Dispersal: Picturing Urban Change in East London
Dispersal is a unique photographic record of Stratford’s industrial and historical past.
From 18th April 2026, a selection of prints from the archive will be on show for six months at the V&A East Museum, in the area where many of these photos were taken.
Between November 2005 and June 2007, photographers Marion Davies and Debra Rapp and were welcomed into 70 businesses, before they were issued with Compulsory Purchase Orders in order to make way for the Olympic Park. Their photographs capture the individuals the workplaces and the atmosphere. From belt manufacturers to kebab makers, salmon smoking and spare car-part suppliers to zinc galvanizers: this area was a melting pot of industries and trades.
This photographic series has caught the imagination of those interested in London’s social and economic history, as well as the business community, photography and art enthusiasts, Londoners and tourists alike.
A selection of images has been exhibited at the Thames Gateway Forum, the opening of the H Forman & Son smoked salmon factory, the Rosetta Windows Gallery, a pop-up exhibition funded by the Architecture Foundation and at the View Tube, opposite the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
The Museum of London acquired prints from the Collection and also recorded interviews of key individuals photographed in Dispersal for their oral history archive.
In September 2017, Historic England published Dispersal: Picturing urban change in east London, a striking, illustrated book, which showcases images from the archive alongside an academic text by Juliet Davis, Professor of Architecture and Urbanism and Head of the Welsh School of Architecture at Cardiff University.
