A controversial exhibition of portraits of people, whose courage, bloody mindedness and instinct for rebellion, have enhanced London’s radical tradition, has opened at City Hall.

To accompany artist Jolie Goodman’s four portraits – of Walter Wolfgang, Camilla Batmanghelidjh, Helen John and Brian Haw – are specially-commissioned photos from the East London Photographers Group. Doreen Lawrence, Harold Pinter, Peter Tatchell, A. Sivanandan, Tony Benn and Clare and Roland Muldoon are included here alongside photographs of street campaigners fighting NHS cuts, the Iraq war and for the right to demonstrate.

This show, curated by Jan Woolf, is inspired by Kahlil Gibran’s observation that ‘life without rebellion is like the seasons without spring’. Compact though it is, ‘Rebels and trouble makers’ provides a very valuable microcosm of current struggles – across generation, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, occupation and class.

It is on show from 8am-6pm at City Hall between 5-17 November.