In 2028 East London Music Group will present its most ambitious, exciting, and inspiring project yet.
A new opera by Lucy Armstrong and Olivia Bell will celebrate a powerful woman in East London’s history and tell the inspirational story of the Poplar Rates Rebellion: Nellie Cressall
Poplar in 1920’s London was not an easy place to live. The poorest of London’s boroughs, it was densely populated with poor sanitation and high infant mortality. With more than a third of the adult male population relying on casual dock labour, many families lived hand-to-mouth, often going hungry.
Against this backdrop, local elections held in 1919 brought in a Labour council to power in the borough for the first time. Out went the factory owners, landlords, and business owners and in came dock workers, railwaymen, and labourers.
What followed was an act of political bravery the like of which has seldom been seen since.
Click to read more about Nellie Cressall and the Poplar Rates Rebellion →
Click for tickets to the Nellie Cressall launch event on 25 March 2026 →