southall, whose diverse community included peoples from former colonies. They endured racism from the 1970s onwards and a wave of activism arose.

These communities kept their connections to home through music. Southall's first record store opened in 1971 selling Bollywood, folk, ghazals, qawwali, and bhangra music.

Southall's Caribbean and South Asian communities were targets of racist attacks in the 1970s. The community felt the police did not protect them. In April 1979, over 2800 police officers came so a few members of the racist National Front could hold a meeting in the Town Hall. Thousands of protesters were met with police aggression, fuelling a new wave of anti-racist activism.

Dennis Morris took these photos to show Southall is a caring place with community spirit. Due to Southall's proximity to Heathrow, many new immigrants chose to stay with their contacts here before continuing to elsewhere in the country.

The exhibition spans several generations and includes fairly recent events such as the increase in refugees following the Arab Spring, with some newspapers putting out headlines reminiscent of National Front language in the 1970s.

There is a room with South Asian clothes that you can try on, with a note don't worry about trying on clothes that you shouldn't wear.

Event Website