Greenwich Observatory, London (1926)

This extract comes from Claude Friese-Greene's 'The Open Road' - originally filmed in 1925/6 and now re-edited and digitally resto This extract comes from Claude Friese-Greene's 'The Open Road' - originally filmed in 1925/6 and now re-edited and digitally resto This extract comes from Claude Friese-Greene's 'The Open Road' - originally filmed in 1925/6 and now re-edited and digitally restored by the BFI National Archive. Britain seen in colour for the first time was heralded as a great technical advance for the cinema audience - now we can view a much improved image, but one which still stays true to the principles of the colour process.

The rather haphazard journey from Land's End to John O'Groats creates a series of moving picture postcards. Look out for shots containing the component colours - red and blue-green - such as when a little girl in a red coat and hat walks among peacocks in the grounds of a castle, and three girls with red curly hair pose by the sea at Torquay.

The car is a Vauxhall D-type - considered a sporty model at the time. A long-distance journey by car was a relatively new concept, with none of the amenities en route now taken for granted. The visit to a petrol station shows smoking on the forecourt: no health and safety issues back then! The travelogue ends with a series of recognisable London landmarks. Much remains the same - one major exception being the volume of traffic on the roads. (Jan Faull)

For more information about 'The Open Road' see http://www.bfi.org.uk/features/openroad/

To buy the DVD click here - http://www.bfi.org.uk/filmstore

You can watch the whole of 'The Open Road' and 1000 other complete films and TV programmes from the BFI National Archive free of charge at the new BFI Mediatheque - http://www.bfi.org.uk/mediatheque

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Open
• Road
• travelogue
• London
• Greenwich
• Observatory
• Astronomy
• park

[Mar2623]

Cheers for posting I live in Greenwich and I love it.

[tvjujitsu]

Cracking film....thanks for posting

[tvjujitsu]

@bigboxbobby2

Just goes to show how far back that stereotyping goes dont it lol

[spitfireJEJ]

Beautiful. That red ball moves up and down its post at 1pm every day.

[pacratboots]

long before there was High Def Digital and all that fancy stuff ... there was the 1920s :)

awesome old film stock .. i love it !

[cartoonfan1920s]

Wow I never thought a film from 1926 would look this beautiful! Thanks for posting!

[zoylex]

WOW these colours are great!!

thanks to BFIfilms!!

[myco578]

dosen't look like the level in medievil at all

[bigboxbobby2]

Talk agout stereotyping Astronomers! What a lovely film clip.