Muswell Hill

Muswell Hill in films

Muswell Hill is the North London suburb where I was born and now live. The first of Muswell Hill's few associations with the cinema dates from the establishment of a factory and studio in Sydney Road by Robert W. Paul in 1898. For more on Paul's involvement with the area see my local filmmaker.

The Unfortunate Policeman (1905) on Colney Hatch Lane, N.10

An oblique association with early cinema was made by the 1951 film The Magic Box, a biography of William Friese-Greene. The film shows the Friese-Greene family living at 25 Church Crescent, N.10:

Though this is supposed to be 'a house in Brighton'. By coincidence, according to my father who knew him, Friese-Greene's grandson (Peter?) lived in Muswell Hill in the 1950s, on Colney Hatch Lane.

A 2010 house-bound thriller called Cherry Tree Lane showed the exterior of 54 Dukes Avenue, N.10:

Forty-six years earlier and nine houses along, The Americanization of Emily showed James Garner visiting Julie Andrews at 72 Dukes Avenue, N.10:

The Americanization of Emily (Arthur Hiller 1964)

The shot showing Garner's approach to the house also offers a view of Muswell Hill's chief cinematic attraction, Alexandra Palace:

The earliest film-sighting of Alexandra Palace I have so far found is this, from 1905:

Wetherill Road, N.10, in The Unfortunate Policeman (R.W. Paul 1905)

Its silhouette can just be made out in the background. It can also be seen, just about, in this 1906 film:

Wetherill Road, N.10, in The Medium Exposed (R.W. Paul 1906)

Robert Paul documented some attractions in Alexandra Park, such as the switchback railway:

A Switchback Railway (R.W. Paul 1898)

And his catalogue lists two films documenting the ascent of airships, that constructed by William Beedle in 1903 and, in 1905, the Barton-Rawson airship. The first of these is illustrated and described thus:

The second is described thus:

Two years after Paul stopped making films in Muswell Hill, a studio was set up at Alexandra Palace:

Patricia Warren, British Film Studios (London: Batsford, 1995), p.11

I don't know whether any films made in the three years of this studio's existence used the Palace itself as a location, or its grounds. Likewise for when the BBC broadcast from there between 1936 and 1981 - other, that is, than Fred Streeter's gardening programme, as we can see here:

Alexandra Palace came into its own as a film location in the late '60s and early '70s. In 1967 Tinto Brass shot the climax of his Blowup pastiche thriller Col cuore un gola on a balcony with a panorama over London as backdrop:

Col cuore in gola (Tinto Brass 1967)

The preceding sequence was filmed inside Alexandra Palace, on April 27, as the 14 Hour Technicolor Dream played out, a performance and music event with Pink Floyd as headliners:

This same event featured in Peter Whitehead's 'Pop Concerto for Film', Tonite Let's All Make Love In London:

Tonite Let's All Make Love In London (Peter Whitehead 1967)

The following year the hall hosted bra-centred celebrations in The Bliss of Mrs Blossom:

The Bliss of Mrs Blossom (Joseph McGrath 1968)

Of all films that have used Alexandra Palace, Lucio Fulci's London-set giallo Lizard in a Woman's Skin (1971) best displays the place, outside and in:

Una lucertola con la pelle di donna (Lucio Fulci 1971)

Two mid-'80s films staged apocalyptic visions at Alexandra Palace:

Nineteen Eighty-Four (Michael Radford 1984)

Lifeforce (Tobe Hooper 1985)

Since the 1990s Muswell Hill has been a passing location in twee dramas such as these:

Crocodile Antiques, 120 Muswell Hill Broadway, N.10, in Secrets and Lies (Mike Leigh 1996)

Fortismere School, near Twyford Avenue, N.10, in Fever Pitch (David Evans 1997)

Alexandra Palace in Shooting Fish (Stefan Schwartz 1997)

Alexandra Palace in Breaking and Entering (Anthony Minghella 2006)

Alexandra Palace in Hereafter (Clint Eastwood 2010)

Muswell Hill Bookshop, 72 Fortis Green Road, N.10, in Tamara Drewe (Stephen Frears 2010)

My favourtite Muswell Hill cine-moment is from Robert Asher's 1960 comedy Make Mine Mink. A first shot shows police cars leaving Muswell Hill Police Station and speeding down Fortis Green:

And the next shows the first of those police cars on Muswell Hill Broadway - going in the wrong direction, logically, if it has just come from Fortis Green:

I like this sequence mainly for personal reasons, firstly because my brother Christophe was based for a while at that police station, and secondly because the 134 bus we see on Muswell Hill Broadway is the bus I take to get to work (though this one is only going as far as Archway).

I also like this sequence because it is followed by a shot of a police control room with a nice map of London:

(I don't mind that the map only shows South London.)

Beauty in the Borough (c.1960)