Winehouse museum exhibit opens in London

An exhibition about the life of Amy Winehouse has opened streets away from where she died aged 27.

The Jewish Museum in London’s Camden Town has worked with her family to gather the star’s clothes, record collection and dozens of photographs for the show.

The exhibits, put together with the help of her brother Alex, include fridge magnets, childhood books and her audition essay to the Sylvia Young stage school.

There is also a suitcase of family photographs she was looking through in the days before she died in her Camden Town home in 2011.

Many of the items have captions written by Alex.

He said: “This is a snapshot of a girl who was, to her deepest core, simply a little Jewish kid from north London with a big talent who, more than anything, just wanted to be true to her heritage.”

The exhibition includes photographs of her grandmother who influenced her sense of style and exhibits that show the family’s “Jewish-London roots”.

It traces those roots back to the singer’s great-great grandparents who left Belarus in the 19th century and came to London by accident having meant to go to the United States.

The museum’s chief executive, Abigail Morris, said the idea for the exhibition came about after the family offered one of her dresses for its permanent display.

She said: “They just came with a dress and thought this would be a lovely place for it and it grew organically from that.”

Ms Morris said she hoped it would show another side to the troubled 'Back To Black' singer who fought a public battle with drink and drugs before her early death.

She said: “Everyone thinks they know who Amy Winehouse is and they’ve seen the pictures, but actually she is somebody’s little sister.

“I think this exhibition is saying this is the story of somebody who was very loved as opposed to someone who was very famous.”