About
SE1 Newspaper
The local news that other papers did not print
Whoever controls the news controls the story. In their fight to rejuvenate their area, stop office development and build housing, the residents of Waterloo and North Southwark needed their own newspaper to tell their story of the campaigns and development threats, the local news and events of their own community.
Origins
SE1 Newspaper started in July 1975 through the work of Blackfriars Community Action Team, North Southwark Community Development Group and many local residents. The aim was to give residents of SE1 news of their neighbourhood and encourage them to become involved in improving local conditions, protecting local jobs and arguing for more and better housing and services for local people.
How was it produced?
With much effort! The paper was entirely produced by volunteers who researched and wrote the articles and took the photographs. The newspaper text was typed out in columns (old-fashioned device, the typewriter); then fitted and glued (Cow Gum!) onto full-size layout sheets (and where possible with a photograph). Headlines were made with Letraset, by rubbing letters from transparent backing sheets onto paper then glued to the page. Every headline had to be individually produced in this time-consuming way,
Distribution
A typical print run was 1500 copies. Papers went to newsagents, pubs and cafes and local organisations like tenants’ groups and pensioners’ groups. Newsagents generously gave free space to the paper in support of their community. Some people had their own distribution rounds in their neighbourhood.
Finance
At first the cover price was 5p, but this price crept up as the group struggled to cover the printing cost. There were fundraising events – including, two years running, a sponsored bike ride to Brighton, and a very successful music event in the Colombo Street centre. In 1977 the cover price was 8p and by July ’79 it was 10p.
Death and revival
The March 1981 issue announced that it was to be the last – not because of money, but because there were not enough people to produce and distribute it. But local residents and community groups got together again to revive the paper.
A weekly evening course covering all aspects of production was funded by Morley College. The GLC gave an equipment grant for a typewriter, camera, handheld cassette recorder, and a new-fangled machine to punch out headlines. With all these preparations completed, SE1 reappeared in December 1981, price 15p. In 1984 new funding made the paper free.
It managed to continue until February 1991. By that time it was partly dependent on one of the paid workers at NSCDG to act as effective editor. Other duties began making it impossible for him to continue in this role and there were no volunteers able to take the responsibilities over. Plus printing costs were getting higher and higher, so publication had to cease.
Printers
Although it was printing costs which eventually contributed to SE1's demise, it was the development of the new technology of offset printing through the late 1960s which made it possiible for groups of activists to publish their own leaflets, posters, booklets and newspapers.
The first series of SE1 was printed by the charity and campaigning organisation War on Want. Later issues were printed by radical print shops Spider Web Offset and East End Offset. The 1970s saw an explosion of other independent and radical publications too. SE1 community newspaper was one of the longest running of them all.
Locations
SE1 newspaper was initially produced from some abandoned shops awaiting redevelopment in Meymott Street off Blackfriars Road. Some of the newspaper's volunteers, members of the Blackfriars Communithy Action Team, lived in the flats above the shops for several years with the agreement of the owner. Eventually the site was reposessed and redeveloped into an office block. In its final years the newspaper was produced from the offices of the North Southwark Community Development Group in Copperfield St.
The newspaper’s base in Meymott Street off Blackfriars Road where the paper was produced each month. The site has since been redeveloped into an office block.
Archived Originals
Southwark Archives holds a near complete set of SE1newpaper issues. They also hold the SE1 photograph collection, which largely consists of images taken for the newspaper. Both collections can be seen by appointment.
Who we are
SE1 Stories is an informal group of people who worked in the community organisations and campaigns reported in the SE1 newspaper. Some were part of the teams that produced the paper each month.
This website has been created by SE1 Stories in collaboration with Southwark Archives. The site is a temporary home for the digitised newspapers until a permanent database library can be established.
