Bruce Castle Museum & Archive

Bruce Castle Museum & Archive Bruce Castle, a Grade 1, 16thC Manor, holds the museum & archive for the London borough of Haringey

Happy Pride Month! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️At Bruce Castle Museum & Archive we are privileged to look after collections speaking to rad...
05/06/2026

Happy Pride Month! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

At Bruce Castle Museum & Archive we are privileged to look after collections speaking to radical histories of LGBTQIA+ activism, art and community.

One such collection is from Jacksons Lane, a pioneer in promoting q***r theatre, often in defiance of wider cultural climates of homophobia and transphobia.

Jacksons Lane, ever since its founding in 1975, has been a bold, progressive and fearless organisation. Radical theatre companies including the Theatre of Black Women, Cunning Stunts, Graeae, Gay Sweatshop, Clean Break and Spare Tyre found a safe space to perform there. Scroll through the photos to see some posters from their performances!

These posters are part of our special collections at Bruce Castle, and you can see some of them on display in our current exhibition ‘Jacksons Lane: 50 years of arts, innovation and inclusion’.

If you’re interested in learning more about Haringey’s LGBTQIA+ history this Pride Month, then you can:
🏳️‍🌈Come along to Bruce Castle Museum Wednesday – Sunday 1-5pm to visit the Hart Gallery, a permanent exhibition space dedicated to sharing the borough’s q***r heritage!
📚Book in to research our collections in our Search Room: https://brucecastle.org/research/visiting-archive
🔗Visit Haringey’s LGBTQ365 pages for info on upcoming events and heritage resources: https://haringey.gov.uk/leisure-parks-culture/culture/lgbtq-365

Images: from the collections and © Bruce Castle Museum & Archive

Haringey Council Friends of Bruce Castle

🌻May Half Term activities @ The Castle: Wonderland Party!🗓Wednesday 27 and Thursday 28 May🕙1 to 4.30pm📍Bruce Castle Muse...
26/05/2026

🌻May Half Term activities @ The Castle: Wonderland Party!

🗓Wednesday 27 and Thursday 28 May
🕙1 to 4.30pm
📍Bruce Castle Museum & Archive, Lordship Lane, N17 8NU
🔗All details at www.brucecastle.org/whats-on/families

Dress up in your best party outfit and join us in Wonderland! We’ll have a range of FREE activities on both days throughout the museum:

🎩Tiny Teacups - gallery activity, drop-in 1-4.30pm
🎊Masquerade - gallery activity, drop-in 1-4.30pm
🎭Mask Making Madness and Wonderland Wigs - workshop, drop-in 1.30-3.30pm

Plus!
🫖Our vintage style Wonderland Cafe will be open on both days from 1 -4pm
♟️Enjoy a game of giant chess in our Castle Courtyard!

Haringey Council Kids in Museums Friends of Bruce Castle

Coming up this week during half term on Thursday 28 May, a free badgemaking workshop in Crouch End at Make your own bad...
25/05/2026

Coming up this week during half term on Thursday 28 May, a free badgemaking workshop in Crouch End at

Make your own badge, inspired by equal rights campaigns from over the decades, using images of ephemera and flyers from the archive collections of Joyce Butler at Bruce Castle Museum & Archive.

All ages welcome. Just drop by at Pickled Pepper Bookshop in the centre of Crouch End, in Middle Lane, not far from the clocktower.

This is a morning workshop between 10am and 12pm.

🥳A huge THANK YOU to all who came along to the Haringey History Fair at Bruce Castle on Saturday. We are so grateful to ...
18/05/2026

🥳A huge THANK YOU to all who came along to the Haringey History Fair at Bruce Castle on Saturday.

We are so grateful to the everyone who helped make it happen.

To the speakers – thank you for sharing your incredible research with us through such diverse and interesting presentations.

To the stallholders – thank you for showcasing the important work you do in preserving and advocating for our local arts, culture and heritage.

To our amazing volunteers – thank you for helping the day run so smoothly and for keeping the café running all day.

And an extra shoutout for Jim Pennington who brought along his vintage Gestetner Machine and gave live demonstrations of how this Tottenham invention revolutionised print culture worldwide. And for Kate from .realfruit ice cream, who provided delicious fresh fruit ice creams on the day!

And finally to the attendees – thank you for coming along and making it a wonderful day of sharing, networking, and connecting through a mutual passion for local history, arts and culture.

