Camden New Journal - by ED CUMMING Published: 20 September 2007
Bill Atkins, Jerry Williams, Jim Donovan, Ted Green, John Langham, Emily Momoh and Vivian Barr share their Talacre
memories at the screening of the film discovered about the site at Kentish Town Community Centre
Reunion for the children of Talacre
Thirty years on, film triggers memories of children’s ‘holiday camp’ created on a bomb-site
FOR more than 30 years the idealistic young people who founded the Talacre open space, the public park on a former bomb site, must have thought their fond memories of the project existed only in their heads. But nostalgia for the long, hopeful summers in the early 1970s was reawakened when a short film about the project entitled The Amazing Story of Talacre was discovered, by chance, in a clear-out of Old Hampstead Town Hall.
The film was shown at the Kentish Town Community Centre on Saturday night as part of an evening to celebrate the past and think about the future of the site.
Many of those who have been involved from the beginning were visibly moved as they watched their younger selves on video taking part in one of London’s most successful community projects.
Among those present was Jerry Williams, one of the original trustees of Inter-Action, the charity that initiated the project in 1971, and who went on to become the first black mayor of Camden.
He paid tribute to the enduring community spirit of the site.
Mr Williams told those gathered for the screening: “I’m glad so many of you have turned up to see the film and reminisce with me. The amazing thing about Talacre is that it still feels the same today as it did then.”
He added: “The film shows you just what a people can do. The council has to listen to the grassroots eventually. We still need it today – kids are saying ‘I’m bored, I don’t have anything to do’.”
The project was initially conceived as a six-week holiday camp for children during the summer of 1971, using what was then a rubbish-covered bomb site, but is now known as Talacre Gardens
The film showed how that first summer was so popular with local children, singing, dancing and playing together, that the Talacre Action Group decided the 2.5-acre site should become a permanent community space. Footage reveals how children played amid the debris and made barbecues.
John Langham, who works at the City Farm, was one of the youngsters who benefited from the energy of Inter-Action, then led by American Ed Berman.
Mr Langham said: “It was a great piece of community action. I mean I was just a kid off the streets, I had nowhere to go, and they saved that space. Otherwise they were just going to put housing from Mansfield Gardens to Chalk Farm Road.”
Mr Berman’s work with Inter-Action has taken him on to India and China, meaning he was unable to attend the event, but in a letter to those present he said: “I would like to give my best wishes to everyone who is carrying on the great community work which we started together.”
However, there were some notes of caution in the otherwise celebratory evening. On seeing the film for the first time film student Bani Mendy, who lives in Kentish Town, said: “Why have people lost the will to protest?”
His mother was one of the children who played at Talacre in the summer of 1971, and he said that the 25-minute film showed a spirit he no longer feels in the area.
Peter Cuming, chairman of the Friends of Talacre, said there was a need for the community to keep pressing the council to defend the gardens from redevelopment.
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Bill Atkins, Jerry Williams, Jim Donovan, Ted Green, John Langham, Emily Momoh and Vivian Barr share their Talacre 
