Newspaper, Photography

Nearly all issues of SE1 Community Newspaper can be viewed on the Internet Archive, compiled by Chris Scales at Southwark Archives. An original bound set of SE1 issues is available to view at the local history library located with John Harvard Library, 211 Borough High Street, SE1 1JA.

The National Archives Discovery database has the cataloguing details of photographs from SE1 Community Newspaper that are held in Southwark Archives.

Recovering the Regional Radical Press in Britain 1968-88, a project based in the Regional History Centre at UWE Bristol, includes SE1 in its list of known local radical papers. Additional information has been sent in for inclusion.

Lost Art of Paste-Up video on YouTube, by London Review of Books. A somewhat more sophisticated process than how it was done by the community newspaper, but this does give you a rough idea.

The Typewriter Revolution exhibition was at the National Museum of Scotland, July 2021 to April 2022. A typewriter was an essential tool in producing the paper, typing to narrow columns added to the fun!

The book ‘Photography of Protest and Community: the radical collectives of the 1970s‘ by Dr. Noni Stacey includes a section on Blackfriars Photography Project. Published by Lund Humphries.

Four Corners Archive explores and documents the film and photographic heritage of Four CornersHalf Moon Photography Workshop, and Camerawork Magazine, from 1972–1987. Four Corners and Half Moon Photography Workshop (later Camerawork) were two innovative cultural organisations, based in East London. Their early work played a major role in the development of the radical film and photographic practice characteristic of the 1970s and early 1980s.

London Community Video Archive (Facebook page) aims to preserve and share videos made by community groups in London between 1969 and 1985. There’s a YouTube channel.

Rebel Video Works of the video movement of the 1970s/80s.

The Museum of Unrest is a new educational resource for artists, designers and communities engaged in social and environmental justice.

Bankside Open Spaces Trust “An environmental and volunteering charity working to protect, preserve and enhance parks and gardens in London’s SE1 and surrounding areas.”

Blackfriars Settlement.

The Coin Street Story – “an extraordinary campaign by local residents and supporters, which led to Coin Street (Community Builders) purchase and redevelopment of a 13-acre site.”

Colombo Centre – “fitness and friendship in SE1”.

Living Bankside “Striving to make Bankside, Borough & SE1 a place where people are happy and eager to live, work, learn and play.”

London SE1 community website Local news and information for Bankside, Bermondsey, Borough, Elephant & Castle, South Bank, Waterloo.

Waterloo Action Centre.

From the archives

There are several interesting videos held by Southwark Archives available on Film London website. Two of particular relevance:

  • The North Southwark Current, 1983, 30 mins. “Five short pieces by North Southwark Community Development Group, their Chairman and their associates discussing issues around area re-development local issues and funding for community projects.” First section is audio accompanied by footage of the riverside taken from a boat.
  • Southwark (Cities series): People and Planners, 1974, 20 mins. “Programme about the changing face of industry in Southwark and the council’s redevelopment plans for the borough. Features interviews with members of the planning team at Southwark Council, and members of the North Southwark Community Development Group, a local pressure group protesting some of the new riverside development plans, ending with a studio discussion between the two groups.”

Also of interest on YouTube, the tape-slide show put together by Michael Bruce in 1982 ‘A Story of Waterloo’, digitised by Jack Thurston.

Stories about SE1 Stories

Article from Southwark News – group members speaking at Southwark’s Community Action Network meeting, Dec. 2021.

Bermondsey Biscuit (with Southwark News) writes about the exhibition, Feb. 2022.

People’s Plans – Lessons from the History of Community Organising in one Neighbourhood.

Miscellaneous

About the Settlement Movement: A Voluntary Action History Society blog piece ‘The Settlement Movement since 1918’ (12 March 2012) gives a good background. An American article ‘Origins of the Settlement House Movement‘ starts with earlier British history. Blackfriars Settlement has a history section on its About page.

Community Led Housing London. For those inspired by the exhibition to launch their own community housing/co-op initiative.

There is an online archive for Community Action magazine on the Peoples Plans website (exploring the hidden histories of Community-led Planning in the UK).

This page’s header image: engrossed in an issue of SE1 Community Newspaper (series 2). Photo by John Howes.