Dolphin Close, directed by Ed Webb-Ingall, tells the story of the Friends of Tump 39 and other residents living near the former Royal Arsenal ammunition storage facility.
Tump 39 is hidden away in North Thamesmead and was closed to the public for 20 years. It is set on an island and accessible only by a footbridge from Dolphin Close, which gives the film its title.
Working alongside Three Rivers — a social arts agency hosted by Peabody — a group of residents has transformed Tump 39 into a haven for arts and ecology over the past 18 months. The process is documented in the film.
Ed said: “When I heard about Tump 39, it tied in with some thinking I was doing about groups forming and what motivates people to join community groups. It was a great opportunity to explore a completely new project at a location with a deep and rich history.
“Over the course of making the film, I found that it takes a really long time to successfully establish a community group. Along with day-to-day commitments of work and caring responsibilities putting pressure on people’s time, the weather is a huge factor.”
The once disused and overgrown Victorian munitions magazine is now a welcoming community space. Projects have included creating a community fire pit, building a compost toilet and rewilding the site with blackberries, fungi and other plants.
Tump 39 has also become a venue for a wide range of cultural activities, including sonic meditation, building musical instruments from sticks, stones and leaves, and, most recently, the Dolphin Close screening.
Scott Burrell, Director of Three Rivers, said: “The work Friends of Tump 39 have done in their own time to transform an unused area into a beautiful community space is absolutely incredible.
“To have that transformation captured on a beautifully-shot, 16mm film and preserved for future generations is very special.”
Inspired by the 1972 film All You Need’s an Excuse, which documents a similar project in Beckton, Ed chose to shoot with the same kind of camera. This limited him to just 30 seconds of continuous filming and a total of six minutes of footage each time he visited Tump 39.
He said: “I wanted to slow down my time there and make it feel special, rather than having hours and hours of digital footage. Making the film in this way invited me to look closely and
spend time with small moments.”
