Join Talkaoke at the historical Steam Ship SS Robin, moored at Trinity Buoy Wharf and join an open conversation as part of the Belonging symposium launch event, curated by Fitzrovia Noir CIC, and held in conjunction with the London Festival of Architecture 2026 #LFA2026

Talkaoke is a pop-up talk show unlike anything else – a glowing round table, a host in the middle, and you driving the conversation. No agenda. No script. It’s up to you to decide on the direction of the chat. Grab the mic and take the conversation somewhere nobody expected. It can get funny, philosophical, political, surreal or all of the above. Every voice matters. Every idea is welcome. On the night you are welcome to join our glowing ‘doughnut of chat’ for 5 mins or longer, you can listen or take the mic and offer a new subject. It’s up to you.

Talkaoke has been sparking unexpected conversations on street corners, at festivals, cultural events, universities, museums, youth clubs (…) in the UK and all over the world. We appear everywhere there are people and a need to chat. The People Speak is an East London art collective behind Talkaoke. For us conversation is a creative medium. For almost three decades we have been creating live events that bring strangers together and help with collective decision making. We also run creative facilitation workshops based on our Talkaoke experience. In the world of polarisation our formats aim to create spaces where differences of opinion is encouraged and explored through a shared journey. Just show up. The conversation will do the rest.

Location: SS Robin and supporting Pontoon, 64 Orchard Place, Poplar, London, E14 0JW

Nearest stations: Canning Town via red bridge/City Island or East India DLR   Nearest parking: free after 5pm weekdays and all day weekends on nearby Aberfeldy estate

Launch event: 3pm-7pm Thursday 25 June 2026 RSVP: HERE (TBC) FREE TO ATTEND

Responding to the London Festival of Architecture 2026 theme, Belongingcelebrates the culmination of our current National Lottery Heritage Fund three-year programme, as well as showcasing the impact of our public engagement in east London and northeast England over the last decade and a half. Outputs include a large chandelier made with Sixth Form students in Newcastle, Lego constructions co-created with residents of Poplar from street installations by New York based artist Jaye Moon and contempary responses to Victorian photographic processes led by Jonathan Turner. Outcomes featured are the educational foundation that came out of the Tommy Flowers community pub, cited at the House of Lords as “a new model of creative community engagement” and the long empty Post Office next-door that we developed intoMaking Space, that acted as a springboard for testing out new ideas including two works that travelled to Venice for the Art Biennale and Film Festival 2022. After six years utilising meanwhile spaces on the Aberfeldy estate we returned to Trinity Buoy Wharf where we had run an artists residency programme from 2011-17, now being given access to use SS Robinand its supporting Pontoon for events, exhibitions and experimentation, including visual and sonic works. An early intervention revisited here is a large pinhole image of the Post Office Tower, created within a former advertising agency in Fitzrovia, the neighbourhood where our CIC was founded.

PONTOON EXHIBITION OPENING TIMES (NO BOOKING REQUIRED)  11am–5pm from Friday 26 – Sunday 28 June 2026 (FREE TO ATTEND)

The Tommy Flowers Foundation supports new ideas in science, technology and the arts, by awarding bursaries to emerging innovators and giving opportunities for collaboration and development through residencies

SS Robin is internationally recognized as being the only complete Victorian steam ship in existence. A unique survivor from when Britain’s Empire was at its height and London was the world centre for maritime trade and shipbuilding, she was launched in London in 1890 and sailed UK and continental waters, carrying a variety of cargo under several owners before ending her career in Spain in 1974, by then the last of her kind still sailing.

LFA2026: Belonging

The London Festival of Architecture (LFA) is back for a month long celebration of architecture and city-making in June 2026. With activity happening across London, the Festival will once again be platform for conversation, testing new ideas, promoting emerging talent, helping shift us towards a more equitable, sustainable city.

???? Photo by Brian Whar, Instagram @brain_war