Colour on the Thames (1935)

[xjsoverign]

thank you ,

[madbob73]

2:41 and the old dockland cranes are shown precisely where Canary Wharf is today

[rightfredsdead]

i see this is a 'shit parrot animation' production.

[WispierTetrahedrons]

Excellent quality for the day and wonderful footage. Thanks for uploading!

[ExLuedenscheider]

I never realised that there was so much depth of water in the Thames to float those big ships.

[nitramgnal]

Absolutely fascinating.

[BBThames]

The speed needs a bit of work, but the color looks incredible for a 1935 film. Thanks for sharing one of my most beloved of places to see!

[creamyfilling102]

gotta love that old color quality. was that caused by the film, or was that just how stuff looked back then?

[rhaphanido]

A lot of people seem to be commenting on how everything has changed since this film was made. In fact, the first few frames show that the riverside at Kingston and Richmond has changed remarkably little.

[NayrNitsuj]

@rhaphanido ~ The only thing that has truly changed is that, for the most part, a different group of people thinking they know everything now call the city home...

[MrSyrett]

Jeez, look how dirty tower bridge is

[madbob73]

Yeah, all the buildings were of course caked in coal and smoke dust. St Pauls is the worst example in old pics ive seen - the dome looks almost black.

[Ortzmet]

In full-screen at 480p, it's quite hypnotic. I was really transported. Thank you for sharing.

[Bevoin1970]

I drove over Tower Bridge only a few days ago, as I glanced left & right all I saw were glitzy tall glass and concrete skyscrapers, come office blocks. Not at all like this. The only thing the people from this film would recognise, would be Tower Bridge itself.

That bridge has certainly witnessed plenty of changes in its life time, if only it could talk...

Excellent film footage, a pleasure to step back in time and watch. Thanks for posting. 5*

[spitfireJEJ]

Decent times with decent people. Whatever happened to decency?

[suryavajra]

It went out of style with arrival of Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll....

[GuinevereJuliet]

You said it, Spitfire JEJ. More gracious, elegant, pleasant times, when England was still England.

[edj66]

@GuinevereJuliet Again, I fear you may have slightly rose tinted spectacles on. Some things may have been more civilised, and certainly life was lead at a slower pace due to the speed of communication etc, but other aspects were not as pleasant. Pollution, dirt, disease, racism, destructive wars... Also, I am sure that the common man on the street was no more or less unpleasant than anyone on the street now. There were still drunks and good-for-nothings, robbers and muggers. Just like today.

[ttimothymurphy]

@spitfireJEJ

i'm sorry, but the world just isn't a silent movie with a classical music soundtrack, and it never was!!

[spitfireJEJ]

Of course it wasn't Tim, but it was more civilised by and large and there was an ambience about it that just does not exist now.

[FunBoy15]

you were there to experience this 'ambience'?

[spitfireJEJ]

Yep

[Republica]

is your name rose tinted?

[robertwmartens]

Today we're accustomed to super saturated colors in plastics, polyesters, florescent inks & paints, and HD screens. In this movie from the 1930s, the brightest colors you see are the orange paint on the boats and the blue of the sky. It sure looks colorful to me, but today, people's eyeballs are so accustomed to loud colors that they think of the past as drab and monotone looking. Just look at any contemporary movie that's set in the past - its colors always look dull. That bugs me.

[andyg3]

old british all the way for me

[modemeyes]

Classic video of the Thames when it was alive with shipping. 5* & Fav

[stemajad]

and fish

[MsBlohin]

Интересно!

[RennyGd]

Yeah, my older sister went to London back in 61and said the people and the cops were friendly and helpful and the city was relatively safe even at night. She visited again in 2007 and said the whole place had changed, and not for the better. There a lot of "no go zones" and the people are less courteous as a whole. Really sad. The whole western world is getting less hospitable these days.

[tobias89]

I agree with you lausanne67.

