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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Rev. Jimmy Butterworth and the activities of Clubland
Camping holidays, sports days and general mucking about all feature in this succession of films taken over several years at a south London youth club.
From the collection of:
Overview
This contains several different films – some colour, some black and white – shot over several years of Clubland, a youth club for the underprivileged of Walworth, South London. It was started by the Rev Jimmy Butterworth, who features in several of the scenes, and the films show teenage boys and girls at sports days, on holiday (in France and the Lake District) and at the clubhouse on Camberwell Road.
Butterworth founded Clubland in 1922 for the deprived children of Walworth and became a well-known youth club, combining social and spiritual activities. Butterworth was an excellent fundraiser and received support from celebrities such as Bob Hope, John Mills, Lawrence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. These films show the teenage boys and girls engaged in a variety of activities, including a camping trip to France in 1966 and a chaotic sports day in Burgess Park in the early 1960s.