"Making the East End into the new West End" in 1970

The redevelopment of London's Docklands was not dreamt up by Margaret Thatcher or by Bob Hoskins in The Long Good Friday: it was already under way in 1970.

This film looks at the redevelopment of St Katherine Docks and their derelict, bomb-damaged warehouses. The tensions between the needs of existing inhabitants and the gentrifying ambitions of the developers are laid bare.

And where was the derelict tube station with the unfenced shaft that the mother complains about?

Click on the still above to play this film on the British Film Institute site.