I was reading about the history of Sneinton on Wednesday, and was very excited to learn that it's been an important place for the director Shane Meadows, who made most of his early short films in the area, and also filmed the award-winning This is England (2006) in St Ann's.
We had the idea that he might like to support the Pavilion project, so Patrick and Sarah are trying to find out how we can get in touch with him.
Shane Meadows recalled Sneinton in a recent interview: “This inner-city neighbourhood means a lot to me. Centred around Sneinton Market, it’s where everything began in my career. I was living alone in one of the more impoverished areas of Sneinton during the summer of 1994 and started making these short films around the streets. In fact, all my first short films (including the breakthrough Small Time) were filmed exclusively here. Unlike other urban areas of Nottingham, it isn’t full of students – so it’s held onto its identity and character: the people next to you in the pub are likely to have families who have been here for generations. Sneinton is also very multicultural and, as a massive fan of spicy foods, the Indian restaurants kept me going back then. I’ve got loads of happy memories of those streets, especially a pub called The Bendigo (named after a local legend William ‘Bendigo’ Thompson, a bare-knuckle world champion who was a hard-drinking fighter turned religious preacher – now buried in nearby St Mary’s Cemetery). You know you’re in a proper pub when there’s a statue of a bare-knuckle boxer on the roof – and you’d get a very lively night in there I can tell you! Bendigo was like Nottingham’s Raging Bull, so there might be a film in all that somewhere!”
We had the idea that he might like to support the Pavilion project, so Patrick and Sarah are trying to find out how we can get in touch with him.
Shane Meadows recalled Sneinton in a recent interview: “This inner-city neighbourhood means a lot to me. Centred around Sneinton Market, it’s where everything began in my career. I was living alone in one of the more impoverished areas of Sneinton during the summer of 1994 and started making these short films around the streets. In fact, all my first short films (including the breakthrough Small Time) were filmed exclusively here. Unlike other urban areas of Nottingham, it isn’t full of students – so it’s held onto its identity and character: the people next to you in the pub are likely to have families who have been here for generations. Sneinton is also very multicultural and, as a massive fan of spicy foods, the Indian restaurants kept me going back then. I’ve got loads of happy memories of those streets, especially a pub called The Bendigo (named after a local legend William ‘Bendigo’ Thompson, a bare-knuckle world champion who was a hard-drinking fighter turned religious preacher – now buried in nearby St Mary’s Cemetery). You know you’re in a proper pub when there’s a statue of a bare-knuckle boxer on the roof – and you’d get a very lively night in there I can tell you! Bendigo was like Nottingham’s Raging Bull, so there might be a film in all that somewhere!”
