St Anne’s Limehouse is proud to launch a new
exhibition
The Original Chinatown: Myths and Realities
March 20th 2026 – July 2026
This exhibition celebrates the first London Chinatown
found right next to St Anne’s, which flourished
1900-1955, and had all but disappeared by the 1960’s.
Extraordinarily, this small community became the focus
of international attention through its portrayal in films,
fiction and popular music. Its depiction in the national
press was often sensationalist and scurrilous. And
myths created then were so powerful that they persist to
this day, long after Chinatown itself.
Yet Limehouse Chinatown was, in fact, an urban village,
where ordinary people lived, worked and went to school.
We have testaments and documents from families who
lived here and from people who visited here for work or
pleasure. We feature instillations by ceramicist Charles
Ng exploring the realities of daily life in this community.
The image of these four young girls illustrate how
Limehouse Chinatown was always an interracial
community. This was its great strength, but also a
factor in the community’s ultimate demise and,
unhappily, a trigger for some of the most pernicious
Sino-phobic mythologising ….
Andrew Humphrey will be running some of his superbly
researched walking tours of Chinese Limehouse to
coincide with the exhibition.
Other events in the church are to be arranged.
ENTRANCE IS FREE BUT DONATIONS FOR THE
CHURCH RESTORATION FUND ARE WELCOME
OPEN: THURSDAY, FRIDAYS, SATURDAYS 10- 4
CONTACT Philip Reddaway on philipcfsa@gmail.com
