Jill Craigie

A BLUE plaque for Jill Craigie has gone up on the home she lived in for more than 30 years.

The pioneering feminist documentary filmmaker lived in 66 Pilgrim’s Lane, Hampstead, from 1965 to 1999 with her husband Michael Foot, the former leader of the Labour Party.

At a time when few women worked behind the camera, Ms Craigie established herself as a director, screenwriter, broadcaster and public commentator, becoming a leading figure in British cultural life.

During and after the Second World War she directed a series of ambitious documentaries that combined political conviction with cinematic innovation.

There was no unveiling event organised by English Heritage.

Its senior historian Howard Spencer said: “Jill Craigie was a remarkable and determined creative force whose work tackled some of the most pressing social issues of the 20th century. She challenged conventions throughout her career and helped shape public debate on everything from housing and town planning to women’s rights. We are delighted to honour her with an English Heritage blue plaque at the home where she spent more than three decades of her life.”

The new plaque in Hampstead

Her best-known work, The Way We Live (1946), examined the reconstruction of Plymouth following wartime bombing, look towards a fairer and more democratic society.

But she also made a film about the Regent’s Park Estate, Who are the Vandals? – which questioned what impact the new style tower block homes were having on poorer and working-class people.

She became a leading authority on the history of the suffrage movement and her archives are held at the Women’s Library at the London School of Economics.