Youth movements – from the sharply dressed mods of the ’60s to northern England’s defiant acid house ravers of the ’80s – have shaped how Britain dresses, creates and thinks. It’s surprising then, that the country (indeed, the world) has never had a permanent institution dedicated to preserving youth culture. Until now.
The Museum of Youth Culture will open on Friday May 15 in a 6500 square-foot custom-designed space in London’s St Pancras Campus. It will showcase more than 100,000 items representing youth movements and subcultures across the generations, charting how they emerge, then shape the mainstream. Visitors can delve into a treasure trove of rave flyers, fashion from across the decades, zines, archive video and oral histories – some of it collected over the years by the museum’s creators, and some donated by those who answered the museum’s call-out in the past 12 months.
“Everything in this museum exists because people cared enough to save it,” said Jamie Brett, museum co-founder, in a statement. “Flyers kept in drawers. Photos stored on hard drives. Stories shared before they disappeared.”
The museum has been 30 years in the making. It was founded in 1997 by Jon Swinstead, who began collecting photos in his garden shed. Brett then joined in 2012. In recent years, it’s popped up in various guises, including an exhibition at the Barbican called I’m Not Okay: An Emo Retrospective.
Thanks to The National Lottery Heritage Fund, it now has a permanent home, with plans to expand to venues in Birmingham (2027) and Glasgow (2029).
“We’ve poured years into protecting this culture because it belongs to the people who built it,” said Brett. “Giving it a permanent home is about honouring that effort.”
The Museum of Youth Culture will open on Friday May 15 at St Pancras Campus, 100 Royal College Street, NW1 0TH.
