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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Street Scenes IV: Down the drain
Sewers, pipes and cables are explored in this children’s TV show that shows children what can be seen in – and under – the streets of the city.
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Overview
London’s sewers, tunnels and tube lines all feature in the ILEA’s series for primary schools about the sights of urban life. We meet sewer workers walking Victorian tunnels – and watch those tunnels dramatically fill with water during a storm. We also see a tube train on the Victoria line arriving at Oxford Circus and a rare glimpse of the “rail mail”, the Post Office railway, now defunct, plus a feature on brass rubbings of “coal holes”. They don’t make them like this anymore.
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