[rustywit]

Be careful what you wish for. Unemployment was high, wages were low, standard of living was low. The Gap between the rich and middle class was very wide. People were struggling to live. The times we live in now, offer much more opportunity and a way better standard of living. Also, most importantly, this day and age offers anyone the opportunity to make something of ones life... regardless of race or creed. In those days, you had no chance if you were not in the right social circles.

[lausanne67]

Actually the important gap (ie, between the rich and everyone else) was narrower then - it only sarted to widen after Thatcher came to power. At least we still had proper British industries then - we actually MADE things, rather than relying on low-wage factories in the Far East. From steelworks and shipyards, mines and textile mills, car plants and docks to soulless, low-wage, non-unionised call centres, and shop work, customer service etc etc. We live now in an atomised world.

[lausanne67]

Personally, I'd rather have lived in a London that looked like this, despite the coming war, compared to living in the concrete and steel hell that London is now! Parts of London look like Asian or African countries now. I grew up in London in the 1970s and it was still ok then - since then it has changed out of all recognition. Glad we have these reminders of what a great city it used to be,

[vireoli]

Did london change a lot? I.m Brazilian, now i,m living in Los Angeles, and i would love to come to London ? Is it bad today? Why?

[lausanne67]

It depends who you are, your background, cultural values etc as to whether you would like modern London. put it this way - do you like American society? If so, then you'll like London

[vireoli]

I respect American society, i,m living in Usa but i'm not in love with it. I have my culture, i'm a South American . I,m from Brazil... I consider myself a person with a good cultural knowledge . I do not like this "fake modernism" that we have today, mainly in USA and China. I just know that if i go to London i 'll spend a lot of money because it's very expensive. But i'll try to go to London in the next couple of years:)

[MrBlaxjax]

Look, London is a great city. It's changed a lot, definitely, but a lot of change is for the better. London has wonderful museums, art galleries, night clubs, parks, cinemas, theatres, great shops, and a wonderful river in the middle of it. The areas that you are going to go to as a tourist are not dangerous at all. There's always a tendency to see the past through rose tinted glasses. Well, there were some good aspects, but come to London, seriously. It's a fascinating & fast developing city.

[SDD15805]

My grandfather was a stevedore in the Docks at the time this was filmed. He with many others worked this, the largest port(?)lifeline during the war, and after. So much of the docks, and much of the biggest merchant marine in the world, was destroyed in the War of course.

In those days the dockers and of course their sons could tell a lot from these ships. Each company had it's own livery on the funnels/smoke stacks. This also often told them the sort of cargo they were carrying.

[beau194lah]

@SDD15805

Sorry SDD15805 it wasn't the war that did for the docks, my father worked in the London Dock in the Highway from leaving school in 1914 till they closed sometime in the 1950's because the dockers and their union wouldn't accept container shipping, that decision put out of work not only the dockers but the warehousmen as well, Tilbury accepted the containers and I believe are still working

[SDD15805]

Sorry didn't mean to mislead. Of course WW2 did not destroy the dock life, otherwise I wouldn't remember a little of it myself ! Just struck by how much property, how many ships and how many people shown in this film may well have been destroyed so shortly after it was made! For me there is a poignancy about this film because of our family connection, the feeling of time gone by and most of all the sense of Loss..

[LordVincent2008]

Sweet old times... i wish i was born on these old times.

[harryluvsdraco]

I admire your sentiment but if you would have been a teenager or adult in this year, chances are you would have been forced into the horrors of World War II shortly after.

[LordVincent2008]

Yeah, maybe you're right

[stollensecret]

wow. thank you so much for posting this, it was really really cool! it made me long to live in the last of the good old days. before our modern world desencitized us

[acerb45666555]

more than half the men in this would probably be dead by 1941. im glad they had a happy moment by the river before the gates of hitlers hell opened.

