Is this love?

Compared to many over-hyped, over directed and over expensive music videos the 1978 video for Bob Marley and The Wailers “Is this love” is a wonderful paean to honesty and simplicity. The honesty comes from Bob’s obvious rapport with the children (including a seven year old Naomi Campbell) in this converted church near King’s Cross and from the fact that the Keskidee Centre where it was shot was not just the a Black cultural centre, at the time it was the only black cultural centre in the city where Bob and the Wailers spent some of their most productive years. It was close to his first London home in Camden so he would have known the area well. 

34 Ridgmount Gardens, Camden, WC1E, was the first official London address of the star in 1972. He later moved with his fellow band members the Wailers to various other locations in London including Old Church Street, Chelsea, and Queensborough Terrace, Bayswater.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2011/05/one-love.html

Now the church in London where Bob Marley filmed the video for his “Is This Love song” has been destroyed by fire yesterday 8^th March 2012. About 40 firefighters tackled the blaze at the Christ Apostolic Church in King's Cross on Thursday night. The three-storey building has been severely damaged and 20 people had to be evacuated from adjacent properties.

The 1978 video was filmed at the building which was home to Keskidee, thought to be the UK's first cultural centre for the black community. The Keskidee Centre was founded in 1971. It became known for its theatre productions and toured Europe, the US and New Zealand. As well as being chosen by Bob Marley to shoot his video - starring a young Naomi Campbell - the centre also laid claim to be the birth place of dub poetry, created by its one-time educational officer Linton Kwesi Johnson.  Speaking in a BBC Radio 4 documentary about the venue in 2009 Linton Kwesi Johnson said: "The Keskidee Centre was unique. As a young person growing up and becoming politically and culturally conscious, it was fantastic. There was nowhere else that you could find that kind of ambience to nurture creativity." For many years, it was the only place to experience black theatre in London.

Unveiling of green plaque to mark the 40th anniversary of the opening of the Keskidee Centre.

The centre closed in 1991 following funding problems and the building was bought by the Christ Apostolic Church. Last April, Islington Council unveiled a green plaque - which honours notable Islington residents and places in the north London borough - on the building to mark the 40th anniversary of the opening of the Keskidee Centre.

The Green Plaque, which honours notable Islington residents and places, was unveiled last year by David Lammy, the Labour MP for Tottenham. He said at the time: “As the son of Guyanese parents and one of only a few black and ethnic minority MPs, I am honoured to see the plaque unveiled. It marks a point in our history. The plaque means that long after we’re gone, children will be able to walk past the building and ask their parents about what it means and learn about the important history of the local community.”

Now, sadly, it looks as if another piece of London’s rich multi-cultural history may be lost.