Haringey Council Avril's Walks and Talks Markfield Beam Engine and Museum Friends of Tottenham Marshes - FoTM Bobby Buckle Blue Plaque Campaign - BBBPC Noel Park Big Local Hornsey Historical Society &MiddlesexFamilyHistorySociety

🎉TOMORROW – Haringey History Fair @ Bruce Castle Museum & Archive🗓Saturday 16 May🕙10.30am to 4.45pm (doors open 10.15am)...
15/05/2026

🎉TOMORROW – Haringey History Fair @ Bruce Castle Museum & Archive

🗓Saturday 16 May
🕙10.30am to 4.45pm (doors open 10.15am)
📍Bruce Castle Museum & Archive, Lordship Lane, N17 8NU

Looking for somewhere to explore a new-found passion for local history? Or perhaps you are a seasoned museum-goer wanting to connect with like-minded people?

Either way, come to Bruce Castle Museum & Archive TOMORROW (16 May) for the Haringey History Fair! With a day-long programme of talks and stalls from local arts, heritage and cultural organisations, this promises to be a wonderful day reconnect, discover and be inspired by Haringey’s fascinating radical and pioneering history and community heritage.

Enjoy a day of:
🎤Local history talks
📚Stalls and books from local arts, cultural and heritage organisations
✨Demonstration of mid-century Gestetner machine
🫖Pop-up cafe
🎨Meet the artist event
Tours of the Archive Search Room

🔗A full programme of talks and stalls is available from: https://brucecastle.org/whats-on/special-events

For any queries about the day, pop us an email at [email protected]

Haringey Council Avril's Walks and Talks Markfield Beam Engine and Museum Hornsey Historical Society Noel Park Big Local Bobby Buckle Blue Plaque Campaign - BBBPC London Westminster & Middlesex Family History Society

It is with such great sadness that we have learnt the news that Derek Lewis of Glickman's has passed away. Derek, with h...
14/05/2026

It is with such great sadness that we have learnt the news that Derek Lewis of Glickman's has passed away.

Derek, with his beloved wife Corinne, were the cornerstone of the traders of Tottenham High Road for decades. Pictured here in 2002, this was the year that Glickman's, the ironmongers, reached 70 years of trading on the High Road.

Offering a traditional service, the shop sold all the tools you might expect to find, plus many more which might surprise you.

After over 80 years serving Tottenham and far beyond, this iconic shop finally closed its doors in 2015, as one of the oldest shops trading in Tottenham.

As Derek said himself, having worked there from a teenager, becoming its owner: "If you couldn’t find it in Glickman’s, it probably does not exist!"

We have loved all your stories, your wonderful generosity, knowledge and the kindness and support you have shown local people over many years, you will be truly missed. We will treasure your memories.
Thank you Derek, RIP

Today (12 May) is !The roles that nurses have had, and continue to play, in all our lives are varied, wide-ranging and...
12/05/2026

Today (12 May) is !

The roles that nurses have had, and continue to play, in all our lives are varied, wide-ranging and incredibly important! We would like to mark this day by sharing some images from our Special Collections of the Prince of Wales Hospital (Tottenham Green).

In the 1860s Dr Michael Laseron established the Deaconesses’ Institute for Training Nurses. Renamed Tottenham Hospital in 1899 when the voluntary Deaconesses were replaced by paid nursing staff, in 1907 the building was extended and re-opened as the Prince of Wales General Hospital. Generations of nurses with remarkable stories and pioneering careers (and many of whom we unfortunately know little about) trained on this site on Tottenham Green. Scroll through the images to find out more:

Image 1: Kate Marsden (1859-1931) was born in Edmonton. She trained at the Deaconesses’ Institute in the 1870s before going on to nurse in the Russo-Turkish war 1877-1878 in the Balkans. In 1891 she set off to Siberia in search of a cure for leprosy and, although she did not discover a cure, she did set up hospitals for the treatment of the disease there. Kate Marsden is pictured left (photo by Otto Renard). The right-hand image (from 1891) shows her wrapped up and ready to travel across Siberia, with the map of her route behind her (image from Royal College of Nursing).

Image 2: Asarto Ward (1891-?) was born in Sierra Leone. At eight years old, she was adopted by Mary Ward and brought to Tottenham in 1899 at the request of her dying mother. Asarto trained to be a nurse at the Prince of Wales Hospital and later returned to Sierra Leone as a young woman to work in hospitals there. Here she is pictured in circa 1905. © Bruce Castle Museum & Archive.

Image 3: Prince of Wales General Hospital, Tottenham Green, c.1910. © Bruce Castle Museum & Archive

Haringey Council Friends of Bruce Castle

Happy Birthday Sir David Attenborough!If you watched the recent ‘Wild London’ documentary on the BBC, you may have spott...
08/05/2026

Happy Birthday Sir David Attenborough!

