V&A Museum to host exhibition on London’s lost music venues – and it needs your help

London’s V&A Museum will host an exhibition on the city’s lost music venues next year – and it is looking for help from the general public.

Working alongside the Music Venue Trust, the museum will show off the legacy of the city’s countless music venues that have shut down and it is calling on people to submit their “artefacts and music ephemera” to complete their collection.

The exhibition will launch in 2026 and Londoners have until May 31 this year to send in any items to this address from between 1988 and 2025 for consideration.

“We’re proudly working with the V&A on an exciting new project that champions grassroots music venues and their cultural legacy – and you can be a part of it,” the Music Venue Trust wrote on Instagram.

The ‘Lost Music Venues’ exhibition will platform the “importance of grassroots and independent music spaces – from pub venues to nightclubs across the UK”.

“Do you have any flyers, signage, flooring, equipment, set lists, posters, photographs, film footage, DJ decks, microphones, designs or clothing from an independent club or venue? We are looking for material dating from 1988-2025.”

The exhibition comes at a time of crisis for small music venues. One proposed attempt at addressing the problem is a model whereby arena-sized venues and above would adopt a £1 ticket levy, with the money being redistributed back into the grassroots ecosystem to help keep the talent pipeline flowing.

A survey earlier this year found that the policy was supported overwhelmingly by music fans, with 93 per cent of 8,000 participants saying they “strongly agreed” that the policy would be a positive move.

The proposal has been backed by the likes of Coldplay, Sam Fender, Enter Shikari and Katy Perry, and an update from MVT said the levy has meant that “over £580,000 has already been reinvested into the grassroots network via 147 grants”.

The push for more support for live music venues comes after startling figures were shared at the start of the year, revealing that 70.6 per cent of independent UK acts have never toured, while 84 per cent of unsigned artists simply can’t afford to. Another study shared in January revealed that 2024 saw the UK lose one grassroots music venue every two weeks – with nearly half making a loss and 200 remaining in a state of emergency.

There has been intervention from the UK government to help preserve the future of live music though. At the start of this year, it was shared that parliament was looking into a price cap on how much touts can re-sell tickets for, as well as an official consultation into the industry and controversial ‘dynamic pricing’ practices.