[SuzieLady]

Our old man Thames looks as though it had more trade back in the day than now..what a beautiful piece of history and my lovely London :)

[piccanninni]

I really enjoyed this film and the others of old London from the BFI archive. Digitising is the only way to preserve rare film stock so thanks for all your good hard work.  There must be so much more you can show us so please do keep them coming, we love em.

[crockyoshighty]

This clip reminds me of that wonderful film with Alec Guinness, "The Horse's mouth." 1958.

[alfetta16]

I'm sure that man pulling the boat with a rope is my uncle Bill! He worked on the boats - it's got to be him! He's 75 now. ..... although thinking about it, he was born in 1934, so I guess that can't be him.

[waddelldj]

I love it!

[varvorines]

How come todays modern cameras do not capture the same volume, perspective and depth like those older cameras do? Are they capturing on a larger lense, larger film? There just seems to be much more depth and weight to everything. I am really perplexed. Let me know please!

[flygweilo]

I think it is because movie cameras back then exposed fewer frames per second. This meant that each frame could be exposed for a longer period of time that now. The result is that a smaller F-stop (ie smaller aperture) was used. This gives a greater depth of focus (ie objects in both the foreground and background will be in focus simultaneously).

Hence, the greater visual depth and weight.

[stentorp]

What happend to all that REAL trading?

[thestevo46]

incredible

[andyg3]

ahhh, lovely.

Nice smoke.

If only it was still like that.

[johncare]

So interesting STEAM SMOKE COLOURS & SO busy the RIVER THAMES

[Mangina9000]

Beautiful colors. They really do look like watercolors don't they?

One of many interesting changes in audience perception over the decades is our relationship with color and B&W films. At the time of this production audiences thought color represented fantasy in film (Wizard of Oz), while B&W was reserved for "real" films. 20 years later, B&W was associated with lower quality and color was reality. A similar change is seen in how we have perceive video footage in narrative..

[j43ms]

strangely enough, not too long after "wizard of oz" (6 years maybe) in "a matter of life and death" , the real world was depicted in colour and the unreal world (ie: heaven) was shown in black and white. either it refelcted the public's increasing familiarity with colour or it may have had more to do with how much of the story took place in either realm (people preferred to see a film that was more colour than b&w)

[englishman2000]

how peaceful and four years later war so sad

[Rentaghost76]

Wow, look how nice London was before all the third world decided to move in... the British people were NEVER consulted on whether they wanted mass immigration or not after W.W.II

[nicelybronzed]

Rentamouth - you sad, pathetic person; do you not think that some people may find your comments offensive. Why can't you simply enjoy this wonderful footage for what it is and keep your racist, bigoted views out of it.

[j43ms]

quite right, nicelybronzed. i love looking at old footage of london but half the time the comments pages look like a british movement recruiting pamphlet. thankfully this page seems to be by and large an exception

[Deader87]

Strange, I thought color-movies didn't come until 1939 with Wizard Of Oz. Just my impression anyway

[MatthewN32]

That's correct. Colour wasn't mainstream until 1939, but was being experimented with as early as 1926, with some colour sequences in Ben Hur (the 1926 version, with Ivor Novello as Ben Hur)

[BFIfilms]

There are a number of early colour film processes available to watch on the BFI's YouTube channel. Have a look at:

- Tartans of the Scottish Clans (1906) - demonstrating the Kinemacolor process invented by British film pioneer G.A. Smith.

- The Open Road (1926) - a journey across Britain that demonstrated Claude Friese-Greene's 2-colour film process.

- Making Fashion (1938) and English Harvest (1938) both show off documentary filmmaker Humphrey Jennings' use of Dufaycolor.

[erico77240]

Merci de nous faire découvrir ces merveilles; Les Britishs sont fantastiques. Un Français qui vous aime.

[rakim71]

Why, thank you :)

[tyke45]

great vid most of those ships probaby got sunk on the convoys ww2

[Kenn1965]

Why is it that people are so intensely conditioned into thinking that before the 1960's, the world was entirely devoid of colour? I was chatting about this film footage at my office and not one person knew even remotely that colour film/film processing had been around more than fifty years ago. More still, most of the people I was chatting with about this were over fifty and would likely seem to know better. Odd, that.

