Across two series and over 20 films, the directors of Wonderful London captured some of the most evocative images of the capital in the 1920s. These simple films contrasted different aspects of city life - East End and West End, poor and rich, natives and immigrants - often looking beyond the stereotype to show suprising views of the city.
As well as the familiar landmarks of London town - the Thames, Big Ben, Tower Bridge and St Paul's - Wonderful London reveals its less well illustrated quarters; the over-populated districts of Clerkenwell, London's original Chinatown and the South Asian and African seamen who worked in the Port of London. We also visit the street markets on a Sunday, and wander down alleys, past pot-bellied pubs, inns of court and the buildings that Dickens knew. All the while we are greeted by generations of Londoners, all now gone but strangely still like the Londoners of today.
This fascinating collection includes six new restorations by the BFI National Archive:
- Barging Through London
- Cosmopolitan London
- London's Sundays
- Flowers of London
- London's Free Shows
- London Off the Track
all of which reintroduce the films' original tinting and toning.
Newly recorded piano accompaniments by John Sweeney
Six additional Wonderful London films: Dickens' London (12 mins), London's Outer Ring (12 mins), London Old and New (10 mins), London's Contrasts (12 mins), Known London (11 mins), Along Father Thames to Shepperton (11 mins)
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