London History

The Mediatheque at the BFI Southbank has opened their vast archive to the public free of charge. BBC’s Kurt Barling examines the treasures on offer. The BFI Southbank has embarked on a huge project to digitise the National Film and Television Archive. It’s hoping that this will firstly preserve rare and volatile footage for future generations and just as importantly make it accessible to a much wider audience.

Loads of interesting things going on during London’s East festival which runs from 1 to 6 March. Many of the activities centre on the Museum of London and http://www.museumindocklands.org.uk/English/. Pencil in Friday 2 March, when the Museum is running ‘East End Shorts’ a series of movies showcasing the East End and the lives of its inhabitants. A fascinating collection from the fifties, sixties and seventies, they are a mix of documentary, semi-documentary and (in the case of Bronco Bullfrog, fiction played by local people rather than professional actors.

Other highlights include Vanishing Street, which explores the life of a typical Jewish community in 1960s Britain. Shot by Robert Vas in 1961 in and around Hessel St in the East End, it shows us its street market, kosher food shops, newspaper and synagogue … just as the bulldozers move in. The film will be introduced by BFI film historian Ian O’Sullivan. Bronco Bullfrog and all the films in East End Shorts will feature in London Calling, a collection of 100 films and television programmes about the capital, available to view free of charge in the new BFI Mediatheque (opening 14 March). Further details at www.bfi.org.uk.

The Australian government is fighting its British counterpart over the legality of scientists at London’s Natural History Museum testing the bones of 17 Aborigines it holds in its collection.

Terrific new exhibition at the renovated and rejuvenated Geffrye Museum in Bethnal Green. Home and Garden: 1914-1960 (Part Three):Major exhibition of paintings of middle-class urban domestic interiors and gardens from 1914-1960 Opening 20 February 2007. We’ll be taking a closer look at the exhibition and the permanent features of the Geffrye in an upcoming East End Life. Also catch a special tour of the Museum of London, where guide Robert Whitwell examines how The Great Fire of 1666 changed the city forever. The Museum of London also has ‘Belonging - Voices of London Refugees‘ until 25 February. Well worth a look.

‘We absolutely love living in the East End … we are part of the East End and it is part of our part.’ So quoth Gilbert and George (rather like Ant and Dec we have no way of knowing which one said it and indeed which one is which. But that’s the point isn’t it. And like or loathe their art, G&G do walk it like they talk it. They were in Spitalfields long before it got trendy the first time let alone the second. The first wave being the likes of Dennis Severs, Dan Cruickshank and the Spitalfields Society, who did sterling work to prevent the area being razed by developers, the second being the Nathan Barley generation. You can see the major retrospective of G&G at Tate Modern until May 7th, 2007.