East End Women’s Museum

As the only dedicated women’s museum in England, the East End Women’s Museum has been challenging convention since its inception, bringing together like-minded people to address the marginalisation of women in history and create a space where the stories of women and girls are recorded, represented and valued equally to those typically foregrounded by cultural institutions.

Manalo & White were chosen to design the museum’s first permanent home in Barking, and from the outset we saw the project as an opportunity to support and promote women in architecture and across the construction industry. Our winning pitch proposed that the project should be designed and built entirely by women. Pursuing this ambition meant working closely with contractors, legal teams, tradeswomen and politicians as we assembled a team that is still unprecedented.

Accessibility and inclusivity were at the heart of the brief. Within a modest footprint, the museum needed to host exhibitions, events, school sessions and community workshops while remaining able to respond to the organisation’s changing needs over the course of a 25-year lease. This thinking carried through into a wider programme of community engagement, including workshops at the Barbican Centre with DisOrdinary Architecture.

These sessions used personal storytelling to develop a narrative approach to exhibition design, which prioritises participation over spectatorship and treats accessibility as a creative opportunity that begins well before arrival at the building.

The form of the museum reflects this approach. With only one physical artefact in its collection, the space could not rely on a traditional model and instead needed to be inherently flexible. This flexibility is built in at every level, from spaces which can operate independently or flex to provide gathering space, to bespoke modular furniture which can be rearranged to support workshops, exhibitions, a pop-up shop or tea mornings. In this way the design supports both the day-to-day life of the museum and its longer-term evolution.

While the plans for a physical building are currently on hold, the East End Women’s Museum continues its work through exhibitions, workshops, research and partnerships with local community and cultural organisations. Visit their website for more information on their work.