LONDON TRAMS - LEYTONSTONE 1938

This film was shot by my father in Leytonstone in (what is now) East London in 1938. In those days I think it was outside the London County Council and was regarded as being in Essex. The film was 8mm Kodachrome_I and the camera was clockwork Keystone Camera. My father could buy this from a dealer he knew for about the same prices as the same number of minutes of 9.5 black and white, which was the common UK amateur film of the time. It cost about a weeks wages and was sent back to California to be processed. Kodachrome had only been on sale for a couple of years when he shot this. It was regarded for years as the only known film of London Trams in motion in colour taken at the time they were running. Since them I think some more colour films may have come to light. Note there are several shots of the War Memorial which would have been deeply emotive sight in the period after the 1914-18 War.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• LONDON
• TRAMS
• COLOUR
• COLOR
• LEYSTONSTONE
• 1938
• Kodachrome

[MrSRedburn]

Well, so it wasn't Leytonstone, but thank you for the information anyway.

[MrSRedburn]

I have just seen This Happy Breed on TV. There is a few seconds in the outdoors which looks like the Ponds at Leytonstone. One can see a tram in the distance. I wonder if it is the same area?

[MrSRedburn]

I often went to Bearmans and sat in the rocket too!!! I loved the Rialto which was part of the same building. They only had one record to play in the intervals which was Ravel's Bolero.

[valerie3175]

Saturday morning pictures at the Rialto and then listening to American rock and roll at Bearmans afterwards.

Not sure if the pond was the one at the Green Man, where I caught tiddlers with a home made fishing net.

No obese people to be seen either.

[spiritoveradversity1]

This is a lovely little film, A real "time capsule" of social history, I still walk this area quit often, but sad to say it now looks nothing like the charming scenes portrayed in this film, although having said that a surprising number of the buildings shown hear have somehow managed to survive to this day, REALLY good posting, Thanks for sharing.

[leytonstongue]

Many thanks for posting this - brilliant stuff. Great to see The Academy Cinema, like all of Leytonstone's cinemas, now gone. The police station where Hitchcock was locked in the cells as a young child is still there although no longer a cinema. I recently found some photographs taken in Leyton in the same year which I've posted on my blog islingtongue.blogspot.com/2012­/01/found-memories.html

[y3ko86]

@darrencornell1 Stop spoiling videos with dumb remarks.

[daldiggler]

This 100 percent leytonstone! - I grew up there also and its very clear to me.

Great film, thank you very much! :)

[Copenhagen327]

The tram before the shots of the pond is clearly on route 61 on the reserved tram track in Whipps Cross Road, the rails of which were still in place the last time I looked in the late 1990's. The location of the pond is?

[tph2558]

No Muggings or riots in thoes days Hey and life was tougher then no welfare system then

[35felton]

How this area has gone down. It used to be such a nice part of London, but has gone the way the rest of it has.

[darrencornell1]

and not a muslim in sight

[scclove]

i was born and raised in leytonstone. and have always been fascinated by how much it has changed. Thank you so much for putting up this video.