Maria restored a pub in London

“Soho early 90’s when we were doing all of our post production of the commercials my Swedish production company produced. Everything was so alive 24/7, so colourful not only in people but clothes. This was so exiting coming from a cold and grey country where people look very much the same.”

The Cleveland Arms in Paddington, a Grade II listed pub, has been lovingly restored by Maria. She was fascinated by the heritage of the building. Maria grew up with her grandparents in Sweden, who were refugees from Estonia. She describes how difficult her grandparents found recalling their experiences, and that they often didn’t speak Estonian in front of her. This led her to restore their old farmhouse, and develop new memories and journeys.

This film is part of Goodbye Europe, a series which is part of 1000 Londoners, a ten-year digital project which aims to create a digital portrait of a city through 1000 of the people who identify themselves with it. The profile contains a 3 minute film that gives an insight into the life of the Londoner, as well as their personal photos of London and some answers to crucial questions about their views on London life. Over the course of the project we aim to reveal as many facets of the capital as possible, seeing city life from 1000 points of view.

A Chocolate Films Production

This film was produced by Londons’ favourite video production company - the South London based film production company and social enterprise, Chocolate Films.