Boris Johnson is putting art under the hammer in London’s East End to raise funds for the unfinnished Bethnal Green Disaster Memorial.
A collection of previously unseen period photographs of East End life has already been donated to the Stairway to Heaven Trust which is appealing for more artwork donations.
Some of the items going on show are being auctioned by the Mayor of London to raise cash to complete the memorial to Britain’s worst wartime civilian disaster, when 273 people were crushed to death in a public shelter during an air-raid alert in 1943.
The incomplete memorial can be seen at Bethnal Green Gardens, next to the Underground station which was used as a makeshift air-raid shelter during the Second World War, before the Central Line was extended from Liverpool Street.
The four-week exhibition opens May 23 at Forman’s Fish Island Gallery, in Stour Road, Old Ford, including items being auctioned by the Mayor on May 29. The exhibition opens Thursdays and Fridays 5-9pm, weekends noon-5pm, entry free. Nearest transport Hackney Wick Overground or Pudding Mill DLR.
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