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The original foodie city: from bustling Bermondsey Wharves through Smithfield and Billingsgate to London's street markets and general stores.
Public Information Filler 1928 20 mins Silent
Striking aerial views of the docks between Tower Bridge and London Bridge set the scene for this examination of the capital's imported foods. Flat-capped stevedores and Thamesside cranes unload items which public health inspectors sample and scrutinise for signs of decay. They check food vendors too: the wholesale markets at Billingsgate and Smithfield, grocers and trader's stalls on Southwark Park Road and a milkman delivering by handcart. Look out for the hygiene item rendered from some rotting inedibles!
Bermondsey Borough Council was a pioneer in public health education in the period before the NHS, and produced a number of public information films like this one in their efforts to inform and educate the local population. Films were shown in schools and clubs, as well as on the streets and in the borough's public spaces via a cinema van kitted out for mobile exhibition. Much of the film's contemporary interest lies in its presentation of the working city before containerisation of cargo closed the central docks and Billingsgate Fish Market relocated from the City of London to the Isle of Dogs.
Public Information Filler 1940 7 mins
This informative herring aid from WWII makes no bones about the need to make the most of every fish
News 1972 5 mins Location: Wednesbury
Tasting the plain, good 'fittle' of the Black Country - just remember to pull the hairs out of those pork scratchings.
News 1979 4 mins Location: Moseley
A new type of shop appears on the high street: Indian sweets have arrived in Birmingham.
Non-Fiction 1965 7 mins Location: Birmingham
From the House of Liang Nam to the Kam Ling Bamboo Rooms: the pioneers who made the long journey from Hong Kong to bring Chinese food to Birmingham.
1936 9 mins Silent
Guests to impress? Celebrity chef Marcel Boulestin out a quick veal escalope with the aid of a shiny new gas cooker.
Non-Fiction 1918 4 mins Silent
Handy hints for would-be fromagers
Documentary 1929 24 mins Silent Location: Bermondsey
The care and education of Bermondsey's orphans and abandoned children - before the introduction of the welfare state.
Documentary 1978 51 mins Location: Battersea
Murals around London, notably Morgan's Wall in Battersea, painted by local artists.
Documentary 1941 12 mins Silent Location: Bermondsey
"Your money means death to Nazism": Bermondsey holds a great parade in aid of Russia during WWII.
1931 5 mins Silent Location: Bermondsey
Scenes of thronging street life and market trading along Tower Bridge Road, Bermondsey Street and Southwark Park Road.
Documentary 1931 14 mins Silent Location: Bermondsey
White-coated scientists, doctors, chiropodists, dentists, and midwives unite in their mission to eradicate disease and ignorance from Bermondsey.
Government sponsored film 1944 11 mins Location: Bermondsey
A wartime magazine made to motivate and inform war workers, commissioned by the Ministry of Information in 1942 and exclusively screened in factories.
Documentary 2019 16 mins
Three years after their father passed, a family of four women come together through a series of phone calls spanning over three months.
Animation & Artists Moving Image 2017 4 mins
A comedy-drama animation about two best friends growing up in the same world but experiencing it completely differently.
Drama 2018 8 mins
Samona Olanipekun explores the concepts of home, identity and belonging, from the starting point of the theme of globalisation.
Drama 2017 16 mins
Compelling story of a complex relationship between an imperious father and his son.
Documentary 2020 28 mins
Three African American fathers unravel the incomparable partnership of forgiveness and community.
Music video 2019 8 mins
A conceptual film following musical artist Jords’ quest to serendipity. The Tree of Life’ is the cornerstone of the film as he battles to triumph through grief.
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