eastlondonhistory.com

Anyone looking for an authentic picture of the East End on television may be advised to skip the new ITV crime drama ‘Whitechapel’, featuring the telegenic though over-exposed Rupert Penry-Jones. Rupe and his hapless police colleagues spend the entire show stumbling through a fog (metaphorical and literal, in peasoupers not seen since the early 1960s) and missing the none-too-subtle parallels with the Jack the Ripper murders. Like, if the killer is placing each victim in the identical spot the Ripper used, it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out where the next victim will be?

Much more interesting is the re-run of the superb 1970s documentary ‘The World at War’ voiced by Laurence Olivier and worth seeing for the opening titles alone - superb music by Carl Davis, superb use of photography. We’re currently at about Episode 3 (of 26) and in September 1940. The East End is being buried under the Blitz, as Goering turns his attention from the RAF airfields to commercial, strategic and inevitably civilian targets. The irony here of course is that this is a turning point for Britain in the Battle of Britain, allowing Fighter Command to regroup and eventually win the war in the air.

But the choicest thing from London viewers’ point of view is the archive footage of East Enders interviewed in a pub in Stepney about their experiences of the Blitz. The programmed debuted in 1973, so these group interviews took place probably a year or two before, with middle-aged Londoners remembering the Blitz of 30 years earlier. Superb archive footage and as historically interesting as the wartime film that accompanies it. Beg, steal or simply borrow a copy from Lovefilm, or try to watch it on whatever the ITV equivalent of iPlayer is.

Row over East End’s secret skyscrapers: Shoreditch residents and architecture experts have attacked the ‘astonishing secrecy’ surrounding plans to build a cluster of skyscrapers on Bishopsgate Goods Yard. Developers Hammerson and Ballymore are understood to be behind two tower blocks planned for the largely derelict Bishopsgate Goods Yard, while another is on the drawing board for the next door Norton Folgate site.

Critics, including historian and long-time Spitalfields resident Dan Cruickshank (you’ll have seen him on TV) and Save Shoreditch secretary William Palin have expressed horror at the plan … and also at the fact that both Tower Hamlets and Hackney Councils are keeping quiet about the skyscrapers in their discussions of the plans for the sites. They claim that two public drop-in sessions last week on plans for the Goods Yard site made no reference to the towers.

‘The level of secrecy is astonishing,’ said Cruickshank. ‘These towers will create monumental shadows. People want to know what is going on. It will so fundamentally change the experience of living in that area that people’s views need to be gathered and responded to.’ Palin described the blocks at ‘tentacles … these proposals are a monstrous assault on the special character of this district and the skyline of the capital. We call on the mayor to stop this madness.’

A spokeswoman from Tower Hamlets confirmed it had not yet received any planning applications for the Goods Yard. ‘Tower Hamlets Council is not engaged in any formal pre-application discussions,’ she added. Robert Allan, assistant director for developers Hammerson, said: ‘Hammerson and Ballymore [another developer] are in the early stages of preparing proposals for the Bishopsgate Goods Yard site. The local authority is preparing and consulting on the draft supplementary planning document, and following its consultation, we will develop our options for the scheme further.’

The Save Shoreditch campaign numbers artists Tracy Emin and Rachel Whiteread among its members.

1. Vintage Film Screening as part of East London Film Festival Says:
   April 16th, 2008 at 4:10 pm edit”’It Always Rains on Sunday”’
   92 Mins
   Director: Robert Hamer
   Writer: Henry CorneliusA glimps into the Eastend of London post WWII

   A break away from Ealing’s predominantly comedic output, IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY moves into the terrain of serious drama. Directed by Robert Hamer (Kind Hearts and Coronets), it stars Googie Withers as Rose sandigate. a Bethnal Green housewife whose sunday is turned upside down by the re appearence of an old flame who is now an escaped convict.

   At the RIO Cinema on Sunday 20th April at 3.45pm

   http://www.eastendfilmfestival.com