The residents’ oral histories will be by transcribed and archived by Islington Heritage Services for long-term public access and we will create new creative outcomes for the public.
Stay tuned for the dates of a communal exhibition at Hilldrop Community Centre, with podcast playback, participant portraits and community artwork inspired by local stories and an exhibition at the Islington Museum!
And get your tickets for the performance of Archives of a Crescent at the Pleasance Theatre on 17, 18 and 19 December 2026!
On Hilldrop Crescent, the lives of residents are entangled with the hidden, watchful underworld of rats and foxes. Through uncanny puppetry and stop-motion animation, lived memories take on a life of their own — distorted, flickering and hard to pin down, like life itself.
Spanning 70 years, fragmented and half-remembered stories drift between above and below ground, where gentrification creeps, neglect lingers, and unseen forces reshape the landscape. By turns eerie, darkly comic and unexpectedly tender, the piece reveals the stubborn humour, resilience and everyday poetry that persist behind every front door — and beneath the floorboards.
Archives of a Crescent is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players.
