Fortress Wapping

In 1986, over 5000 print and clerical workers from News International went on strike and were fired. The company owned four of Britain’s biggest and most influential newspaper titles: The Times, The Times on Sunday, The Sun and News of the World. The resulting dispute lasted for over a year and the company’s new printing facility in Wapping, East London, was the site of continuous picketing and
protests.

In this new collection of poems and images, Sam Kemp vividly memorialises the struggles at ‘Fortress Wapping’.

‘Poetry has long been used to give voice to conflict, struggle, and change, and in this collection Sam Kemp has brought history back to life in a gritty, visceral and compelling way. Through these poems and images, I find myself transported back in time to Fortress Wapping, and the events that occurred in Docklands almost 40 years ago. If you were not there, you will also feel that you were there, too.’
—Nic Outridge, photographer