some Brentford streets on screen
When, in I Believe In You (1952), Glyn Houston gives Cecil Parker directions for what Parker suspects is a non-existent street, Houston is pointing directly towards the studios at Ealing where the film was made.
Behind them can be seen the Brentford gasworks, a background landmark in at least two other Ealing-made films:
Behind them can be seen the Brentford gasworks, a background landmark in at least two other Ealing-made films:
The Captive Heart (1946)
The Gentle Gunman (1952)
Another view appears in the 1964 Shepperton-based production Night Train To Paris:
And that same year the gasworks could be seen from the other side, across the river, in the Twickenham-based A Hard Day's Night:
The history of the Brentford gasworks has been well-documented, and it isn't the cinema alone that constitutes the visual record:
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On the other hand, the street for which the gasworks provided so dramatic a backdrop on screen has not been so well treated by the historical record, written or visual.
Not having recognised the gasworks, it was not easy for me to work out the location when I first saw it in The Captive Heart. Two returning soldiers are deposited at the top of the street and then walk down it; the whole sequence lasts thirty seconds. The buildings are ordinary - generic working-class London - and the street signs are indecipherable:
Not having recognised the gasworks, it was not easy for me to work out the location when I first saw it in The Captive Heart. Two returning soldiers are deposited at the top of the street and then walk down it; the whole sequence lasts thirty seconds. The buildings are ordinary - generic working-class London - and the street signs are indecipherable:
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When the street appears in The Gentle Gunman it serves again as a generic working-class locale, though this time it is supposed to be in Belfast. It is on screen for about three minutes, and a great deal more is shown:
Though there are still no legible street signs, a clue to the locale is provided by the barrow on the street, marked with an Ealing-exchange telephone number:
C. Shackle and Son was a firm of builders in Brentford, a clue that led to the gasworks and the general location of these two sequences:
From the turnings on the right hand side of the street, visible in The Gentle Gunman, the street in question must be Pottery Road.
Nothing of the Pottery Road we see in these films survives today. Indeed, the only building indicated on the map above that still seems to be standing is the Old Brentford Baptist Chapel on North Road. The gasworks have gone, of course.
Nothing of the Pottery Road we see in these films survives today. Indeed, the only building indicated on the map above that still seems to be standing is the Old Brentford Baptist Chapel on North Road. The gasworks have gone, of course.
The opening sequence of the 1964 comedy thriller Night Train To Paris provides the best cinematic record of these now gone streets. From a phone box at the top of Pottery Road a man walks east along Netley Road, past the top of Distillery Road, where another man starts to follow him. The first man turns down Chapel Alley, at the end of which the second man catches up with him (and murders him):
There may well be other films that have used this part of Brentford as a location. A street in the 1960 film It Takes A Thief looks like Pottery Road - I'll be able to tell better when I see a better print of the film:
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An area just to the west, around Brook Lane North and Brook Road South, is used in the same film:
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This part of Brentford was also seen in the Ealing film The Rainbow Jacket (1954):
These streets, happily have not been demolished. I am particularly pleased that The Griffin, a very fine pub, has survived:
