Vintage Footage of London

[floragord]

Amazing quality colour film for 1927! and to see the sea of hats! Whitehall and Hyde Park don't look too different but the cars/buses and people's attire so altered!

[Francis]

Thank you so much, Pete - what wonderful characters they look. As Nigel says, it is world more familiar to Dickens than to us.

[Rebeccadanielle]

Thanks for sharing I really enjoyed the footage.

[tix]

Eddie Muir wrote on January 17, 2014 -

I thought many of you would like to see the rare colour film of 1927 London

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Thanks for the interesting link; and accolades to the B.F.I.

Looking at those jostling people in Petticoat Lane it's hard to believe there'd be room for any more in the great city so maybe it's just as well London's current population is about the same as back then.

I thought the 'wannabe in the movie' boy may actually have been me but with the use of a magnifying glass on the paused frame I was able to confirm otherwise.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Were you in London in the 1920s then, Tix?!

Looking at those jostling people in Petticoat Lane it's hard to believe there'd be room for any more in the great city so maybe it's just as well London's current population is about the same as back then.

I went to Petticoat Lane Market (then carried on to Brick Lane Market) with my children about four or five years ago, and although it was busy it wasn't as crowded as in 1927!

Edit: For those who like comparing old and modern street views, someone has taken London clips from 1927 (mostly the same as we've already seen) and filmed the same scenes again in 2010 (though they seem to have visited Petticoat Lane at a time when the market wasn't on!) Fascinating:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDnVe3spPYQ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Moonraker]

That looks fascinating, Anita. Thanks for sharing that with us.

[Eddie Muir]

Wonderful! Many thanks, Anita.

[Julie2owlsdene]

Great to see 2010 besides the old footage. I think it's rather sad in a way, to see all those people in 1927 getting on with their lives some looking towards the camera, probably most have died now, and then
how life still goes on regardless! I guess looking back at nostalgia makes you feel like that sometimes.

[Daisy]

I think it's rather sad in a way, to see all those people in 1927 getting on with their lives some looking towards the camera, probably most have died now, and then
how life still goes on regardless! I guess looking back at nostalgia makes you feel like that sometimes.

Years ago when we were looking at old family photos of my aunts as young girls at the turn of the last century, in response to a remark about trying to imagine them as that young, my daughter said "That was their time, this is ours."
It was good to see that little film again - I saw it some time ago in the TV.

[Julie2owlsdene]

"That was their time, this is ours!" That's a good way of thinking actually, Daisy. I never thought of it like that before.

[Francis]

Thanks Anita for linking the London film - fascinating! I have an old colour film of my family including parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, great aunts and uncles and my sister and I and our cousins. Apart from our generation they have all died except for one aunt. On the film they are still alive and it brings a lump to my throat.

[Stephen]

Some beautiful footage there. I visit London about twice a year, and I find there IS this strange romantic feeling of history and the flow of time. Especially if you're standing on the banks of the Thames looking across the river. A hundred years ago, there were different people here. In a hundred years time, there will be different people here again. But all this people who have or will stand in this spot, have or will see this scene in some form or another. Incidentally, I'm old enough to remember when the metalwork on Tower Bridge was black or grey as shown here, as opposed to the bright blue of today. I think they either cleaned it up or painted it in the 1980s.

Such a time capsule of a forgotten London from the year that my father was born, I just love watching old footage like this. Film and TV from the 1960's and 1970's has the same effect, I always watch the background scenes instead of following the plot, it is almost like time travel. A prime example of this is Up the Junction from 1967 and of course those wonderful old Children's Film Foundation Films, but I digress!

I'm often doing things like that! I know it's not Britain, but I do that a lot with the Laurel and Hardy films. There's one in particular - Men 'o War - which was filmed in 1929 in a Los Angeles park which still exists to this day. As well as the actors (having a big brawl on the boating lake), you can see members of the public, simply strolling around and enjoying themselves. There's a slight mistake in the film where you can hear a boy off-screen laughing at what was going on, and it's rather sobering to think this unseen child heard simply enjoying some unusual entertainment in probably his local area of recreaction is possibly long dead or well into his 90s.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I found this on YouTube yesterday and have just watched it again with my daughter. Wonderful footage of London in the 1890s-1920s, with the same scenes also shown as they are now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_me3NrPMh8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Eddie Muir]

Wonderful indeed! Thanks for posting the link, Anita.

[Courtenay]

I've just been in London earlier today, so that was all the more fascinating to watch! Thanks for sharing, Anita. Very interesting to see how much has changed and yet how much has stayed the same.