Cinematic geographies of Battersea

Research is combining film 'archaeology' with digital technology to create a new approach to 'sites of memory' for the London borough of Battersea. It's a movie-rich area, as well as one that has been through - and about to go through - huge changes. François Penz In a disused railway arch, Richard Burton guns down the man who framed him before charging across overgrown scrubland with the law in pursuit. Dereliction surrounds on all sides as the corrupt life of his character - gangster Vic Dakin - unravels. Residents peer over the balconies of grimy tower blocks to watch Dakin get cornered by police. In 1971, the makers of Villain needed a suitably gritty location to shoot the dénouement of this now little remembered British thriller, so, like a number of similar films of the era, they chose the urban decay of the borough of Battersea - which 50 years prior had been a thriving centre of industry. Now, 40 years on from Burton's foray into the crime genre, this very spot is about to become the site of one of the largest regeneration projects in London's history, called Nine Elms, including an extension of the Northern Line.