Prince of Wales Crescent Deserted 1976
digital file Black & White Sound 1976 8:17
Summary: A black-and-white film by John ‘Hoppy’ Hopkins and Sue Hall, documenting the deserted Prince of Wales Crescent (now Mutton Place) in West Kentish Town, Camden, 1976.
Title number: 23062
LSA ID: LSA/30327
Description: The video documents former squats on the deserted Prince of Wales Crescent (now Mutton Place) in West Kentish Town, Camden, in 1976. The film opens from inside a formerly squatted house, where a 1975–76 tax return and a 4 March 1976 edition of Red Weekly are placed within the frame, situating the filmmakers and the viewer in that specific moment in time. The camera moves through the interior, revealing walls filled with hand-drawn slogans, political statements and fragments of personal expression, forming a collective mural of those who once lived there. The film then cuts to the street, where John ‘Hoppy’ Hopkins begins his narration, speaking about No 2 Prince of Wales Crescent, a house he and Sue Hall had documented in 1971 for their film 'Living Free', uncovering the process of it being “liberated” as part of the growing squatting movement. Hall shows and recalls 98 Prince of Wales Road, identified by graffiti reading “squatted 1972.” This sense of community inscription, with names, years and slogans left outside most former squats, becomes a means of remembering; as with Hall’s own recollection, writing on walls acts as both record and trace.
Credits: Sue Hall (Filmmaker); John 'Hoppy' Hopkins (Filmmaker)
Locations: North London
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