[welovetofu]

Indeed - especially seeing as iconic coloured films like Gone With the Wind (1939) had already come out some 30 years before the 1960s. Perhaps it is coloured television that really ended the black and white era...

[Kenn1965]

You make an excellent point. Thank you.

[dieterlino]

1960 - 1939 = 21

anyway, what always strikes me is that people back in the day never got the idea of painting their houses or cars or whatever. they all dressed in black and grey clothes and they moved funny to, sort of like robots.

[mikemanners11]

Human beings are rather stupid aren't they? I saw a TV program on the BBC called WW 1 in Colour. It has all of the footage from the Great War slowed down and Computer colourized. It looks very interesting.

[aurelienpodcast]

That's Richmond! That's my home!

[MetallicaSucksNow]

Crying?...

[MetallicaSucksNow]

Fake

Fake

Fake

Fake

Fake

[ucprod]

MetallicaSucksNow, what's your proof that this is fake?

[bcgrote]

Wonderful! Wonderful! I adored every second of this charmer!

What kind of boat was that at 2:48? Those sails were so oddly pointy! And at 4:48, was that a German steamer?

Brilliant, lovely, quaint!

[jozg44]

The sailing boat is a Thames Barge- the odd sail shapes and rigging allowed the mast to fold to pass under bridges and also meant that you could set sails up high to catch wind over riverside buildings. The steamer belongs to the Houlder Line, a London-based shipping company. I really enjoy these BFI films.

[ineabriate]

it s quite nice to know that people know the difference between a humber keel and a Thames barge, slight though they are.

whatevevr happend to the Houlder line?

[jozg44]

My sources say that the Houlder Line was gradually bought out by the Furness-Withy Group in 1911 but retained its seperate identity until 1947 :)

[SirMildredPierce]

It's a shame this isn't on at a higher resolution or even HD. Here's to hoping the BFI will adapt a higher quality standard when uploading to youtube.

[SirMildredPierce]

Of course now that i've said that, I've checked and see that in fact you are uploading much higher quality videos :p I hope you might go back and re-up some of these special gems such as this one in HQ.

[Kenn1965]

Anyone to ever attend a jumble sale (for some reason, most especially church jumble sales) will undoubtedly come across old issues of The National Geographic. One chill and wet Saturday I spent an hour or so perusing copies of said periodical from the 1920's only to find that home motion picture projectors and colour film were available to the consumer of means. I was surprised that colour film technology had been around that early, but there it was in an advert. These films are the real thing.

[martyn580]

how in the world did they have color back then??????

the wizard of oz is the first color film

[DeathBringer125]

i think it's a lot of color pictures put together like an animation...

:P won't bother to figuring out when color film was invented... for photography...

[SirMildredPierce]

"i think it's a lot of color pictures put together like an animation"

Yes, that's basically how all "moving pictures" are done ;)

[jacquesantonor]

I know for a fact that they already had a basic model of color photography back in the 1860's. It's not hard to believe that in 70 years of advance they could as well develop color film.

[DeathBringer125]

o well it was just what i was thinking -_-" no need to thumb down me for not knowing that lol >_>

Anyways the framerate was that low that it made me think that... And besides it would of had been possible to do it like that.

[bigboxbobby2]

I think the wizard of Oz was the 'first colour feature film'

[alexander1485]

no its not... its just the first color movie.

[Mpvide65]

Colour movies were being made in the 1910s! The Wizard of Oz was one of the first three-strip technicolor films in 1939, although the first using that process was made in 1935.

[BFIfilms]

This film was shot in the early colour film process Gasparcolor . You can see an even earlier colour process devised by Claude Friese-Greene in The Open Road (1926) - available to view at this channel.

