London: St. Katherine's Dock, Tower Bridge, Cable St.
Standard 8mm film Colour Silent c.1955 3:46
Summary: The fourth reel of this amateur film, shot in the East of London.
Title number: 1101
LSA ID: LSA/1523
Description: The film begins inside St Katherine Lock, which appears empty, abandoned and in a decrepit state. Some oil floats on the water. A sign for the dock points towards its Delivery Office. Film from a car shows the southern approach up Bridge Road to Tower Bridge, and passes the Tower of London before travelling east along Cable Street towards Limehouse and the docks. In the docklands area, there is film of warehouses, a dry dock in which a boat is being repaired with welding to its hull, large chains, mobile cranes, and freight railway carriages.
Further information: In 2013, filmmaker Mike Cole-Hamilton provided this background information about his London films: 'I had planned to make a short film that showed the side of London then so little known outside. The subject wasthe East End of London (with emphasis on the Docks) to show the working end of London through the eyes of a stranger. A young man from the country, Sid, wanders around the familiar sights - including the Guards outside the railings at Buckingham Palace - and gradually works his way eastwards via the Embankment. He sees the Guards again, marching to the Bank(a lucky shot!), gets lost and asks directions from a passer-by (Dave), who is an East-ender. His new-found guide shows him such areas as Petticoat Lane, St. Katherine's Dock, the Ratcliffe Highway, Blackwall Yard, the Royal Group of Docks full of ships, Silvertownand the Thames at Woolwich (pre barrier), and the docks in the vicinity of the Tower. The closing shot is of the two parting company at Aldgate East tube station. The projectwasshot in the summer of 1959, during my own apprenticeship at R&H Green & Silley Weir, Royal Albert Dock. Regrettably, I had to do all filming at weekends so the docks are almost totally inactive. Filming was done on an absolute shoestring. Sid and I went up west one Saturday afternoon on my mother's Lambretta. We did all the West End footage and then met up with Dave to shoot the Sid/Dave meeting and departing. Most of the other East End footage was shot on a Sunday with a friend and a fellow apprentice. Sid was also a fellow apprentice and Dave was one of the turners at G&SW who had an elderly Riley of which he was justly proud and was used in filming.Everything was shot with an early '50s Kodak 8mm cine camera, no zoom. Because the project was not finished, no editing was done; so each reel is as shot. I had planned to dub voices over on a separate tape with background music. For this,I had atape of 1950s pop played on a barrel organ , which was was one of many owned by a Mr. Tomasso of Mill Hill/Hendon area. Heran a jeweller's shop there andlovingly maintained the superb original family instruments.Sadly, the tape of Mr. Tomasso's barrel organ was lost.'
Keywords: Docks
Locations: United Kingdom; England; London; Tower Hamlets; Isle of Dogs
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