For many years now, the Museum of Youth Culture has been a nomadic pop-up, bringing a touch of cool to assorted meanwhile-use retail units and galleries across town.

Their premise is simple, but touches on something often overlooked by more traditional institutions; that the messy, experimental cocktail of fashion, music and tribe-seeking of our teenage/formative years is where the seeds of the greatest cultural movements of the last 100 years have all been sewn - and that unstructured part of the story deserves more attention.

Therefore, the Museum specifically celebrates the artifacts, ephemera and narratives of these oft-chaotic creative origins, as opposed to just the fully-formed £multimillion artforms these scenes later matured into.

And now, the glorious archive they’ve been steadily amassing is to finally get a permanent home, located right here in Camden, (of course 😏).

Slated to open towards the end of summer 2025 at the brand new St Pancras Campus - an impressive multi-use development that’s risen up in place of a rather dull redbrick industrial building you may hazily remember between the canal and Royal College St - there’s still a lot of work to do.

I dropped by the launch party the other night, and the vibe felt very much like our own cinema-themed pop-up in Kentish Town a year ago, in that the place is still basically a building site, but the blank canvas of a raw concrete shell and uplights titillates with the promise of what it might soon become.

The event was full of familiar, if decidedly un-youthful faces from the last few decades of music, nightlife and fashion. This is a heartfelt project from people for whom emerging youth subcultures gave them their careers, who know first-hand how important that legacy is, and are keen to see the pipeline of creativity carry on, despite the changing face of technology and in turn, society.

A manifesto hung on one wall flags up the virtues and delights of creating your own culture at a young age - the fact it can be both ‘transgressive and affirmative’, allowing ‘self-expression and identity formation’.

It’s often said that rave, and its offshoots like D&B, UK Garage and Grime was the last truly great subcultural movement, as everything since then has been swiftly coopted by commercial interests before it’s had time to percolate (and piss enough people off) to feel truly revolutionary.

Young people today grow up with an existing smorgasbord of atomised cultural styles and movements to attach themselves to, which may have diluted the drive to forge something generationally brand new. But as the polarising issue of gender identity shows, there are still ways to rile up the oldies who just don’t get it.

Ultimately though, any museum should provide a space for reflection on how the past frames the present, and a place full of cherished memories of carefree experimentation sounds like a good way to remember that we were all young once.

The project has always relied heavily on submissions, and that tradition of throwing ‘scanning socials’ continues with the invitation to bring in your photos, flyers, ticket stubs, wristbands and other memorabilia of a well-spent youth to the Fred Perry store on Camden High Street this afternoon.

Legendary DJ, TV presenter, cultural photographer and general man-about-town for decades, Normski, will be in the house for a talk at 2pm. Meanwhile, we’ll keep you up to date on the fit out of the Museum of Youth Culture, and the ever-expanding celebration of artistic creation when it’s at its most fierce and unconstrained - in the hands of young people.

MORE LOCAL MUSEUM-TYPE NEWS

😲 Immersive underground adventures yet to come

🎶 Talking of alt-museums, make sure to drop by Somers Town’s A Space for Us tonight (Dec 13th) for a festive shindig including live music, retro vinyl, mulled wine, samosas and the launch of a new book of Sylheti women’s folk tales, gathered over a year by the ‘Lotus Group’, who meet regularly at the museum. As a Sylheti origin woman herself, the Mayor of Camden, Samata Khatoon, will be launching the book - and perhaps sharing some folk tales of her own - at 6pm.

🍺 If you’re wondering where the promised Guinness experience-cum-beer-hall-and-microbrewery in Covent Garden has got to - especially as we reported it was due to make it’s long-awaited debut in 2024 - it’s been pushed back deep into 2025 after the lead contractor on the ambitious five-building project fell into administration. Owners Diageo had to put a hold on hiring for the 150 new jobs, but say that delays on a build of this size are common, which is stating the obvious, anyway, let’s see where it’s at by Christmas next year…

🕳️ London may have lost the next-level immersive video experience (as seen wowing the crowds in Las Vegas) that the controversial MGM Sphere at Stratford would have thrust, glowing, upon the skyline, but instead, the people behind the transformation of Holborn’s Kingsway Exchange Tunnels look likely to deliver a less intrusive subterranean version. They’ve been posting AI-generated visions of how the historic telecoms tunnels will become otherworldly led-screen landscapes in a shimmering entertainment district beneath our streets, as well as offering a historic window into our communications past, when they eventually open. Don’t hold your breath though, as the complex planning process is currently grinding on, but the hoped-for opening date is sometime in 2027.

🍨 Frustratingly for our publication deadlines, their annual ‘carols and ices’ event took place last night, with singers in the historic ice wells and original Edwardian-style ice cream-making, plus their mince pie canalboat cruises are all now fully booked, but the London Canal Museum still makes for a brilliant place to visit at this time of year, and they tell us they are particularly keen to remind locals of the fascinating insight into the area’s past that they offer, right on our doorsteps.

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MUSIC

🎺 Gigs get thoroughly festive

🎄There are loads of massive gigs going off in the area as we enter the Xmas bonanza period, but many are long sold out. Here are some with a few tickets (or official resale) still available…

🎁 It’s Christmas Soul Night 2024, in support of Macmillan, Teenage Cancer Trust, and Cancer Research UK at KOKO this Sunday, 15th Dec. Your very affordable ticket gets you live performances from headliner and British soul legend Omar (picturted), R&B star Shola Ama, powerhouse vocalist Louise Marshall, soul maestro Kevin Leo, and Adeniké, star of the Whitney tribute Queen of the Night. They’ll be backed by the incredible 80-strong London Soul Choir and a stellar 12-piece band.

🎤 Surely one of the UK’s best loved bands, The Lightning Seeds play at the 02 Forum Kentish Town tonight, Dec 13th, for a no-holds-bared audience singalong and a masterclass in modern pop songwriting and delivery from Ian Broudie and the gang.

🎷 There’s an altogether more intimate evening of Christmas blues on Sun 14th Dec at Parkway institution The Green Note. Expect blues-infused renditions of festive classics and more at Blue Lou’s Revue Christmas Special.

STAGE

🎁 What to go see this week + a great cause

⚔️ It’s the final few days to catch The Glorious French Revolution (or: why sometimes it takes a guillotine to get anything done) at Euston’s New Diorama Theatre. Ends Sat 14th Dec. It’s a raucous tale of anarchy stretching from 1972 right up to today, and episodes at the elite talking shop of Davos.

🎄It’s also your chance to donate (until 19th Dec) gifts of all kinds to the financial hardship organisation Holly’s Angels at the New Diorama, who will then dish them out to the community at a joyful Festive Market taking place on Dec 20th.

👗 Fancy the promise of an all-drag panto this festive season? Of course you do, so head to the lovely Phoenix Theatre for an unashamedly adult-yet-juvenile version of Peter Pan, performed by some of the biggest names in drag. Runs until 6th Jan.

👹 More alternative Christmas shows for you at Camden People’s Theatre, where Sh!t Theatre are pitting their best - and worst - festive films up against each other by remaking both for the stage, with free booze, goodie bags and nudity all promised. Go for Sing-a-long-a Muppet Christmas Carol or try Sh!t Actually. Assorted dates for each until 21st Dec.

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