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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This England - London: City and Covent Garden
A man with a dozen baskets on his head and Big Ben shrouded in scaffolding feature in this amateur movie exploring various London sites in 1934.
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Overview
This wonderful amateur film intersperses shots of well-known London locations – Big Ben being repaired, Westminster Abbey, Temple Church – with occasionally head-scratching captions relating to topical goings-on such as the 1934 budget. Contains some real gems, such as Pearly Kings and Queens, Covent Garden high jinx, a train leaving Canon Street, Thames bargemen, Billingsgate porters and tourists crossing Westminster Bridge. Credited to John Wilson.
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