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Changing Picture of Docklands

Poster
late 1980s (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Landscape poster, consisting of a black and white photomontage of a courtyard surrounded by small single-level houses, and a tall ship between high-rise buildings in the background. The courtyard is full of men holding placards for a 'Dock Labourers Strike! Relief Fund', and a man in a striped waistcoat and boater hat stands in the middle of the crowd, gesturing with his left hand. A strip of the photograph has been overlaid with a drawing or engraving showing the interiors of the houses and ship. Goods are being unloaded from the ship into the neighbouring warehouses; in the houses families do various jobs connected to social progress and welfare. The house on the left has a poster for the 'Nautical Progress Society', the middle house has posters for the East London Federation of Suffragettes and free medical treatment for poor people, and a placard for the Worker's Dreadnought advertising a planned dock strike, and in the house on the left a woman is sewing a banner reading 'Unity', while another woman holds a poster for a day nursery and clinic for working women. The caption of the series of photographs is 'The people of Docklands have always had to fight to make the best of appalling conditions - and to change them.'.

Object details

Category
Object type
TitleChanging Picture of Docklands (series title)
Materials and techniques
Poster, printed from a photomontage and laminated in plastic
Brief description
Poster made by the Docklands Community Poster Project, 'Changing Picture of Docklands' series, ca. 1985
Physical description
Landscape poster, consisting of a black and white photomontage of a courtyard surrounded by small single-level houses, and a tall ship between high-rise buildings in the background. The courtyard is full of men holding placards for a 'Dock Labourers Strike! Relief Fund', and a man in a striped waistcoat and boater hat stands in the middle of the crowd, gesturing with his left hand. A strip of the photograph has been overlaid with a drawing or engraving showing the interiors of the houses and ship. Goods are being unloaded from the ship into the neighbouring warehouses; in the houses families do various jobs connected to social progress and welfare. The house on the left has a poster for the 'Nautical Progress Society', the middle house has posters for the East London Federation of Suffragettes and free medical treatment for poor people, and a placard for the Worker's Dreadnought advertising a planned dock strike, and in the house on the left a woman is sewing a banner reading 'Unity', while another woman holds a poster for a day nursery and clinic for working women. The caption of the series of photographs is 'The people of Docklands have always had to fight to make the best of appalling conditions - and to change them.'.
Dimensions
  • Height: 41.5cm
  • Width: 61.9cm
Dimensions include plastic laminate
Marks and inscriptions
'The people of Docklands have always had to fight to make the best of appalling conditions - and to change them.'
Credit line
Given by the Greenwich Mural Workshop
Subjects depicted
Place depicted
Bibliographic reference
From the label text of an exhibition held by the Greenwich Mural Workshop entitled 'Printing is Easy...? Community Printshops 1970-86'
Collection
Accession number
E.486-2013

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Record createdNovember 20, 2013
Record URL
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