Housewarming: A Victorian Home from Kolkata to London

Atrium

Free

Join Suresh Singh AKA The Cockney Sikh for a DJ set. Punk fans may remember Suresh Singh as the drummer from the band Spizzenergi, who toured with Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Cure in 1979. In this charming playlist, Singh shares his love for music and his Sikh immigrant parents and his childhood in Spitalfields, east London.  

Architect and author of A Modest Living: Memoirs of a Cockney Sikh: The first London Sikh biography published by Spitalfields Life Books and edited by the Gentle Author. Suresh proves himself to be a candid writer and a canny curator of material that crosses family biography with postwar cultural history. His youth is filled first with National Front racism, then punk music and rebellion. In his DJ set, he reflects the changing faces of his family and the evolution of one corner of the capital. Combined with Singh’s words and selection of music he loves, it is a timely reminder of all that modern Britishness encompasses. 

Ticketed £5 | Booking required

Opened in July 2024, explore the seven new period rooms at the Museum with a curator-led tour including A Townhouse in 1878. Historian of British Empire and Asian history, Arunima Datta is a co-curator of our Victorian parlour. Hear more about her work the experience of migrant workers in the British Empire and how it translated into a period room. 

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Join Suresh Singh AKA The Cockney Sikh for a DJ set. Punk fans may remember Suresh Singh as the drummer from the band Spizzenergi, who toured with Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Cure in 1979. In this charming playlist, Singh shares his love for music and his Sikh immigrant parents and his childhood in Spitalfields, east London.  

Architect and author of A Modest Living: Memoirs of a Cockney Sikh: The first London Sikh biography published by Spitalfields Life Books and edited by the Gentle Author. Suresh proves himself to be a candid writer and a canny curator of material that crosses family biography with postwar cultural history. His youth is filled first with National Front racism, then punk music and rebellion. In his DJ set, he reflects the changing faces of his family and the evolution of one corner of the capital. Combined with Singh’s words and selection of music he loves, it is a timely reminder of all that modern Britishness encompasses. 

Dr. Arunima Datta is a historian of British Empire and Asian (South and Southeast Asian) history. In her research and teaching, she is constantly exploring the everyday experiences of labor migrants within the context of the British Empire. Her themes of focus in her research are: labor, women's history, food and emotions. 

She also serves as an Associate Editor for the journals Gender & History and Britain and the World, and as an Associate Review Editor for the American Historical Review. 

Located on Oakfield Street in Chelsea, this terraced house is a typical home built to accommodate London’s fast-growing middle classes. Spread across four floors, the rooms have high ceilings and large bay windows to create bright spaces. It would have been home to the family and their servants, who would have slept in the attic.  

Find out more

Celebrate our newest, permanent gallery, this Museum Late series unpacks the stories of our seven new Rooms Through Time and explore what Home can mean. Explore how homes have evolved aesthetically alongside societal shifts, and enjoy a lively night at the Museum.