'Lives Less Ordinary: Working-Class Britain Re-seen' conceived and curated by Samantha Manton

20 March 2025

Two Temple Place is a beautifully eccentric neo Tudor/Gothic building on the Victoria Embankment in London. Commissioned by and built for William Waldorf Astor in the 1890s, Two Temple Place is now owned by The Bulldog Trust and hosts a year-round programme of community and cultural activity. Its wood panelled rooms and stained glass windows make it a slightly incongruous setting for the current exhibition 'Lives Less Ordinary: Working-Class Britain Re-seen'. This fascinating collection of works by artists from working-class backgrounds, conceived and curated by Samantha Manton, explores the overlooked richness and diversity of working-class life and creative expression from the 1950s to the present day. As I started to walk around the exhibition the tone of celebration of the joy, fun and passions of ordinary everyday life reminded me both of the Pitmen Painters of Ashington (celebrated in Lee Hall’s play ‘The Pitmen Painters’, reviewed here in October 2009 and November 2019) and of Hetain Patel's ‘Come As You Really Are’ exhibition in Croydon (reviewed here in September 2024). So it was wonderful then to come across pieces by some of the Pitmen Painters and by Hetain Patel, later in the exhibition. It was good to see the very recognisable paintings of Beryl Cook, but it is the many images of ordinary, often unnamed, people that dominate Lives Less Ordinary. The majority of the exhibition consists of photographs - beautiful, stark depictions of everyday life from the 1950s, 80s and 90s. Most focus on the people and their interests and enthusiasms, rather than on the difficulties of their lives. And the other recurring theme that jumped out was the places depicted - including Middlesbrough, Stoke on Trent, Liverpool, Northumberland, Glasgow, Handsworth, Rochdale, Bolton etc. I was struck by a quote from the painter George Shaw, whose practice revolves around the Tile Hill Estate in the Midlands: “If you can't find yourself in your own backyard you're not going to find yourself in the Serengeti, are you? So for me, it was taking those cliches of epiphany and the sublime and putting them in a place where great thoughts aren't rumoured to happen.” It was also great to see a display about the Desi Pubs project developed by the Creative People and Places consortium Creative Black Country which I featured in my 2016 report ‘The role of voluntary arts activity and everyday participation in Creative People and Places’. The exhibition's aim is "recognising the extraordinary in the ordinary". It's on until 20 April and is free. More details here.