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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Tennis World Championships Open at Wimbledon
Wonderful glimpse of the Wimbledon tennis championship at its former home on Worple Road, including some of the era’s top male and female players.
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Overview
Worple Road staged the first Wimbledon open championships in 1878, but by 1921 the ground was proving too small and the tournament moved to its present site in 1922. This film shows that final tournament in the old ground. We see a number of top players, including Brian Norton, who would lose in the men’s final, and “Mrs [Phyllis] Satterthwaite”. Crowds are large but the style is strange, with women serving underarm and the pace considerably slower than today’s game.
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