Open Meeting and Brockley Society AGM

Part 1: Open meeting, 7pm (Doors open 6.45pm):

The Big Picture: what makes the Bayeux Tapestry so appealing?  Speaker: Woodrow Phoenix.

The Bayeux Tapestry is by far the biggest exhibition ever staged at the The British Museum. When advance tickets became available, the museum recorded more than £2.4 million in sales in the first 24 hours. The huge public desire to see the tapestry is surprising when a full-size Victorian recreation has been on display for free in a gallery in Reading since the 1990s. What is that people want to see?

Graphic novelist Woodrow Phoenix’s interest in wordless picture stories led to his creation of a giant narrative book, SHE LIVES. Measuring two metres when opened, the story is usually experienced as a kind of public performance. It has been displayed at the British Library, the London Cartoon Museum and other museums and galleries. He will be showing this book and exploring our fascination with stories and storytelling in this illustrated talk.

Woodrow is a writer, artist, and graphic designer based in London. His constant experiments with the form and style of the comic strip medium have resulted in an extremely varied output of narratives appearing in national UK newspapers including The Guardian, The Observer, The Independent and the London Evening Standard, in magazines and comics across Europe, the USA and Japan, and in television projects for Walt Disney and Cartoon Network.

His books include SugarBuzz!, Plastic Culture, the critically acclaimed Rumble Strip and its sequel Crash Course, the award-winning anthology Nelson, children’s adventure strip Donny Digits and the experimental She Lives, a gallery installation that is also a giant graphic novel. She Lives was featured in a BBC4 television series, Art That Made Us in 2022.

Woodrow grew up in Brockley with his four sisters and still lives here. He is the son of Sybil Phoenix OBE, MBE, former Civic Mayoress of Lewisham, founder of the Pagnell Street Centre and the Marsha Phoenix Memorial Trust.

Part 2: Brockley Society AGM, 8.15pm

AGENDA:

– Attendance and Apologies
– Minutes of the AGM 19 November 2025
– Chair’s Report
– Treasurer Report
– Planning Report / other reports
– Approval of reports
– Election of trustees
– Election of Planning Group
– A.O.B.