Kensington Calling!

This emotive campaign film takes a stand against the dire housing conditions in North Kensington, where rats, damp and overcrowding shame the borough.

This emotive film was produced by the Kensington Housing Trust to campaign against the dire housing conditions in North Kensington - where vermin, damp and overcrowding made for unsanitary and uncomfortable living for working class people. Some stark images shame the cramped and unhygienic state of the Victorian terraces: a sick baby, a carpenter making a tiny coffin, a dead rat held by its tail.

The film makes ingenious use of animation techniques too. The strapline with moving text at the bottom of the screen is a surprising precursor to contemporary television style. And the swimming jumble of animated numbers which reveals the astonishing number of residents to a single house is reminiscent of Norman McLaren's inventive and acclaimed animation.