A bold celebration of resilience, identity, and art has taken over the London Museum Docklands — but it also shines a light on a painful history that many still don’t know about.
In West India Quay, an extraordinary new exhibition titled By Appointment Only has opened its doors, honoring the creativity, craftsmanship, and indomitable spirit of Britain’s Romani communities. The show highlights the voices of three British Romani artists whose works push back against old stereotypes and invite viewers to understand their culture more deeply. But here’s where it gets controversial — these displays also confront the discrimination that Romani people have endured for centuries in the UK.
Romani communities have been part of British history since the early 1500s. Yet, the prejudice they faced lingered shockingly long. As recently as the 1990s, signs reading “No travellers or gypsies allowed” could still be found outside pubs and restaurants across the country. Over time, that exclusion morphed into the euphemistic phrase “Travellers by appointment only” — the inspiration behind the exhibition’s striking title.
Co-curator and artist Corrina Eastwood describes her involvement in the project as both professionally significant and profoundly personal. She explains that the process of doing justice to her heritage, community, and family was both moving and, at times, emotionally overwhelming. To bring these stories to life, Eastwood and her collaborators combined archival research with artistic expression, weaving together shared histories into something both reflective and new.
Her featured work, Sugar Coated, is a deeply personal tribute to her late father. Incorporating 3D-printed casts of his hands, the piece becomes a tactile memory that fuses loss, love, and lineage. Another captivating installation, Tap Your Heels Together Three Times, comes from artist Delaine Le Bas. Through vibrant imagery and layered symbolism, Le Bas explores questions of belonging, gender, and modern identity, drawing inspiration from her Romani family roots and their involvement in the rag-and-bone trade — a once-common occupation that turned discarded materials like rags, bones, and metal into means of survival.
South-east London artist Dan Turner, meanwhile, uses his work to reflect on the complex relationship between Romani heritage and broader British culture. His pieces highlight traditional Romani crafts — once sold door-to-door — and how they have influenced mainstream practices over time. His art, much like the exhibition as a whole, acts as both a bridge and a mirror, showing how Romani identity both shapes and is shaped by the world around it.
Adding a cinematic dimension to the exhibition, a short film produced by Historic England and directed by award-winning filmmaker John-Henry Phillips, Searching for Romani Gypsy Heritage, traces Romani history from 500 AD all the way to 2022. It’s a powerful reminder of the community’s endurance and evolving identity over the centuries.
Visitors can experience all of this in the museum’s Reflections Room on the second floor — a tranquil, thought-provoking space that’s open to the public free of charge. Eastwood describes it as “a beautifully human space for the recognition of important, often unspoken histories.”
And this is the part most people miss — the exhibition isn’t just about art. It’s about visibility, acknowledgment, and reclaiming a narrative long overshadowed by prejudice. It invites visitors to ask uncomfortable yet necessary questions: Who gets to tell history? Whose stories have been silenced? And how can art help us face — and possibly heal — the biases of the past?
So, what do you think? Does this exhibition go far enough in changing perceptions of Romani culture? Or is there still more Britain needs to confront about its own legacy of exclusion?
