Were the Swinging Sixties London’s finest decade? The bars pounded with the coolest music, the fashion was (mostly) fantastic and Hyde Park held free Rolling Stones gigs rather than £70 Taylor Swift ones. This exhibition of the stuff that made the era so special, both here and across the Pond, will have you longing for a time machine, because everything on display – from the Biba mini-dresses to the Apple 1 computer – is so timelessly cool.
Music is the lifeblood of the groovy, so the exhibits are accompanied by a soundtrack, played to you through headphones that cleverly know which record, outfit or poster you’re poring over. Bopping around is fun at first, but you do rather feel like you’re at the world’s slowest silent disco. And it’s harder to concentrate on the thoughtful labels with ‘If You’re Going to San Francisco’ ringing in your ears.
The narrative of the exhibition gets a bit lost in the sheer quantity of amazing things to look at, and by the final room the facts are literally overshadowed by massive screens that you can watch from a beanbag. But with the likes of Linda McCartney’s photo of The Beach Boys (from Paul’s own collection) and *ahem* Time Out’s first issue, any nostalgia fan will be overwhelmed with peace and love. Ashleigh Arnott