Reel Streets - by John Tunstill
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Part One

Most of the actors of the silver screen's golden age have long since gone to the eternal critic. Many of us who grew up admiring their work at the local "flicks", or "pictures"; have remained enthusiastic about their achievements; and now a growing band of younger filmgoers are recognising the entertainment, and also the social, values, inherent in these old films or movies. This article is concerned with the British Cinema in the sixty years between the 1920's and 1980's, which perhaps really was the "Golden Age"; but more, it is concerned with scenes which were shot outdoors in recognisable built-up locations, and which incorporated some of our favourite actors and actresses, and how those places have changed in the intervening years.

Many early films or movies were shot outdoors; the film of Queen Victoria's Jubilee procession makes fabulous viewing; but here the investigation is of full length features, classic movies and cult films, not documentaries, and remembered "stars". "Two Lancashire Lassies in London" was made in 1919, but where is it, who has seen it, who has a copy and who remembers it? Perhaps "Underground", Alissa Landi, 1928, and "Piccadilly", with Anna May Wong, in 1929, may have been the earliest examples that combine the three principles, length, stars and architecture.

Apart from the entertainment value in these old films, the makers, the directors and producers, unintentionally captured a way of life now superseded. Valuable historical and social lessons can be learned from a study of these wonderful moving images; the language, the accents, and the idioms; the buildings and their architectural detail; the damage caused by the war years; and even the interior film sets show domestic situations, based on the reality, or the contrived reality, of the time.

Furniture, fixtures and fittings, that are now unavailable except in a museum, are shown in fine detail. Then, in the cinema of reality; "Look Back in Anger", "Millions Like Us", and "Poor Cow"; we see the awful drabness of our, or their, lives, exposed to the viewing millions.

Even the escapism of "Genevieve" paints a depressing picture of south London after the war. Look carefully at the passing streets, the houses, the shop fronts, and see how really mean they looked after five years of war. Rationing existed until the 1950's and much of damaged London wasn't rebuilt until well into the 1980's. Real history on film, cinema history in the making, a commentary on British social life.

Our food; how, where and what we ate and drank, Ovaltine, Wonderloaf and Guinness may have been national staples; just watch the shop windows, the hoardings and the bus side advertising in "The Leather Boys" and "Sparrows Can't Sing". The layouts of the shops, of offices and factories; "Room at the Top" and "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning", the street equipment, the vehicles, and then, just our clothes, could provide material for another whole series of articles, and all provided by the British and American film industry.

The class-conscious behaviour of the actors must have reflected the way we were, or thought we were. Just listen to the Huggetts, Alistair Sim, Margaret Rutherford; and Celia Johnson on Carnforth Station, in "Brief Encounter" getting ".......something in my eye", or was it "...........my ei", ".........mai ay", or even "............mai ii"? Yes we did talk like that, and some will mourn the fact that we no longer do. We have changed, we are changing, and probably will continue to change. No longer does one receive a "Thank you and good afternoon", but usually just a "Ther' yer go"! That's change for you!

The dark paint, invariably scuffed, the scumbled doors, the dingy floral wallpapers, stained and grubby with fingermarks around the light switches, discoloured around brass plates or letterboxes where the Brasso had affected the paintwork; just review "Millions Like Us" and "I Believe in You", for the evidence. The evil sinks made of buff porcelain with their curious vertical slots, or indentations, in their sides, set off by the cracked white-tiled surrounds; the linoleum; the Ascot water heaters, the chipped baths, the hard crackley sadistic Izal lavatory paper. "Man at the Top", "Look Back in Anger", "For Them That Trespass", a rare film, and "10 Rillington Place" show what I mean

Loose sweets in paper bags, and sweet shops with glass jars full of confections. Wide throated milk bottles with push-in cardboard caps, on the front step, see Norman Wisdom in "Early Bird", or try Stanley Baker in "Hell Drivers"; and the deck-chair striped material hung over the front doors of middle class houses to stop the sun blistering the paintwork, which gave the opportunity to small boys to pop the bubbles. All now gone, except on the celluloid reflections of "Room at the Top","This Sporting Life", and many others.

Men, not just gentlemen, always wore hats or caps, and the workers sported mufflers and brown overalls, and wrap-around pinafores were the order of the day for womenfolk of the lower orders. Look at "I'm Alright Jack", "School for Scoundrels" and "The Lavender Hill Mob"", classics of the silver screen. And any man, when dressed, wore a tie; many members of the Northern Ireland administration, the BBC, and the Knesset in Israel have now even dispensed with this badge of office. Trainers and shell suits will soon be "de rigour", never mind stiff collars, three piece suits and gloves! Watch the folks in the background in "Bond Street", those were the days.

Parents were called, by each other, and their offspring, Mother and Father, they used phrases like 'browned off', 'toodle pip', 'old girl', 'old man', 'TTFN','You lucky people'and "Give 'im the money Barney", the last were the unforgettable words of Wilfred Pickles, the father in "Billy Liar", from his show "Worker's Playtime"", another movie with a cult following.

Discarded 'woollies' were unpicked and rewound into balls for reuse in other garments; that guy in the 'Time Team' still wears such jumpers made in this way even now, probably knitted by his mum. Letters were addressed to "so and so" Esq, and firms and companies were referred to as "Messrs". It really isn't that long ago, I remember it well, but in reality it was a different world. Oh, and TTFN, stood for 'Ta Ta For Now', from ITMA, the radio show, or rather, the wireless show.

Filming locations now need hundredweights of permissions, police, health and safety, fire-brigade and local authorities all become involved, the old days of film production are now gone. Film producers and movie directors are stifling under a mound of paper.

The middle and upper classes, when portrayed, lived a different life, in different buildings, with different furniture, fixtures and fittings. Here the changes are much less dramatic, the antiques and antiquities of the seriously rich and famous are still mainly in their original places, no slum clearance was needed, no high rises were considered; but they in their way add to the glamour of film and movie history, as well as providing accurate architectural records.

The middling classes still occupy their pleasant semis, country cottages, and mews flats. But which were these suburban streets that were shown in "The Amorous Milkman", with Diana Dors? The greatest changes have been made in the living conditions of the, then termed, working and lower-middle classes. Theirs were the real streets, those of Alf Garnett's "Saga" in London's East End. "Sparrows Can't Sing" was a reflection of family life in those times.

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