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Reliving London’s Transport Past On Inflatable Movie Screens
Londoners packed out Trafalgar Square last night to take a look at how past generations got around the capital, as part of the BFI London Film Festival.
The Open Road – a busy street scene in 1920s Whitehall
In true British style the audience braved the cold weather and camped out in front of a huge inflatable screen that showcased developments to the city’s transport links since 1896.
The 29 short films were taken mainly from the BFI’s archive and additional footage was supplied by the London Transport Museum and Imperial War Museum.
Every year during the festival, a free screening is put on under Horatio Nelson’s timeless gaze.
Robin Baker, head curator at the BFI, has the unenviable task of finding the best films to include.
He told Sky News Online: “We have over 200,000 films in our archive and choosing which footage to use is a fairly difficult task.
“I love it though, some of the older stuff shows how the city has really changed, or not, in the last century.
“It’s a real celebration of London-ness.”
The silent footage was given live, atmospheric accompaniment by world renowned pianist Neil Brand.
Some of the oldest archive reels included a rare glimpse of women cycling in Hyde Park in the 19th century, as well as horse-drawn fire engines and the bizarre experiment of gas powered cars.
Perhaps the oddest vision of the evening was the sight of the maiden flight of the R101 Airship moving across London’s skyline in 1929.
Robin Baker singled this out as his favourite film of the evening. “It almost looks fake,” he claimed.
“It’s so beautiful and ethereal, like something from a sci-fi movie that you’ve never seen before and will never see again.”
The exploration of travel across London concluded with a piece from a young filmmaker from the capital, Yohan Forbes.
His short film, Project One, followed a skateboarder on his journey from the Thames Barrier to, quite fittingly, the BFI’s base on the South Bank.
Yohan told Sky News Online: “This is the biggest exposure my work has ever had, it’s really my ode to London.”
Having grown up in London, he found it fascinating to see the changes that have taken place in the city since the beginning of the 20th century.
“These films have a very nostalgic feeling; it’s good to feel nostalgic about places because those are the memories that remain.”
