Borough Road Gallery

#159

LSBU’s on-campus gallery devoted to David Bomberg and the Borough Group. Centred on the Sarah Rose Collection, it charts Bomberg’s post-war teaching at Borough Polytechnic and the breakthroughs his students made—life drawing as ‘the spirit in the mass’, then bold, structural painting. Expect compact rooms, dense hangs, and shows that pair paintings with studio drawings and letters so you can see methods as well as results.

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Opening Hours

Sunday: 12:00 – 17:00

Wednesday: 12:00 – 17:00

Thursday: 12:00 – 17:00

Friday: 12:00 – 17:00

Saturday: 12:00 – 17:00

Admissions

Adult £13.50

Child £8.00

Concession £12.00

What's not to miss inside?

David Bomberg: Teaching at Borough Polytechnic (1945–1953)

Sets the scene for Bomberg’s radical pedagogy after WWII and his shift from Vorticism to expressive structure.

Syllabus notes, life-room drawings and late landscapes reveal how his ‘search for the spirit in the mass’ shaped a generation.

Compare one student life drawing to Bomberg’s own studies—note how contour becomes weight and direction, not outline.

📍 Introductory gallery

The Borough Group & Sarah Rose Collection

Paintings by founders Cliff Holden, Dorothy Mead, Edna Mann and Miles Richmond show how Bomberg’s ideas splintered into distinct voices.

From constructional still lifes to charged figure studies, the Group’s 1946 formation reads like a manifesto in paint.

Track one motif (e.g., a standing figure) across two artists and spot how structure vs. gesture is prioritised.

📍 Main gallery

From Borough to London’s Post-war Scene

Links the Borough circle to wider post-war British art—students who later fed London’s figurative revival.

Timelines and catalogues connect the polytechnic life-room to later exhibitions and prizes across the 1950s–60s.

Pick one artist and map three dates: Borough years → first group show → mature style marker.

📍 Context wall / timeline

🤓 Fun Facts

David Bomberg taught evening classes at Borough Polytechnic from 1945 to 1953; his students formed the Borough Group in 1946 to exhibit under shared principles he encouraged.

Founding members represented in the Sarah Rose Collection include Cliff Holden, Dorothy Mead, Edna Mann and Miles Richmond—each developing divergent approaches from Bomberg’s emphasis on structure and mass.

The gallery’s focus is a teaching lineage: works on paper and studio studies are shown alongside finished canvases to demonstrate how Borough methods translated from life room to exhibition wall.