[jimbradshaw]

I am amazed at the colour quality and am gobsmacked by the views of working Thames Barges, with their distinctive red sails. What a wonderful piece of film!

Now I HAVE to research Gasparcolor on the 'net.

Thank you for posting this.

[PaulFrankRizzo]

With all due respect, how can that be from the 30s when there is clearly a Video Wipe at 2:56? Also, I still don't understand how B&W Film can be colorized. It's a process that amazes me. Yet with today's editing techniques, one can make a video look old. You have a great collection, and have just gained a new subscriber. I enjoy films from 1890-1960.

[madbob73]

As has been mentioned the SS Dartford shown here was sunk in 1942. As for 'how' - wikipedia says - 'Gasparcolor was a colour film system, developed in 1933 by the Hungarian chemist Dr Bela Gaspar. It used a subtractive 3-colour process on a single film strip, one of the earliest to do so.'

[BFIfilms]

@PaulFrankRizzo Transitional wipes date from well before 1935 - there's one in a 1903 film called 'Mary Jane's Mishap'. It's an entirely optical process that was either carried out in the camera (the lens would be covered, the film partly rewound, and then uncovered at the same speed) or via an optical printer in post-production.

[200000941]

It is painful to know that these people will get in to the WW II 5 years later and the city will get totaly destroyed. Who knows what is waiting us.

[power10girl]

all the boats looks like titanic

[GamingPalooza]

i wish i had a gigawatt compactor delorean so i could go back in time and witness how life was like in different decades.

[lndac02]

a lovely little film from a era when England used to actually make things which it sold to other countries. watching this film made me realise something else...that it was likely everyone in the film was dead by now and that within a hundred years every poster here would have joined them. life seems a long time but its a illusion...thanks for posting a glimpse of the recent past.

[superfug]

Inda02 I disagree with your statement that everyone in the the film is dead. Its possible that one of the barges in the film belonged to my Grandfather,at that time my Mother was ten years old and she is still going strong.Her sister who is two years older is still alive,and also two younger brothers all born before 1935.

All of them remember being on the river.

[lndac02]

Superfug, Appologies! more then happy to be wrong in this case.

[sirvisto68]

Used to work for Blue Star Line in the 60's and that 'Star Boat' with the 2 funnels is, I think one of the 'A'boats that served South America and did cruising in the 30's. I don't think any of them survived the war. What a different world it was then,there seems to be a different pace of life then [as there was in the 60's] not the rat race, dog eat dog society that exists today.

[afewtube]

It's amazing that this was in the 1930s, a time of recession - the Great Depression, yet there was more economic activity than there was during the modern economic boom (before the current recession).

[Wayzgoosey]

If you want to see economic activity on thsi scale, go to Harwich, Felixstowe, Tilbury or any of the other container ports. There are less ships, but they're bigger and a lot of cargo is shifted. It's quite a site to see. It's worth visiting the shotley peninsula in suffolk as one can look over both harwich and felixstowe to see what goes on there.

[howunavailable]

So sad to compare lifeless sterile Docklands now with how it used to be.

[daccasham84]

Those were the days when my Grandfather was in the Merchant Navy and used to 'set sail' from the Thames. Perhaps he's even there somewhere on one of the ships. Great video.

[fiynsais]

What a beautiful vid of River Thames, thank you for sharing....

[countesscristo]

was that stone bridge at the beginning Putney Bridge?

[blackpoolbarmpot]

No worries about smoke emission pollution, political correctness and the 'Carbon Footprint' hadn't been invented - in 1935.

A time when Britain was 'Great-Britain' and showed the rest of the world how thing were done.

[SkepticalSteve01]

@blackpoolbarmpot : Yes of course, Londoners are such sissies now, what with their politically correct insistence on pollution control and other nonsense.

And if anybody tells you it has anything to do with the Great Smog of December 1952, in which approximately 12,000 Londoners died from man-made atmospheric pollution, you can tell them breathing is unnecessary for truly great British morons, such as yourself.

