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Stroll through Hyde Park in your winter coat, but with the daffodils beginning to bloom, spring is nearly here!
Travelogue 1947 12 mins
Take a stroll through Hyde Park in your best winter coat. This charming footage was shot by a skilled amateur filmmaker in 1938 and captures the early days of a London spring season: rowing bots on the Serpentine, gardeners at work, deck chairs at the ready for the masses. Marble Arch and the Regal Cinema lay in wait, as does the ever-popular Speakers Corner. The film was released almost 10 years later by Denning Films - with an added soundtrack and a few tweaks to the original editing - in the form you see here.
Non-Fiction 1974 4 mins Location: Upper Gornal
Sam Jeavons is a Black Country horse man through and through and May Day is a time to decorate his wagon and bring some colour to Upper Gornal's streets.
Documentary 1944 7 mins Location: Stanion
An extraordinary and unexpected snapshot of rural life in wartime in which a young black girl is crowned Queen of the May.
Puppet (live-action) 1956 24 mins
Fabergé animals in a Russian influenced Easter tale narrated by Peter Ustinov
Amateur film 1952 9 mins Silent
Spring comes to Scotland in the 1950s: feed playful lambs, pick a host of glorious daffodils, and harness your faithful horse to the plough in this lovely amateur colour film.
Non-Fiction 1923 1 mins Silent
A fluffy white blizzard - of hundreds of newborn lambs - hits a Reading farm, keeping the shepherd's hands full.
1958 4 mins Silent Location: Hyde Park
Easter Parade in Hyde Park, April 1958.
Amateur film 1980 10 mins Location: Hyde Park
Walking down memory lane on a whistle-stop tour of central London, as seen through the eyes of a local filmmaker
1958 4 mins Silent Location: Hyde Park
Easter Parade in Hyde Park, April 1958.
1959 5 mins Silent Location: Hyde Park
London, 1959: the Hilton Hotel rises from the ashes, surrounded by derelict houses and bomb damaged streets
Non-Fiction 1923 1 mins Silent Location: Hyde Park
Thousands of children honour Queen Victoria's birthday with an Empire Day parade in Hyde Park
Non-Fiction 1913 1 mins Silent Location: Hyde Park
Three cheers for women's right to vote! Thousands of 'peaceful, law-abiding Suffragists' - and their hat-waving supporters - converge on Hyde Park.
Non-Fiction 1930 1 mins Silent Location: Hyde Park
At the height of Britain's bathing craze, hundreds of sun-worshipping Londoners test the waters at Hyde Park lido.
Travelogue 1960 15 mins
Shown at the 1960 Edinburgh international Film Festival, this dazzling travelogue records Guyana’s idyllic flora and the industries that supplied raw materials for British homes.
Romance 1960 31 mins
Commissioned in 1960 to mark Nigeria’s independence, Connor directs and stars in this troubled production about shifting social relations in an emergent West African middle-class.
Documentary 1912 75 mins
Intense interest in Japan by the West made it a favourite destination for filmmakers from the earliest days of film. This selection of films from 1901 to 1913, newly restored by the BFI National Archive, takes us on a fascinating journey through Meiji Japan.
Travelogue 1960 17 mins
‘My People!’ Connor returns to his birthplace of Mayaro to celebrate his homeland’s natural beauty and manufacturing, capturing pre-independence Caribbean islands in all their glorious warmth.
Sport 1960 29 mins
Connor’s coverage of the first-ever test won by England in the Caribbean, from an overcrowded Sabina Park, features authoritative narration by British-Guyanese commentator Ernest Eytle.
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1936 8 mins
Spoiler alert! The fox is always going to outsmart the hounds in this delightful, balletic cartoon that heads from the countryside into 1930s suburbia.
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