The Mirror’s short film celebrating the 100th birthday of Britain’s first council estate, the Becontree, will be shown at a film festival tomorrow.
A collaboration with Northern Heart Films and film students at Barking and Dagenham College, it has been nominated for two of the festival’s awards – best documentary and best local film.
Built for the working class heroes of the First World War, the Becontree was the start of a new vision for families who had spent generations in the slums.
At four square miles and housing 100,000 people, the estate – which is in the borough of Barking and Dagenham in East London, but was in Essex at the time it was built – is still Britain’s biggest.
Over the past few months, the film project has unearthed dozens of stories from the estate – including details of Gandhi’s visit there.
Famous people from Becontree include 1966 World Cup winning manager Sir Alf Ramsey and Martin Peters who scored in the final.
Other footballing heroes from the area include Jimmy Greaves, Terry Venables and Paul Ince.
Actor Dudley Moore was also from the estate. Entertainer Max Bygraves sang in the Fiddlers pub, while pop star Sandie Shaw attended the local secondary school.
Not bad for an area snobs dubbed Corned Beef City as that’s all the residents could supposedly afford.
Residents we spoke to for the film – being shown tonight at the Romford Film Festival in East London – came up with moving and intriguing answers when asked: “Who are you and what do you want?”
Almost universally, the people who talked to us said how proud they are to be from Becontree. Newcomers were at pains to stress how welcome they feel.
Zaphira Kapnisis, 50, from Kingsley Hall Community Centre, said: “The first people to live here were a generation of war heroes, and that still comes across on the estate.
“The war heroes and their families have given the community a sense of looking out for each other.”
David Bennett, a photography lecturer at the college, said: “Most of the students working on the film were born and bred in Becontree and had no idea that it was an estate...
“Being selected for two awards is recognition of the creative input and output from the students, staff, Northern Heart Films and the Mirror.”
For film festival tickets visit www.romfordfilmfestival.com/thursday19.
