Workshop: Exploring Hoxton Hall with Hackney WOW!

Participants: 50 x year 6 children from Rushmore Primary School. Workshop led by Sarah Hyndman.

A day long typography workshop enabling the children to explore Hoxton Hall and it’s history, with a visual outcome at the end that will appear in the Hackney WOW! magazine, form part of an exhibition at the Dalston CLR James Library and be used by Hoxton Hall to promote their community arts initiative.

Hoxton Hall in East London is a grade II listed building with an illustrious history. It began as a Victorian music hall which lost its license due to rowdiness, it became a Quaker meeting house, then an air raid shelter and now it operates as a youth and community arts initiative.

Workshop: After a tour of the hall and its history, the children brainstormed words they thought were relevant to the venue. They then reproduced the words based on woodblock style typefaces inspired by Victorian music hall posters.

Photo © Jamie Lumley / East London Theatre Archive 2008

Photos by Minna Harrison and Sarah Hyndman

Outcomes: The words will appear in the Hackney WOW! magazine, they will be exhibited at the Dalston C.L.R. James Library at Easter, and Hoxton Hall plan to use them in their future marketing.