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Suburban Week-end
The sights and delights of West Norwood make for a weekend well spent.
Overview
This well-crafted amateur film records the sights and delights of a weekend spent in West Norwood in the late 1940s. It's a charming catalogue of local landmarks and community events: a darts game at Horns Tavern, 'clocking-off' at the Tannoy factory, a wedding, a football match, a jumble sale. The collage of distractions is cleverly compiled - the film was in fact shot over several weekends.
While some things haven't changed - bus nos. 2 and 68 still connect Norwood to central London - the bustling high street, seen here with its cinemas and emporia, is now a shadow of its postwar self. The historic Horns Tavern still stands, but the art deco Regal cinema was demolished in the 1980s. The filmmaker was Ronald A Yeatman, a member of the Astral Cine Club who shot several films around the south London borough of Lambeth in the 40s and 50s.
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