[blackpoolbarmpot]

@SkepticalSteve01 Yes and the 'Plague, Pox & Syphilis' never bothered us hardy Northerners in those days, and as children we still managed to climb up the Chimneys and lick them clean, even with the fire raging in the grate below and burning our feet.... No 'dibby-dobby, duckie-darling, health & safety' rubbish in those days and we ate 'Social Workers' for lunch ha ha. The good old days - lets bring 'em back.

[blackpoolbarmpot]

A lovely Film of the bustling Thames, with our Exports and Imports - to and from all four corners of the British Empire. Long before the Luftwaffe and post war Governments destroyed the Docklands, and our Empire!!

It is wonderful to see this all in Colour, it gives a greater 'realism' and it is easier to compare The Thames in 1935 & 2008.

Thanks for posting this Film.

[bundleHastings]

OMG! I thought the whole world was black white and grey until the 1950s! Fascinating film, thanks for uploading it.

[applecounty]

Pity the Thames barge is not framed properly at 4:17mins. Do we know which make of camera was being used or who was using it? Must have been someone with deep pockets. Interesting to see evidence of trade in the Depression as well.

[riotagus]

Wonderful video !!

[Mounhas]

Inequality has always been a tool of the ruling classes, nothing will change there unfortunately. My paternal grandfather was a lighterman based in Putney, as were several generations before him. To think now that many of the people seen in the film were slaughtered a few years later and as Steffanllwyd says merchant seamen were amongst the many pawns kept in their place. It was a good film to watch and quite thought provoking.

[saintmirrenmalky]

Fair comment, Mounhas. And I also agreed with Stefanllwyd. I was in the Merchant Navy in the 1990's, and can't even begin to imagine the sacrifice made by the Merchant Seamen of the 1940's. They were one of the many groups in society at the time who remained resolute in the face of huge dangers. This a a very interested film. Great to see it on youtube.

[SteffanLlwyd]

Governments CAN reduce inequality. In Sweeden and Norway there are no rich or poor. High taxes fund fantastic public services for everybody and people like each other better. The ecomomy works fine. The credit crunch shows that extreme inequality which forces too many to struggle in debt, destabilises the banking system. Equality is not just possible, it's a necessity and if it can be brought about, we'd attain the kind of Britain that seafarers died fighting for in WW2.

[EuroReporter]

Excellent point SteffanLlwyd - you are absolutely right about the Nordic countries and how inequality has been taxed out of society there. People say we could'nt do it here because the UK population is too big - rubbish !!! Just scale up the system!! - Britain could be like Norway or Finland - could be as peaceful as this film - if only the inequalities could be ditched, and we stopped kidding ourselves that America offered us any example worth following!!

[SteffanLlwyd]

Thanks. The Credit Crunch will change a lot of things. We are going to have to think again and repair things. Completely agree with you about 'scaling up'. On the News a few days ago it was announced that approaching half of the FTSE Top One Hundred Companies did not pay a penny in Corporation Tax in the last tax year. Wow! A pity that the political parties are not daring enough to tackle hyper-inequality. If fairness was the aim of policy when this film was made, it can be done again.

[jordimax65]

looks so empty around Tower Bridge! It has changed so much...amzing!

[twoslices]

Richmond bridge at 1:20 I believe

[Ommodawn]

Very interesting. 73 years ago. Quite a thought.

[DADRENO]

'Colour on the Thames' is included on the BFI DVD 'Science is Fiction'

Is there any/much railway material included?

[sinbadsmrs]

pure nostalgia,for an ax merchantman,thank you

[peterlewis2]

Although too young (born 1948!!) to fully appreciate the location and the memories it will have surely aroused, this is, nevertheless, an extremely informative and educational clip. Thank you.

[DADRENO]

This was the year I was born - how things change!

[crowamonghens]

stunning piece of documentation.

