‘Made of Place’ - The Secret Lives of Alice Billing House

London Craft Week
11th - 17th May 2026

In this exhibition ceramic artist and studio potter Beverley Sommerville has created a collection of work that responds to an Artist Residency she was awarded by Grow Studios in May 2025. The exhibit captures the essence of time and place, embedding memories and narratives within the pieces themselves, through the gathering of matter and the making processes.

image by Elle Brotherhood photography

Alice Billing House is a Grade II listed building in Stratford and was built in 1905–1906 to house the West Ham Fire Brigade. Its South Block opened as artist studios in 2024, and the North Block is set to be renovated in 2026 to create additional studio spaces. Beverley spent several days on-site, exploring the building, collecting soot, ashes, debris, and fragments of brick, slate, glass, and metal. These materials formed a material archive, which became central to her creative process.

‘Made of Place’ is a gathering of many parts, not only of the excavated materials but of the building’s heritage and history, connecting its past, its present and its future. Porcelain vessels of varying sizes float on glass, in them the gathered matter has been embedded within the porcelain’s surface, made up of concentric circles and flooded with glaze, creating incapsulated pools of place.
This fluid element reflects and responds to those firemen of West Ham fire brigade that lived and worked in the building and the building’s name’s sake, Alice Billing, a local Sanitary Inspector who in 1898 was one of the first women to hold such a position in the country.

The week will culminate in a participatory workshop, where visitors are invited to create their own ceramic pieces using the materials Beverley gathered from the building. This hands-on experience offers the community a chance to leave their mark, celebrating Alice Billing House while weaving the building into the stories and culture of the 21st century.

Through this project, Beverley Sommerville combines heritage, materiality, and community engagement, turning the story of Alice Billing House into both a ceramic archive and a living, participatory artwork.

Tuesday 12th May/ Wednesday 13th May / Thursday 14th May / Friday 15th May
10:00 am to 3:00 pm by appointment - FREE but please book

Book the day and come at any time between 10:00 am and 3:00 pm.

BOOK HERE - FREE

Address: Alice Billing House
2-12, West Ham Lane
Stratford
E15 4SF