Valence House now boasts its own cinema room, showing films created for The Dagenham Co-operative Film Society. The Society was founded in 1947, and its first film ‘The Seeds of Time’ (1948) was awarded several national prizes.
Extracts from 'The Seeds of Time', filmed on the streets of the Becontree Estate and accompanied by a newly-recorded soundtrack, can currently be viewed. You can also watch colour archive film of Dagenham's 1951 Festival of Britain celebrations, including a historical pageant performed here in the Valence House grounds. A scene is pictured right.
The Dagenham Co-operative Film Society was later re-named the Fanshawe Film Society. Sadly, it disbanded in the early 1980s.
The Cinema Room is situated on the ground floor of the museum.