[SteffanLlwyd]

Towards the end we see SS Dartford. It was 4,093 tons, built 1930 but torpedoed on the 12 June 1942 while sailing in convoy in ballast. This caused the loss of 30 crew out of a total compliment of 47. The attacker was U124. I think I am right in saying that no medal was ever struck for British merchant seafarers killed by enemy action. If this is true, then it is a national disgrace. Without their efforts, Britain would have been starved into submission.

[DFORCE1969]

fascinating;Living in london its strange to see much which is familiar but so much that has changed.Although I'm glad we no longer have an empire its sad that this once industrious nation is now a septic Isle a hollow shell of fake tribal "nationalism",

Thread bare Privatised "Public" services

and a haven for tax dodging billionaires,many of whom deserve long terms in prison.

[SteffanLlwyd]

Yeh. I'm quite worried by the way the Government talks about 'Britishness'. I think talk of Britishness is very un-British. If Gordon Brown does not understand this paradox, he does not understand Britain. Extreme levels of social inequality also bother me a lot and no politicians are talking about this!

[Wayzgoosey]

Ironic that the film was made at a time of extreme social inequality. Whilst evidence for inequality suggest it may be growing, we are currently considerably more wealthy than at any point in human history. I'm not convinced that our public services are in any way threadbare; we are treating more people for more things in the NHS, we are educating more children to a higher standard etc. Why are we so nostalgic? maybe because we see few films which show the poverty behind the pasts's gloss .

[SteffanLlwyd]

Point taken. I certainly would not like to relive my school days for example. There were at least 6 teachers we had to endure, who would be jailed if they were to behave in the same way today. We looked on in horror while one girl in my class was forced to eat 'pipes pudding' (horrible macaroni boiled in milk and sugar)... till she vomited and fled. This was done in the name of 'starving Brifrans'. She never came back. She was sent to an 'ESN' school, because she was a nervous wreck.

[j43ms]

i certainly wouldn't argue that social inequalities were harsher then than now, but in 1935 the camera couldn't lie (gasparcolour or no)

if these films show anything it's that you didn't have to be a millionaire to live in london!

[Kenn1965]

Bravo to your post! I completely agree with you.

[Kenn1965]

Take it from me DFORCE1969, living here in the states is no better. At least before I came over here, I could still get a proper cup of tea in a restaurant.

[steve74100]

seeing theese films makes u wonder has life changed for the better...i know its an obvious thing to say but life seemed so much simpler then.....but im a realist and i know it probally was not...they were tough times but in 70 years time our grand kids will say we had it tough....but great footage this what i belive you tube is made for..

[jamie6747]

yes that is true

[airscrew1]

Wonderful old footage. It's hard to believe the Thames was so busy in those days, watching this makes me wish someone would invent a time machine. Pure class!

[DEROUGET]

I think that the film starts in Kingston then some scenes in Richmond then on to central London.

[estuarymod]

Its the old Waterloo bridge,They tried pumping concrete under the central piers,as it was in need of repair,it did not work.A new bridge was built during wwtwo

[strombidae]

Any ideas on which bridge it is at 1:50 ?

[estuarymod]

As an ex lighterman of the 50s this was memory lane,great footage,thank you.

[SteffanLlwyd]

Amazing. Beautiful steam ships and even one called 'Dartford'. Luckily I saw lots of cargo vessels on the Thames right up to Tower Bridge, before containerisation changed everything. This film was a wonderful reminder, though I guess little of this tonnage would have survived WW2. One in three merchant seamen on conveys were killed and they never struck a medal for them.

[weycrest]

Fantastic bit of colour footage, especially the docklands sequence. Hard to place some of the locations, but probably Canary Wharf or the Royal Docks. Thanks!

[dunc1960]

Stunning

[churchwardwen]

What a truly excellent piece of film history and a real treat to see London in colour instead of sepia tints or black and white. It allowed me also to see how Thameside London was at the very time when my Father was growing up near there in Lambeth Walk.

Many thanks for posting this film.