in the streets of Walthamstow
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Yesterday (Monday 1st May 2017), at 245 and 280 Wood Street, E.17, were unveiled the first two of four plaques that will commemorate the film industry that thrived in the Walthamstow area between 1910 and 1924. This is part of the wonderful Hollywood E17 Project, aiming to recover information about this important period in the history of filmmaking in London's suburbs. The plaques were unveiled by the actor Paul McGann, seen here with the project's initiator, the filmmaker Barry Bliss, and his collaborators Liza Fletcher, of the Walthamstow International Film Festival, and Pamela Hutchinson, of Silent London:
The Hollywood E17 website is a rich source of information on the Precision, Broadwest, British & Colonial and I.B. Davidson studios, with anecdotes, photographs and, of course, maps.
The paucity of surviving films means there may be little opportunity for the location hunter, even if it is clear that productions made in these studios also filmed in the surrounding streets. In the January 2017 issue of The E List, an article by Barry Bliss is illustrated with a tantalising photograph of Broadwest producer Walter West filming in the streets of Walthamstow:
There are dozens of houses with similar doorways near the Broadwest studio, but most have more heavily ornamented arches and capitals. Of those with this plainer style the strongest candidates, to my mind, are at 36 and 38 Chestnut Avenue North:
Google Street View 2014
Chestnut Avenue North is immediately across the street from the Broadwest studio at 245 Wood Street, the buildings just west of the cricket ground on the map below:
O.S. 1914
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The 1917 Broadwest production The Adventures of Dick Dolan uses the same house on what I think is Chestnut Avenue, along with other views of the street:
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These two shots from the film are of Wood Street itself. The first is at the corner of Roland Road, looking north, and the second is a little further up, with the edge of the studio building itself visible to the right:
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Google Street View 2015
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Between these two shots we see Dick outside the Plough, near Wood Street station:
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Google Street View 2008
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The Adventures of Dick Dolan can be viewed on the Imperial War Museum's website, here. There are several other views in this film look like they might well be places in or around Walthamstow, for example:
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Another 1917 Broadwest war effort film, British Women's Volunteer Army, though shot mostly in the countryside, has two shots of a bakery on Wood Street, further up from the studio, just north of the Duke's Head pub:
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The shop awning reflected in the window is that of Cecilia & Ada L. Munday, fancy drapers at 107 Wood Street.
The film stars Violet Hopson and Ivy Close, and can be viewed at the BFI Player website, here.
The film stars Violet Hopson and Ivy Close, and can be viewed at the BFI Player website, here.
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Here are more photographs from yesterday's unveilings:
For more on early film studios in and around London see here (Muswell Hill), here (Whetstone), here (Ealing) and here (various).