If you watched the recent ‘Wild London’ documentary on the BBC, you may have spotted that the charming family of foxes on the programme were filmed at the nearby Mannock Road Allotments by Turnpike Lane (bottom left image, copyright BBC). Sir David spent lots of time filming at the allotment last summer and Haringey locals have reported the wonderful interactions they had with him, citing his always gentle, kind nature.

Haringey based artist James Straffon (who briefly met Sir David) painted a stunning mural of Sir David Attenborough along the wall of Langham Place, Turnpike Lane – just across from the allotments. Image (top left) by Veronica Bailey and artwork copyright James Straffon. Visit James’ website for more information: https://www.james-straffon.co.uk/

And his associations with Haringey don’t end there! Sir David was also invited in 2005 to unveil a memorial plaque to William Bernhardt Tegetmeier F.Z.S. (1816 – 1912) who lived at Muswell Hill (bottom right). Tegetmeier’s correspondence and friendship with Charles Darwin about his work and research on poultry and bees was influential and valuable in developing Darwin’s ideas on evolution, for his seminal work “On the Origin of Species”. Darwin’s work was an inspiration for Attenborough’s documentary series ‘Life on Earth’. Unfortunately, David Attenborough was not able to attend as he was filming in the Antarctic – but we had a wonderful letter from him which was read out on the day of the plaque unveiling.

Of course, Sir David Attenborough also spent much of his early career in Haringey, when Alexandra Palace was the home of the BBC (top right). Attenborough’s first documentary, ‘Zoo Quest’, premiered in 1954 and broadcast from Ally Pally. He then went on to become Controller of BBC2 when it made the switch to colour television!

Happy 100th Birthday again to such a National Treasure!

Haringey Council

that in May 1987 an iconic protest march took place in Haringey?🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ took place on 2 May 1987. Some 3,500 prote...
08/05/2026

that in May 1987 an iconic protest march took place in Haringey?🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

took place on 2 May 1987. Some 3,500 protestors marched from Duckett's Common to Bruce Castle Park to demonstrate against bigotry and racism.

The march was co-organised by the Positive Images Campaign and Haringey Black Action Group in the wake of the proposed Section 28, which would come into law almost exactly a year later and prohibit the so called 'promotion of homosexuality by local authorities'.

Smash The Backlash brought attention to intersections of race and sexuality, highlighting the experiences of black le****ns and gay men and captured in the slogan 'Fight Bigotry! Fight Racism!'.

Bruce Castle Museum & Archive looks after the Haringey Vanguard collection, which is dedicated to preserving and sharing the history of BME LGBTQ+ activism in the borough of Haringey from the 1970s-1990s. You can see information about Smash the Backlash, plus many other stories of community-building, protest, joy and resistance in our Hart Gallery, on permanent display at Bruce Castle Museum & Archive, Wednesday to Sunday 1 to 5pm.

📸Images from the collections at Bruce Castle Museum & Archive.

Haringey Council Friends of Bruce Castle

🎨Pop-up Art Exhibition NOW OPENHaringey: Painted ImpressionsAn Exhibition by Lucjan Furmaga 🗓6 to 24 May🕚Wednesday to Su...
07/05/2026

🎨Pop-up Art Exhibition NOW OPEN

Haringey: Painted Impressions
An Exhibition by Lucjan Furmaga

🗓6 to 24 May
🕚Wednesday to Sunday, 1 to 5pm (open from 10.30am on Saturday 16 May)
📍The Makers' Studio, Bruce Castle Museum, N17 8NU

Celebrating the ordinary and capturing the extraordinary in everyday life.

Growing up in his homeland of Poland, Lucjan developed his interest in art as a teenager. He actively explored drawing, painting, photography and performance art, before studying fine art and art history at university during the 1970s. What followed for Lucjan was a career in art and design. This included drawing for socio-political magazines and creating work for exhibitions and visual art performances in Poland.

Moving to London in 2014, Lucjan has been observing and becoming inspired by the local street scenes over the past few years he has been living in Tottenham. His collection of ‘Painted Impressions’ has seen Lucjan connect with his community and home through drawing and painting, capturing scenes of everyday life in Haringey.

Come along to Bruce Castle Museum & Archive to see Lucjan's stunning work.

Haringey Council Haringey Reach and Connect Friends of Bruce Castle

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Lordship Lane
London
N178NU

Opening Hours

Wednesday 1pm - 5pm
Thursday 1pm - 5pm
Friday 1pm - 5pm
Saturday 1pm - 5pm
Sunday 1pm - 5pm

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