Our March talk

Our lives in film – a talk by Derek Smith

"The power of film is incredible ... Everybody's got a story to tell."

In a world so often focused on celebrity, Derek Smith makes documentaries about ordinary people's lives. 

Derek has been making films since he was in the 6th form. 20 years ago, he was a producer-director in regional TV, where he was working in film crews of six or seven people. 

Digital technology has enabled him to shift to making films himself, to author his own films, teach himself editing and record his own voiceovers, making changes straightforward. Access to software has made it possible to produce books to accompany his documentaries. And he brings to his digital work the discipline from his directing days.

Taking us through some of his films, Derek showed us Finsbury People, hearing from people who had been through the Blitz. We saw a beautiful slow motion sequence from a 1980s Channel 4 programme about racing pigeons in the North East. We heard the story of a series taking Edward Lear's landscape drawings to modern Greece – made with a historian, funded by one of his bandmates and bought by Sky Arts. Another of Derek's films looked into what happened to the people in a famous 1953 photo by Paul Strand, of peasant life in Italy long gone – a film that being an independent filmmaker made possible because he could work in depth, without time pressure. In his film Victory's Children, he followed the life stories of all of the children in a 1945 photo of a VE Day party. Stockton Museum put the photos on display. To mark the replacement of its community centre, Derek made a film about the Gascoyne Estate, looking into why its quality of design, sense of utopia and community had been so successful. And Derek told us how a film commissioned by Thornaby Town Council to tell the story of the Devil's Bridge road disaster led to better safety signage, to a memorial and to connections between people.

Over 50 years in film... and Derek is still looking, listening and researching. 

Find out more about Derek's work and see some of his films on his website and Together TV .

Our monthly coffee morning: Friday 29th March at Jim & Tonic at the Print House, 133 High Street, Stratford, E15 2RB. Meet between 10.30am and 11am 

This is just along the road from our original venue for this month's coffee morning, the Mary Ward Centre, set back from the road, facing the canal. For those who fancy a walk after their coffee, it's an easy stroll along the canal to Three Mills Green.

Our March walk

Three churches, a farm and a family firm – our March walk from Limehouse to Stepney

We had two churches on our list – St Anne's Limehouse and St Dunstan's in Stepney. But thanks to our very own Vivienne, our walk started with the 1930s church Our Lady Immaculate and St Frederick, built for Limehouse's large Irish Catholic community. And there's more: it has the 'Steering Christ', a statue on the church that acted as a navigation aid for sailors coming into the docks.

Walking on via a look inside the old Passmore Edwards library turned hotel, we headed to the 18th century Hawksmoor church St Anne's Limehouse, now open to visitors on Fridays and Saturdays. A welcoming volunteer told us about the stained glass that has gone off to Sheffield for restoration, the church organ that was in the Great Exhibition, the church interior, most of which was replaced after a fire, invited us to explore the upper gallery via a staircase that's one of the few surviving parts of the original interior, showed us the crypt that provides community meeting space and told us how the church is supported today. We explored the church's exhibition on local historical figures and marvelled at the craft skills needed to restore the church glass and plasterwork.

Our route to Stepney took us past the Seamen's Mission (now apartments), one of a number in the area that once served sailors from all over the world, and along Salmon Lane. Then to St Dunstan & All Saints Stepney, the 'Church of the High Seas', closed – a charming note on the door explained that people were away on a pilgrimage – but in glorious sunshine, we were able to enjoy the marvellous gargoyles and read its history going back over 1,000 years. Brenda told us the story of one of the relief carvings above the door, of St Dunstan using his pincers to nip the nose of the Devil.

Our plan was to have coffee at Stepney City Farm but finding it packed, we walked through, along Stepney Green, and headed to Rinkoff Bakery, the East end family business founded in 1911 whose history (and crodoughs) we enjoyed at our June 2023 talk by Esther Rinkoff.

At walk's end, two of us strolled on to see the wildflowers at Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park.

A massive thank you to Vivienne for bringing her local knowledge to this walk full of interest.

Fancy joining us? Look out for our next Coming up blogpost for details.

Coming up in March

East end places on foot, East end lives on film, East End skills in Stratford – coming up in March

Our monthly walk: an episcopal journey – Saturday 9th March, 11.00 am, meet at Limehouse DLR

After the bonus tour of St John’s on last month’s walk, it will be a double this month: we'll meet at Limehouse DLR and stroll along to St Anne’s Limehouse then round to St Dunstan’s. There's lots of interesting history at both and along the way.

Then on for a coffee at Stepney City Farm.

Check out the EEWI walkers' WhatsApp for who else to look out for on the day. 

Our monthly talk: Our lives in Film, Derek Smith – Thursday 21st March, 7pm for 7.30pm start, at St Margaret's House, 15 Old Ford Rd, London E2 9PL

Derek Smith is a local film maker. He is creating a new project so we will have the benefit of finding out what it is all about. He will share some of his experiences in the detective work of researching working class communities.

Brush up your ideas and memories about the boroughs we live in – they could be in the next production!

Please note the new arrangements for access to St Margaret's House: The new code will be available for our regular members via our member whatsapp group - if you attend regularly and haven’t had an invite to the group yet please contact us vis our email. If you are not a member of EEWI our 'white bell' will be on the wall, so ring and someone will come to let you in. Sometimes this lets us down, so you can always ring one of the committee if other means of access fail!

If you are coming for the first time, contact us at EEWI via our email to check on access so we can make sure you are able to get access smoothly.

Our monthly coffee morning: change of venue... Friday 29th March – meet between 10.30am and 11am at Jim & Tonic at the Print House, 133 High Street, Stratford, E15 2RB

This is just along the road from our original venue for this month's coffee morning, the Mary Ward Centre, and set back from the road, facing the canal. For those who fancy a walk after their coffee, it's an easy stroll along the canal to Three Mills Green.

With thanks to Heather for the words. Sketch of the Mary Ward Centre café: Lydia. Image of St Anne's Limehouse: Creative Commons / Christine Matthews. Cityscape from Derek Smith's film Gascoyne Lives.