Two goths in Camden-High Street in the 1980s [Normski/Museum-of-Youth-Culture]
THE world’s first museum dedicated to youth culture will open in Camden Town later this year.
Taking over a huge industrial venue at St Pancras Campus in Georgiana Street, the Museum of Youth Culture will comprise two rolling galleries pulling highlights from the permanent collection and archive, and a dedicated free gallery space for young creatives to exhibit their work.
It promises to eschew “stuffy” programming, and will instead put on display rave flyers, band T-shirts and photography capturing counter-culture and hedonism across the decades.
The challenge in our digital age, however, will be to get young people through its doors.
Creative director Jamie Brett told the New Journal: “Making sure that we have young people involved, that’s going to be the challenge.
“Forty per cent of the space is going to be fully dedicated to young people so it will include a gallery which is only going to have up-and-coming young artists and also a music studio. We want them to feel that they’re the next part of the journey, rather than feeling like a load of old people or people from the past that have been put on show.
“There is a big conversation right now within the museum world about, how do we document the next stage of not even youth culture, but just life in general, being on social media, and do TikToks go into the collection, and how do we present those in the future?”
The Museum of Youth Culture
The project has been 20 years in the making. It all began with its founder Jon Swinstead’s photography collection which has grown over the years.
He used to run Sleaze Nation magazine – the photographs of which grew into an image library recording youth culture in the 1980s and 1990s which were used by magazines and newspapers.
Many of those photos include a large collection of Camden.
Ravers dancing outside the trip at the Astoria in 1988 [Marcus Graham/Museum of Youth Culture]
Mr Brett said there are “a few thousand” images from Camden mainly from music venues such as Dingwalls.
Now for the first time, there will be a physical home for the collection, alongside objects such as Walkmans from the 1980s and chopper bikes.
Mr Brett said: “We’ve had a lot of developers that have come to us and said, ‘Oh, we’ve got a space that we’d like you to move into’ and it never worked out right, and the location hasn’t felt right.
“This is the first one that, as soon as we looked at it, and we looked at where we were and being by the canal, we thought this makes so much sense, because Camden is synonymous with subcultures and I suppose, it’s become like that across the nation and across the world as well.”
[Adrian Fisk/Museum of Youth Culture]
Mr Swinstead, founder of the Museum of Youth Culture, said: “This is more than a place to look back, it’s a space to participate, contribute, and shape the cultural narrative together. Camden has been synonymous with music and youth culture for decades, making it the natural home for the museum.
“We’re creating a space for stories that have often been overlooked but are essential to understanding who we are. Youth culture drives innovation, challenges norms, and creates communities – it’s one of the most powerful forces in society. That’s why it matters. And that’s why we want everyone to be part of it. This isn’t just our museum – it’s yours.”
The Museum of Youth Culture opens in December.
