London’s Screen Archives enables Londoners see their past come alive on film. Managed by Film London, we are a unique network of historic film collections that cares for, collects and screens heritage film across the city. Together we preserve London’s rich film heritage from feature films to home movies, public information films, newsreels, and records of the capital’s many different industries.
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Davis Family Films: Second Clacton Film, Clacton (1963)
From sunbathing on the East London estate balcony to swimming in the sea at Clacton, this home movie records family life in London in 1963.
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Overview
Beginning with footage of a woman smoking on an estate balcony, this home movie records the movements of the Davis family in 1963. The Davis’s would move to Stanhope Gardens, where these films were discovered by a man who moved into the house after them. This film’s highlight is of the mother sunbathing on the estate balcony, and includes scenes from a local park, several shots of central London, including landmarks and traffic, and the family holiday in Clacton.
Among the London landmarks captured on film are Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, National Gallery, London Coliseum, Waterloo Bridge, River Thames, Cenotaph, Edith Cavell’s statue, the Embankment and Cleopatra’s Needle. Scenes from Clacton include sandcastle making, kite flying and lounging in deckchairs outside the mobile home. Bruce Castle Museum
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