London After Dark (1926)

We can date this footage of the Elephant and Castle in South East London precisely to 1926 from an advert for a whist drive at the Embassy Hall, Camberwell. The clip opens with a view of St. Paul's over the river and the lights of Piccadilly at night before crossing over to south London where we see the busy junction (no change there then!), near to the old Elephant Theatre. Here N. Carter Slaughter, better known later in his career as Tod Slaughter, is staging a production of 'The Flag Lieutenant', starring himself.

From the theatre we go to Newington Butts, Southwark, to see 'the Ritz of the needy', the Rowton hostel, one of a number of shelters for the poor funded by philanthropist Lord Rowton, much admired by George Orwell, who had stayed in several of these. The clip finishes abruptly with a title saying we are off to Camberwell, but sadly we arent! (Bryony Dixon)

You can watch over 1400 other complete films and TV programmes from the BFI National Archive free of charge in the Mediatheque at BFI Southbank, London and at the new QUAD centre for art and film in Derby - http://www.bfi.org.uk/mediatheque http://www.derbyquad.co.uk/bfi-mediatheque

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• BFI
• London
• City
• Silent
• St.
• Paul's
• Thames
• Elephant
• Castle
• Traffic
• Transport
• Bus
• Theatre
• Tod
• Slaughter
• West
• End
• Homeless
• Tramps
• Camberwell
• Embassy
• Hall
• Piccadilly
• Newington
• Butts
• Southwark

[minutegongcoughs]

Another terrific vid. Quality uploads.

[sltr00per]

"before the mass immigration into the city"? You should read London: The Biography by Peter Ackroyd. You might learn something.

[september7891]

@pisoplot ok if i am the scum of the earth don,t attack me personally tell me what i said that was not correct thats all, it maybe unfashionable maybe not nice but its true,i mean today evra of manu and a guy from liverpool had an argument and evra was called a nigger the fact that he called the other guys mum a whore is seen as nothing but being called a nigger is everything thats bollocks its worse to call someones mum a whore than be called a nigger,politicall correctness gone mad.

[pisoplot]

@september7891 You are the scum of the earth.

[september7891]

@Lydiard91 everybody was white then can you imagine going back in time and telling them when a blackman rapes a white women he gets 8 years in a luxury prison where he can do weight training everyday 3 meals nobody can call him a nigger he gets human rights and a 100 pound given when he comes out,they would think your crazy and would,nt believe you,oh and tell them 70%of school kids in london would be black and because white women can,t keep their legs closed 30%of london is half cast,its crazy,

[rankingtrevor]

@englandmadethewest LOL Michael Caine was born 7 years after this in 1933, surely you are mistaken.

[NODDINGCAT]

this is wonderful, love the trams at Elephant and Castle

[englandmadethewest]

Look out for a cameo from Sir Michael Caine as a policeman near the start.

[zippy72ify]

The soldier with the big moustache looks like Alexander Armstrong... Interesting to see Tod Slaughter before the films I remember him for as well :)

[AFWUK]

does this continue, my grandfather held whist drives around south London and was a well known host at the time.The next clip was going to Camberwell how frustrating for it to stop there,