September 2017

Lambeth Heritage Festival events

Durning Library: GLC Story ‘in conversation’ about the project and discussed the relationship to Lambeth, and sharing the stories from the oral history interviews we’ve recorded.

Southbank: The GLC Story facilitated a walking tour of the South Bank exploring the GLC as a major landowner and how it used public spaces and buildings to support its political vision. Stops on the tour included Coin Street, the Southbank Centre and County Hall and the Nelson Mandela statue.

History Lessons: Burning Illusions part 3

A day of workshops and discussions led by The GLC Story, Patchwork Archivists and Adelaide Bannerman reacting to “The Place is Here” exhibition which presented work from over twenty black artists and collectives working in 1980s Britain.
Natasha Nkonde and Hayley Reid of ‘The GLC Story’  discussed funding of the arts, and particularly the black arts in the 80s and the changes to cultural policy. There was an overview of the black film workshops such as Ceddo, Sankofa and the Black Audio Film Collective. The workshop engaged with the following texts from the time; Struggle for Black Arts by Kwesi Owusu, Black Strategic Intervention (Third Eye), ArtRage magazines, and a letter from Black Umbrella collective.

http://www.southlondongallery.org/page/history-lessons-burning-illusions-part-3

 

April 2017

‘Black Feminist Theatre and the GLC’

In conjunction with the National Theatre’s Bright Young Tings exhibition, the GLC Story project presented a workshop about black feminist theatre during period 1981-86, focusing on the development of the Theatre of Black Women. How can we access the archive relating to black theatre and performance and GLC funded projects, and what can we learn from them?

Hayley Reid giving her presentation

March 2017

Intergenerational dialogue workshop

A workshop for our volunteers exploring the possibilities and challenges of intergenerational dialogue was facilitated by Zena Edwards.

 

Stall at ‘Deep Roots New Shoots’

The GLC story team ran a stall at the annual Friends of the Huntley Archives conference, hosted at the London Metropolitan Archives.

A slide from Zena’s intergenerational dialogue presentation

Nice little retweet

February 2017

Film screening social

Volunteer social at London Metropolitan Archives, watching GLC films from the archive which have recently been digitised. These included ‘Policing in London’, which finished with a Benjamin Zephaniah poem, ‘The Future’s up for Grabs’ about the Royal docks before City Airport was built, and a film about the impact of the abolition of the GLC on children’s play services.

January 2017

Oral History training day 2

Due to increased interest in the project, we ran another training day with Verusca Calabria for a second group of volunteers. Here’s the video we made on the day.

December 2016

Digital archiving workshop

A workshop for our volunteers looking at online archiving was run by Kelly Foster.

October 2016

Oral History training day 1

Our volunteers met for a day’s training from Verusca Calabria from the Oral History Society, where they learned about the principles of oral history, ethics and consent, how to put together an interview guide, and how to record an interview. Feedback was really positive and the volunteers seemed really excited to learn more about the GLC and how these kind of interviews can be used to capture and preserve forgotten histories.

September 2016

Heritage Lottery Fund oral histories project begins.

June 2016

‘Linda Bellos: 80s feminism in the GLC’

Linda led a workshop focusing on the legacy of the Women’s Committee of the Greater London Council (GLC), at the South London Sisters Uncut occupation in Peckham.

Linda chatting to Sisters Uncut

‘Radical Histories weekend’

Tasha and Debs did a presentation about the project at a weekend hosted by the Amiel and Melburn Trust in Eastbourne.

May 2016

‘How did we get here? Forgotten Moments, Lost Leaders, and Remembering our Recent Radical Past’ – listen to the podcast (from 1 hour 46 minutes)

Tasha and Debs talked about the project and why the politics of the 1980s matters today at a seminar at Open School East on May 31st. This was part of the Culture, Power and Politics series organised by Jeremy Gilbert.

Walking tour of the Southbank

We ran our first walking tour of the Southbank for a group of civil servants from Seoul, South Korea, co-ordinated with the think tank Spreadi.

April 2016

‘Community politics of the GLC’

Hilary Wainwright and Loraine Leeson led a workshop about the GLC’s approach to participation in planning and the arts, as part of the How 2 Do It conference at Kings College.

Hilary and Loraine at How 2 Do It

We the City hustings

Debs talked about London’s radical history and its implications for today at a hustings event for the upcoming Mayoral elections, hosted by Good London.

March 2016

30th anniversary of abolition drinks – watch the video

March 31st was the 30th anniversary of the abolition of the GLC. We co-hosted drinks at the Slug and Lettuce near Waterloo station, which used to be the Architects’ Library thirty years ago when the building was still part of the council offices. Around 70 people joined us, including former leader of the GLC Ken Livingstone, lots of former staff, and younger people who have become interested in this history through our project.

Ken Livingstone talks to former employees of the GLC

January 2016

Planning meeting

This planning meeting in January 2016 focussed on the following questions for three areas: housing and property, arts policy and reimagining the state. Twenty people considered the following questions:

  • Why do you want to retell this aspect of the GLC story?
  • Who do you think should hear about it?
  • What kind of outcome would you hope to see?
  • What questions might open up good intergenerational discussions?
  • How might we tell this story?

Notes from one of the groups at the planning meeting

December 2015

‘A Greater London’ launch eventlisten to the podcast

On December 2nd 2015, ‘A Greater London’ launched at the Rag Factory in East London. Around 100 people across a wide age range came together to remember the legacy, look at materials from the time and think about the relevance of the GLC for today.

After a last-minute cancellation from Ken Livingstone, the panel was made up of Linda Bellos, Hilary Wainwright and Loraine Leeson, all of whom were involved in the GLC of the 1980s. From Linda we heard about her work as an officer for the Women’s Committee, from Hilary we learned about popular planning and the Greater London Enterprise Board, while Loraine spoke about her work with the Arts and Recreation Committee.