Documenting Nine Elms with a series of new films
1000 Londoners revisits Nine Elms: Past and Present.
Since we paused in 2020 much has changed in London. Covid, multiple governments and more have transformed the way that we look at the city. Brexit influenced the cultural diversity of the people of the city (check out Goodbye Europe for more on our creative response to this) However the biggest physical transformation in the city has been Nine Elms.
Like the Docklands regeneration in the 1980s or the Olympic Park transformation in East London in the 2000s, Nine Elms is changing the face of London. Just 10 years ago this area was empty save for warehouses for companies such as Booker Cash and Carry, DHL, The Post Office and Covent Garden Market.
We lovingly documented the people who worked in this environments with films about Londoners such as Dennis, Damian and Venetia.
Now there are 22000 new luxury homes, a floating swimming pool, the new Apple European HQ. The US Embassy dominates one side, the Battersea Power dominates the other and there are even two new Tube stations. There are now far more people who living and working in the area, and the social make-up of the new residents is quite different to the community you’d encounter just a few years ago.
Back in the early days of 2015 we produced a series of films about the people of Nine Elms. Ten years later we’re revisiting the area, continuing some of the stories and reflecting on new ones. The community of people who live and work in Nine Elms has drastically changed. These films will capture some of this change.
But rather than mere observers, this is a change that we have been at the heart of. Chocolate Films, the production company that produces 1000 Londoners, is based at Nine Elms Studio, on Ponton Road, just a few doors along from the US Embassy. We’ve been part of the development since 2014 when we first started started work on the studio, and have witnessed the massive transformation.
The Nine Elms: Past and Present season will introduce some new elements to the 1000 Londoners project. We will also be releasing some new special films that give context to our changing city, and introducing a brand new occasional series of animations.
So watch this space, and enjoy Nine Elms: Past and Present.
