• 1970s exhibition back in SE1

    After a very successful extended run at UCL’s Urban Room in Stratford, the ‘Blackfriars SE1 in the 1970s’ exhibition is back home south of the river until the end of March (30th). At Southwark Council’s Atrium, 160 Tooley Street, SE1 2QH. Plenty of space, as shown in this photo! Open office hours.

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SE1 Stories – a record of community struggles

Telling the story of an extraordinary period of community action in the 1970s and 1980s in Blackfriars, Waterloo and North Southwark, along London’s south bank.

For many it was a fight for survival as businesses moved out and developers eyed up land for office development, leaving isolated communities struggling to maintain their way of life, coping with run-down housing and threats to facilities such as chemists and laundrettes. Very much the same pressures are re-emerging now – and there is the same need for community action.

Photography

Intrepid photographers captured a lot of the activity, which was then published in SE1’s own community newspaper. Many of the photographs are now held in private and public collections, particularly council local history archives, perhaps you know of others hidden elsewhere.

The first project based on this material is the exhibition Blackfriars SE1 in the 1970s.

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