Kensington Gardens, London (1926)

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:

• BFI
• 1920s
• Kensington
• Gardens
• London
• Peter
• Pan
• Park

[ShroudedFury]

I love history

[theonlyantony]

Note the abundance of sparrows !!! Where have they gone?

One never sees that many these days.

[wilhelmschumann]

It is true, I cannot see any sparrow in Kensington Gardens neither in London

[MATS863]

So elegant...I love the twenties...And London...that's sooo The House Of Elliott... hihi

[ogicabp4u]

amazing how the color is added to old films...when I was a child in the 80's I thought everything in the old days was actually Black and White. I asked my Grandma 'Gran, when did you get to be coloured?' !!! (Kids say the darndest things..I'd be kicked off the show by Bill Cosby for being a racist N%gg*r!!).

.

Soon we will be able to see it in HD 3D from every angle.

[JollyRodders]

@theonlyantony Before I saw your comment I was going to say the same thing.

[philster61]

The sparrows have disappeared mainly due to domestic cats.

[xmaywildx]

i have seen some but not a lot which is sad as they are one of my most favourite birds of all time x

[Kensingtonlondon]

Very impressive. Colour movies.

[martianboy99]

The little girl by the statue, she could still be alive now.