Thamesmead as a new and better alternative through the eyes of two small children who live in older, dilapidated flats on the other side of the city. The Tavy Bridge area of Thamesmead South, including Southmere Lake, was used as a setting for the Stanley Kubrick film "A Clockwork Orange" and also the play and Channel 4 gay coming-of-age film "Beautiful Thing". British TV Drama "Misfits" was also filmed in Thamesmead. Many scenes take place around Southmere Lake, while Bexley College was once also used as a setting. The estate featured in The Libertines video What Became of the Likely Lads.
Thamesmead of Saigon and the American withdrawal from Vietnam in the late 1970s, a small group of Vietnamese refugees built a community in the area. In the 1990s, another ultimately larger wave of emigration from West Africa (predominately Nigeria and Ghana) began. The 2011 census revealed that 35.58% of residents in the Thamesmead Moorings ward described themselves as Black African, the highest percentage in both London and the UK, Thamesmead East had the second highest at 34.88%. Thamesmead also adjoins the Thistlebrook travellers site which is situated just inside Abbey Wood. Thamesmead Moorings; Ethnicity Breakdown: Black or Black British 42.9% White