1000 Londoners

Discover the city - one Londoner at a time.

[1000londoners]

Bessie moved to London from Adelaide about 20 years ago, and began working in social work with rough sleepers. She is now a psychiatrist and is also a Trustee on the board at Stepney City farm. She can see parallels between her work in psychiatry and life on the farm, as animals can have a really positive effect on people's mental wellbeing - especially in bustling cities like London. Find out more here.

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Jamie Hamilton is one of the few Ice Sculptors in London. Prior to sculpting, Jamie studied English at Oxford then subsequently focused on a career in theatre; producing and directing plays. But it was the urge for craftsmanship which only Ice Sculpting could satisfy that lured him into the family business. He now runs the family ice sculpting business which was set up by his parents and hasn't looked back. See more here.

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Gloria is a young acting student only halfway through her degree.We begin our story with her at an audition to be actor-musician for an off-West End show.  For a 19 year old, she is remarkably mature and driven, as she seeks every opportunity to learn more so that she can break into the industry. Originally intending to become a lawyer in later life, a passion for musical theatre soon took hold and she discovered the route to her own personal happiness.

Find out more here.

[1000londoners]

John is a passionate connoisseur of beer and brewing. From a very young age he worked for the award-winning Young’s which brewed its beer at The Ram, the oldest brewery in the country with records going back to 1533.

In 2006, Youngs announced that they had sold the site to property developers. John was stunned that this crucial part of British brewing history was going to be lost, and offered to keep the brewery going on a smaller scale. In the nine years since, he has brewed one batch of beer every week on a non-commercial basis to keep the records going until the site is redeveloped with a new micro-brewery.

John is still brewing in his makeshift brewery, where donations from visitors keep the beer flowing. As the site has been used regularly as a filming location, guests to the brewery have included the cast and crew of Misfits, Ashes to Ashes, Silent Witness and Cockneys Versus Zombies. He also holds regular comedy nights in his sample room.

Find out more here.

[1000londoners]

Neesha has been a cheerleader with Crystal Palace since 2011. She performs weekly in front of 17,000 people. Neesha is extremely ambitious. She dances at various events like Twickenham and entered Miss England.

Find out more here.

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Kareen is a woman of many interests. When she’s not busy running her eco-friendly aquaponics garden, she’s supporting her favourite heavy metal bands and is a keen Metaller. As someone with bipolar disorder she finds her various interests therapeutic in their own unique way. Despite the fact that having bipolar disorder has affected her career she trained to become a qualified gas engineer and plumber and has managed to combine her skills and interests to create her own social enterprise. See more here.

[1000londoners]

Tim is a designer and illustrator who set himself the challenge of documenting 2014 through reportage. Reportage is an art that captures real events and situations through drawings, and dates back to the 1800s when ‘special artists’ would go out on to the front lines just as photo journalists do now. How has the project made this year any different? “I remember everything…perfectly.” See more here.

[1000londoners]

Martha has always had a passion for singing but it was when she joined the National Youth Choir that she realised that singing professionally was her dream. She is now a member of the choir at London’s oldest surviving Church, The Church of St. Bartholomew the Great. Each Christmas, the Choir congregate to sing a range of songs dating back centuries that would have been sung at St. Bartholomew back when they were written. See more here.

[1000londoners]

Allison is a single mum who has had more than her fair share of misfortune since she arrived from the Cayman Islands over 20 years ago. London is one of the richest cities in the world, and Christmas is a magical time. However, thousands of Londoners use food banks to help them in their hour of need. One of these people is Allison. We follow her as she tries to create some kind of Christmas for her family. See how Christmas is for some of London’s poorest people.

See more here.

[1000londoners]

In the summer time, Trevor puts up marquees, but in the autumn he is up a cherry picker all across the West End, installing the Christmas lights above the streets. After dark, when the road can be closed, he works late to bring Christmas cheer to ordinary Londoners. A salt of the earth man who enjoys the banter and camaraderie on the sites where he works, but also a family man grafting in order to provide a good education for his two daughters. “People don’t realise how much work goes into Christmas!”

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[1000londoners]

Michael is a painter and a musician who has discovered art in later life. He has a passion for punk, surrealist art and painting portraits of his musical heroes such as Johnny Cash and Janis Joplin. For Michael everything is art from painting a picture to fixing a puncture. This film was made by adults at the Providence Row Homeless Charity.

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[1000londoners]

Peter is a professional clarinettist with a foothold in the classical music scene of London, having played on most of our big stages. He’s a cultured chap, with cultured tastes; classical music, real ale and Victorian history.

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[1000londoners]

The blocks in Lambeth may not present the best that London has to offer, however it built Immanuel’s past. From fights to fun, Immanuel experienced all of what his estate had to offer. We take a glimpse into Immanuel’s old lifestyle to see how the best can be made out of any type of London life.

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[1000londoners]

Henry is a young Royal College of Art graduate and an aspiring textiles artist. His work is challenging, with confrontational quotes and colour clashes. However, he lives in the leafy suburbs of London in relative peace with his mum. Surely these two dynamics shouldn’t work together? Henry acknowledges this, and feels now a need to break away from home and strike out at textile art’s – and Surrey’s – newest young artist.

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Rebecca dreams of becoming an actor. She is captivated by transformative aspect of acting and loves interacting with audiences live on stage. For many years she has excelled in drama at school and is now embarking on an exciting journey to study Performing Arts at university to fulfill her dream. This film was made by young people from Southwark and The Cuming Museum Youth Panel.

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[1000londoners]

Crispin Kelly is not only a qualified architect but also a property developer with his own company, Baylight, creating high-concept housing in London. He draws upon diverse influences such as Notting Hill paddocks and Japanese architecture in order to try to solve London’s housing shortage, and make the best use of the buildings that we have already. In this film he shows us the places that mean the most to him in the city via his scooter: his office, a current site and his relatives’ house in Bayswater, in an attempt to understand what makes living spaces into art forms.

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[1000londoners]

Robin is different. He dresses every day in self-made outfits from the Georgian period. Committed to freedom of expression, in this film he tells us what it is about the past that intrigues him and how he lives day to day in the present. This film was made by young people aged 15 – 24 at part of Y-Touring’s Summer activities programme at OneKX over a 5-day 1000 Londoners workshop.

See more here.