As most of you already know, in 2025 our CEO, Sophie, had to step down for health reasons.

Join us in celebrating her incredible achievements by sharing a message and contributing to a very special gift - a space for Sophie's Table in the heart of the new Migration Museum.

A truly inspirational leader

Sophie has been the brains, energy and beating heart of the Migration Museum for the last 15 years, well before it had even been launched under that name.

She is the reason so many of us joined the Migration Museum team. We met her, saw her in action or heard about what she was doing and were hooked. Finally a hopeful, joyful, creative endeavour to address the frustration we felt that Britain's migration story was so poorly represented in our education, media and cultural landscape.

Under Sophie's dedicated and tireless leadership the Migration Museum has grown from an idea hashed out around Sophie's kitchen table to a thriving, award-winning institution on the cusp of national recognition, with a permanent home in the City of London due to open in 2028.

Such an incredible achievement deserves a very special type of recognition. And not just for Sophie, but for her entire family who have also played a pivotal role in supporting and sustaining the project, through accommodations of changed plans and moral support, and also through many hours of their own hard graft, setting up our payroll systems, helping to install exhibitions, running the shop or the bar at events, and so much more.

We owe them a huge debt of gratitude, too.

An extraordinary gift for an extraordinary person

The team would like you to join us to give Sophie an extraordinary leaving present - a gift that reflects the scale of her achievement and our deep appreciation of her irrepressible caring spirit and the imprint she has made on our hopes and hearts.

Sophie has spearheaded so many elements of the museum but a guiding theme throughout our time working with her has always been her incredible hospitality and her love of bringing people together over food. Whether in her own house and garden, through events at the museum or bonding with newcomers over the migration story of fish and chips, Sophie and her family's spirit of making everyone feel at home has guided the museum's mission to be a space that welcomes everyone, whatever their own view or story, to join the conversation.

That's why, as a leaving gift to Sophie, we want to give her a guarantee that in our new museum there will always be a place to share meals and the stories of food that connect us to our memories and to each other- a place to be courageous and make plans around a table, to be unashamedly ambitious.

Please join us

We want to raise the funds to create a vibrant nourishing cafe/restaurant that will be a storytelling destination in its own right, a space for supper clubs led by the most exciting up-and-coming migrant chefs and for conversations and connections between friends and strangers.

We're setting a target of £50,000 toward the cost of our kitchen and cafe, and to create 'Sophie's Table' at the centre of this vibrant, permanent area.

We would love for everyone who contributes to this gift to have their name (or the food or dish that means the most to them) etched into a table - Sophie’s Table - at the centre of the restaurant.

In this way we’ll join together at Sophie’s Table to say thank you for the huge contribution she’s made to bring the Migration Museum to life. And we can all meet round the table when the museum opens.

You can make a contribution here. We’d also really love it if you can post messages for Sophie telling her what her leadership of the museum has meant to you, or recounting a favourite memory or reflection. We will collate them all into something wonderful for her to enjoy. Or if you prefer, you can send your message to supporters@migrationmuseum.org.