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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Watts Family Films: Our Lady Of Mount Carmel Procession, Clerkenwell (1977)
Blurred but wonderful footage of an Italian religious ceremony in the Little Italy area of Clerkenwell from 1977.
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Overview
This film captures the Our Lady of Mount Carmel procession in 1977, which has been held in Little Italy since the 1880s and is one of the oldest Catholic celebrations held in the UK. Filmed close to where Clerkenwell and Farringdon Roads meet, it shows a parade of floats, priests, statues and girls in regional costume passing on the way to St Peter’s Italian church. Includes shots outside the church and terrific street scenes of London’s Italian community.
The film was taken by Salvo Camenzuli, a man of Maltese extraction who moved to London in 1957 from Alexandria, Egypt where he was born. Like most Maltese-Egyptians, he was forced into exile during the Suez crisis after refusing to give up his British citizenship. The Camenzulis first language was Italian and they identified most closely with Italy, which explains why he made his way to Clerkenwell in July 1977 to film this Catholic procession through the traditionally Italian streets of Clerkenwell. The procession still takes place today.
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