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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Pavlova As Fairy Godmother
Hats, flowers and carousels in Kew, as the great Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova opens a fete in support of the West London Hospital.
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Overview
Anna Pavlova, looking rather bashful, is the star attraction as she opens the West London Hospital fete in 1924, caught here on silent newsreel. Pavlova chats to dignitaries and accepts a bouquet of flowers, before giving a speech and posing for photographs from the seat of what appears to be a giant chicken on a carousel. Pavlova had moved to London from Russia in 1910. The West London Hospital closed in 1993.
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