George Padmore Institute Building Appeal

Our Building Fundraiser is Now Closed

In November 2023, the Paul Stolper Gallery launched an exclusive online sale of the print ‘Brixton Ritzy’ 2023 with the aim of making a donation to the GPI’s building appeal from the profits. The artwork is a portrait by renowned artist Peter Doig of the legendary reggae poet and GPI Trustee Linton Kwesi Johnson. Since then, the Paul Stolper Gallery and Peter Doig have made a donation of £25,000 to the GPI from sales of the print. This donation helped us reach our goal of £35,000 to commence the first stage of urgent renovation work on our building in Finsbury Park, north London.

We extend our heartfelt gratitude to Peter Doig, who will continue to donate from future sales of the print, and the Paul Stolper Gallery. We also thank everyone who has so generously contributed to this cause. Your support is not just a donation; it's an investment in the future preservation of the knowledge and understanding of Black British history.

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The George Padmore Institute (GPI) is launching an appeal for urgent building repairs to secure the Institute’s future for years to come.

Our many supporters

Many of you have a long association with the GPI — you may have attended an event or workshop, visited the archive as a researcher, worked or volunteered with us on one of our many projects, purchased one of our books or you may follow us on social media. We are so grateful for this wide network of supporters — you are all crucial to our mission of preserving and promoting the histories of Britain’s black communities of Caribbean, African and Asian descent.

Our building’s history

Since the GPI was founded as an independent charity in 1991, it has been located at 76 Stroud Green Road, London. It has also been the home of New Beacon Books since 1973. The building was donated to us by the wonderful, sorely missed Sarah White, one of New Beacon and the GPI’s co-founders and the partner of John La Rose.

Bust of John La Rose

Major building repairs

After more than fifty-five years of housing the bookshop and then the GPI, today this four-storey, nineteenth-century building requires emergency repairs. We are faced with major structural issues that are causing subsidence, leaks and cracks. The building needs to be stabilised urgently. Our staff, researchers, visitors, volunteers and New Beacon

Books need a safe space to carry out their work.

Current funding

The GPI was honoured to be named a National Portfolio Organisation by Arts Council England last year. This funding enables us to continue to welcome researchers to our archive and carry out an exciting programme of work including events and publishing children’s books. However, the grant covers a portion of our operating costs, and we continue to rely on donations to make up the remainder of the budget. With increased energy costs alongside inflation, it is more and more difficult for us to reach our funding goals. And we have no funds to carry out capital building work.

Help us secure our future and mission of preserving and promoting the histories of Britain's black communities. Help us reach our goal of £35,000!

We have already received a couple of donations totalling £3,000. Thank you so much to those very generous donors. And a big thank you to our supporters who donate on a regular basis. But we still have a way to go to reach our target!

PLEASE LET US KNOW YOU HAVE MADE A DONATION, WE WOULD LOVE TO KEEP IN TOUCH WITH YOU TO UPDATE YOU ON THE BUILDING REPAIRS.

A snapshot of the GPI’s recent achievements:

• Last year, we had 209 visits to the archive, a huge increase from 2021.

• Over 200 people attended an event hosted and curated by our trustee Linton Kwesi Johnson to commemorate the life and work of Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze. View the film of the event on our YouTube channel.

• The John La Rose Award, renamed in honour of our co-founder, awards grants to local students. We work with Haringey Council who administers the funds.

• We produced 9 short films about our archive collections; all are available to view on our YouTube channel.

• The GPI archivist Sarah Garrod is working with the Open University on accessible materials from our archive for people with learning disabilities. Find out more here.

• Recent talks and workshops have been held for the Historical Fictions Research Conference, Oral History Society, Foundation for International Education (FIE) and King’s College London among others. Find out about these and all our other events here.

• The GPI worked with researchers on Oscar-winner Steve McQueen’s Education docu-drama, part of his Golden Globe nominated Small Axe five-part anthology for the BBC. The GPI shared archive materials from the Black Education Movement and Black Supplementary Schools. The film is available to view on BBC iPlayer.

• We also worked with researchers on two other Steve McQueen documentaries: Subnormal: A British Scandal (May 2021) and the three-part Uprising (July 2021). Both are available to view on BBC iPlayer.