Loch Lomond, Scotland (1926)

Balloch Castle and houseboats on the shores of Loch Lomond.

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
• Loch
• Lomond
• Scotland
• Lakes
• Castlw
• Boats
• House
• Destination
• beauty
• spot

[OwensBoatClub]

Has no body noticed just how perfect the film is. Who ever digitised this film did an amazing job.. Colourised it (I presume), removed all the noise and fleck and synchronised the frames.. really impressive conversion... oh and the creek thingy is nice too.... LOL

[madaxewummin]

this is great to see - i work at Loch Lomond marina in balloch and its amazing how the boats have changed. seeing the river leven there with the boats moored on monkey island and how pretty it looks....wonderful footage.

[BobTheMunificent]

If you ignore the mountains in the background (!) it could remind one of the upper reaches of the Thames where there are islands in the middle ("eyots") with houseboats moored alongside. In 1926 I suspect they were not as many houseboats as now. I agree it is a bit of a stretch tho...

[sueKay]

Wow! The River Leven looks totally different!

[FaerieCrone]

Never. Don't know how it reminded them of it.

[ronnoten]

when did the thames ever look like loch lomond

[beeebop84]

lovely video! :)