Brexit Talks

Researchers of recent UK history are understandably inclined to draw a line between the pre- and post-Brexit eras. In that sense, it could be argued that Britain’s exit from the European Union (EU) signalled a significant shift in London’s global social, political, and economic status. It questioned how 21st-century Londoners conceptualise their sense of identity and belonging to the city.

In March 2019, the date initially set for the UK to leave the EU, London Museum had a timely opportunity to record the impact of Brexit on people through the Curating London programme.

Brexit Talks sought to capture this experience through an oral history collecting project, which aimed to understand what it meant to be a Londoner at the time and how Brexit was affecting Londoners’ sense of belonging to the city.

The project took place in two phases – January to March 2019, and March to June 2021. This was key as, following several extensions, Britain finally exited the EU on 31 January 2020.

We worked with local organisations in five boroughs, which were carefully selected to represent a cross-section of opinions on Brexit. This included Havering and Hillingdon (both voted ‘leave’), Hackney and Bromley (they voted ‘remain’), and Newham (which also voted ‘remain’ by a close margin, scoring the highest ‘leave’ vote within inner London boroughs).

We also parked a double-decker bus branded with the slogan ‘London Talks Brexit’ across three locations to sample people’s views.

In Phase 1, we recorded 157 vox pops (videos), 54 of which were acquired into our permanent collection. These were recorded on the street and through special events across the boroughs. These videos – averaging 8 minutes – were uploaded and shared through our social media channels.

During Phase 2, one year on, we returned to some of the people we’d interviewed to check if there was any change of perspective. There was, and we recorded seven additional oral histories (audio), which are also part of our permanent collection.

Ahead of the initial Brexit deadline in March 2019, the museum teamed up with video production company Chocolate Films to host ‘Goodbye Europe’. This event centred on short films about London residents from each of the 28 EU member countries.

It was an opportunity for the ‘Brexit Talks’ team to highlight the project, share some of the vox pop contributions and engage with attendees on how Brexit had affected their relationship with London. Curator of Social and Working History, Vyki Sparkes, also discussed some of the objects from the museum’s collection that reflect the city’s ties with the EU.

Then, in September 2019, the Brexit Talks team joined Mayor Sadiq Khan at the ‘We are all Londoners’ festival at City Hall. The event celebrated the contribution of Europeans to the capital.

Here, the vox pops videos sparked some rich discussions. Key topics included the impact of Brexit on Europeans living in London, versus the rest of the country. The event was a chance to build interest in the Brexit Talks project and the wider Curating London programme, as well as to engage with audiences new to London Museum.