Walking east from London’s tourist and student thronged Camden Lock, past the graffiti, tags, and fly-posted walls of the Regent’s Canal, you will come across mini-posters inviting you to leave the water and visit one of Camden’s newest attractions, the Museum Of Youth Culture, opened in June 2026.
Free to enter, you step past a brightly coloured budget car, with furry dice hanging from the rear-view mirror. Any fan of The Inbetweeners will recognise it looks suspiciously like Simon’s cinquecento, with the red door being the giveaway, but it does represent every teenager’s car ever.
Inside, there is a buzzy, joyful atmosphere where I am met by Lisa Der Weduwe, the Art Director of the Museum, seen in the picture below, on what looks like a fun night.
Lisa, originally a photographer, is a passionate and expert guide to twentieth-century youth subculture. Luckily for MetalTalk, she is also a fan of all things rock and Metal.
Lisa tells me it all began in 1997, in the garden of a London house, when Jon Swinstead (Director of the Museum of Youth Culture) began collecting photos of the capital’s nights. Thirty years and more than 150,000 items later, the collection has finally found a home.
Crucially, “The focus is on the crowd, not the stage”, Lisa explains. This is not an exhibition that will have a jacket by a famous designer or Jimi Hendrix’s guitar, but a place where you will find a classic T-shirt, a piece of DIY clothing, a long-treasured ticket stub, badge, flyer or fanzine and collections of photos by the fans of the fans, for example these from Duane Harwood as well as some better-known photographers.
The focus is from ’20s-’30s British youth sub-culture to the present day.
Unsurprisingly, with Britain’s diversity, there are elements of youth sub-cultures from around the globe that have made Britain their home.
The Museum prides itself on being able to pull out or show something from any youth sub-culture in any period that someone is interested in. That is impressive, and when we focus on the Heavy Metal collection, there are some gems.
Pride of place goes to a 1971 Black Sabbath T-shirt carrying the early fairy imagery before they moved to the darker demon style. Marking that crossover from the flower power rock and velvet jackets of the earliest days of Metal it is melded with the darker dress of motorcycle culture.
This is paired with Sanna Charles’s denim battle jacket. This had belonged to her father in his youth, but he gave it to her, with Sanna cutting off the sleeves and decorating it with band patches.
Sanna Charles is famous for the photographic project which resulted in the book God Listens To Slayer. This showed Slayer fans at play, and examples from the book can be found on the subterranean floors of the Museum. These are alongside Steve Gray’s photographs, also recording, amongst other things, the rock and Metal scene.
Ticket stubs were jaw-dropping. Go and see Alice Cooper for £1 in 1972, Van Halen at the much-missed Finsbury Park Rainbow Theatre for £3.50 or Iron Maiden for £14.50 in 1995 at the Brixton Academy.
There were some wonderful examples of Metal badges.
As the origins of the archive are from 1997, many of the photos on the Museum’s walls relate to nu-Metal, including pictures from Ozzfest in Milton Keynes in 2001. The personal collections that the Museum has been given permission to use by members of the public capture the essence of the recklessness and fun of the decades.
There are also tangential connections with the way the Metal scene collided with the dance music and rap music scenes in the ’90s. It is a chance to let your memories and imagination loose as the objects and images trigger you.
The huge main exhibition room is a melee of punk, pop, mods, indie, rave, reggae, bhangra, K-Pop. You name it, they have got it, with the weird and the wonderful thrown in.
The giant sound system in the main exhibition space is easily a rival and as large and loud as anything you would see at Notting Hill. Music follows you round wherever you go. It can be hired as an event space for screenings or for events, which is one of the ways the not-for-profit raises funds, along with donations and some element of grant funding.
There are youth culture entertainments for everybody including:
- table football. You will not have seen teams like this before. My favourite was the glam rocker in goal
- a passport-style photo booth so you can leave with a picture of yourself pulling the silliest faces or with your nearest and dearest
- a classic Space Invaders arcade game
- a telephone booth where you can make spoken word recordings into an old-style handset that contribute to the Museum’s oral history archive.
There is lots more besides. There are bean bags and a coffee shop with a bar serving alcohol and an exciting gift shop which includes a record store reflecting all genres.
When I was there, the Museum had people of all ages visiting, including lots of fun-loving, excited, happy youngsters. This is exactly what the committed team want. To make a space for intergenerational connection and understanding and to preserve what makes youth great in a positive way. There are plans to open other branches in Birmingham and Glasgow.
The experience of visiting is high impact, bringing back memories of identity and community, and led to some fun reminiscing with a great friend in the Constitution pub, conveniently opposite the Museum, with beautiful views over the canal.
The picture above says it is an incomplete history of youth culture. The Museum are very keen to expand their archive, so MetalTalk are reaching out to all of you.
If you have photo collections that you would be prepared to allow the Museum to use, stories you could share or objects or items that should be preserved, not binned, the Museum is keen for you to contact them via their website.
Most of all, the Museum would love you to visit and spread the word.
Their next major exhibition celebrates 50 years of punk culture with the spotlight on women. God Save The Queens has been put together by the daughters of Poly Styrene and Mick Jones of the Clash.
It promises to be very special.
You can find the Museum Of Youth Culture at 51 St Pancras Way, London, NW1 0PU. For more details, visit MuseumOfYouthCulture.com.
