Video Thursday: Greenwich Observatory, London (1926)

The internet is a treasure trove of wonderful old videos featuring London and Britain as a subject. So, this is in an ongoing weekly video series (Video Thursdays) highlighting my latest find of the week.

I hope you enjoy them. To see the rest of the series, click here.

This is a cute little movie that’s pretty short about the Greenwich Observatory.

From the BFI Description:

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)