Wonderful London (1924)

Parts of a series of cinema "shorts'' made in 1924 stirring up tourist interest and national pride in London - a reminder that however old-fashioned it looks to us now, the London of those days was to its inhabitants both ultra-modern and historic, just as we see it today. These versions were cut down from the originals, which lasted ten minutes each, and issued for the Pathé Baby home movie projector in 1933, which accounts for the way some of the films seem to start in the middle of an idea. They show us aspects of London two years or so before the General Strike, yet seem to describe a country which is moving forward in the world, and where nothing much is wrong. The only unease is the spectre of the First World War, which briefly hangs over one of the films. They also remind us that in reality, history does not fall into easily defined slices: this is clearly the age of the car, but horses and carriages still feature on the roads.