Film screenings at the London Metropolitan Archives

London Metropolitan Archives is part of the City of London library service but holds records and collections of historical material about the whole of London. It is the largest local authority archive in the UK with 'over 80km of research collections that document the capital's history from 1067 to the present day.

The collections include a number of documentary films about London and once a month (usually the third Friday) they organise free Reel London film screening events. For the past couple of months, these films have been on the theme of housing in London in a series entitled 'Somewhere decent to live - how city planners tried to solve London's housing crisis'.

I went on to the second of these last week which focused on Thamesmead, the new town built in the late sixties beside the Thames on the Greenwich/Bexley borders. Thamesmead is the setting for the 1996 film Beautiful Thing, features in A Clockwork Orange and is heavily dominated by concrete as illustrated in the picture above.

The first of the two films I saw, Living at Thamesmead (1974), followed a young couple called Tom and Sally as they went about their daily lives in the town and shows them making good use of all the modern facilities available and enjoying a community fun day in the sunshine.

The second film, Thamesmead, was made by the GLC in 1970, and shows how the settlement was planned and designed to include factories, schools and other services as well as a good mix of different types of housing. The idea was to make good use of the riverside location with much of the development focused around a yacht marina. The name Thamesmead was chosen by Londoners in a competition and the place was described as 'a town for the 21st century'.

Both these films clearly demonstrate the optimism that many people felt when Thamesmead was first built but sadly not all the plans came to fruition and the lack of good transport links means that this isn't a popular place to live now. The original plan was for the town to have up to 100,000 residents but it is now estimated that the final population will be around half that.

The final part of the housing themed screenings takes place on 19 August and focuses on the Barbican. The LMA also organises a number of other events many of which are free, including several aimed at those researching their family history. If you are interested in using the Archives, you can book to go on a free guided tour which will help you get the most out of the research facilities.

The LMA also has a small exhibition area which featured the Jewish East End when I visited (this exhibition finishes on 22 July) with lots of photographs of old synagogues, shops and schools in East London.

Finally, if you need some fresh air after submerging yourself in the archives, there is a peaceful little park, Spa Fields, just opposite the LMA - a rare patch of green space in that part of London.