Description: The film begins by the clock tower on Crouch End Broadway, moving swiftly on to Hornsey Town Hall and its glorious flower beds. Some shots of Muswell Hill show municipal planting in raised beds on the corner of Fortis Green Road and Muswell Hill Broadway. Some more beds filled with flowers are filmed around the junction of Fortis Green Road and Queen's Avenue. Then it's back to Muswell Hill Broadway with a view of buses waiting in the roundabout, hanging baskets on surrounding lamp posts and a bus conductor counting change whilst sat on a bench surrounded by a flower bed. Some more municipal planting is filmed along Muswell Hill Road, beginning at the bottom by the junction of Park Road and Priory Road and heading back up towards the Broadway. A woman walks off of Muswell Hill and down to benches overlooking the old railway line between Highgate and Alexandra Palace (the track has been removed, but the platforms of Muswell Hill Station remain). Some children are filmed running through the concrete underpass that has replaced the railway tunnel under Muswell Hill. The next shots show parks gardeners in Shepherd's Hill Gardens, using a mower to cut the lawn at the top and dead heading flowers. Some members of the public rest on park benches and enjoy the view over towards Alexandra Palace. More park benches are enjoyed in Midhurst Gardens on Fortis Green Road. Exterior shots of the 'John Baird' public house on Fortis Green Road include views of more flower beds on the corner of Princes Road. Along Park Road, Crouch End views of the row of shops approaching the junction with Lynton Road include street tree planting. Exterior shots of 'The Princess Alexandra' public house on Park Road include views of flower beds on the corner of Palace Road and opposite. The flats at Ramsey Court have their flower filled gardens and balconies filmed also. The front gardens of Springfield Avenue, Muswell Hill are recorded from a moving car and by a roaming pedestrian. A woman and a man are filmed walking past more flower beds on the route into Crouch End Playing Fields off of Park Road, opposite Park Avenue. The film then moves along Park Road taking in the entrance to the North Middlesex Cricket, Lawn Tennis & Bowls Club; and Hornsey Parish Church on the corner of Cranley Gardens. More gardens are filmed in the grounds of apartments at Dale Court, by the forecourt of Palace Motors and outside the open Air Swimming Pool. There a dip in the waters of the pool with views of children enjoying the water slide, paddling pool and diving boards. Then the action moves to The Priory Park, taking in its tea room and formal planting. Along The Campsbourne road, things are a bit grimmer, with boarded up windows in terrace housing, smashed glass, broken fences and decaying brickwork. Some demolition work is filmed in action with men and machines tearing down housing and collecting rubble. New housing comes in the form of flats at Shelley House on Boyton Road, and Elgar House in Boyton Close. The tree lined pavements of Coolhurst Road and Twyford Avenue provide green barriers to the houses. The traffic is much heavier on High Street Hornsey a sit thunders toward Turnpike Lane, but there's some relief in the Garden of Remembrance by the tower of St Mary church.
Comments
Michael Howick.
Michael Howick.
Mike. Howick.
Robert Missen
I was born in 1951 and in 1965, I went to Muswell Hill Junior School (known as Tinpot). In 1959, we moved to Creighton Avenue and I went to Norfolk House school and my sister went to Tetherdown.
I remember going to the Odeon and Saturday morning pictures, the Ritz cinema at the top of Muswell Hill and the Rex in East Finchley. We used to play on the disused railway line and toboggan down the slopes in Alley Pally.
Swimming at Durnsford Road Pool and having Bovril from the cafe.
Lovely place to live .
i was born in alexandra park nursing home and still remember some of the scenes from the film as though they were yesterday, great film!
Born 1945. Lived in Linzee Road, went to Campsbourne nursery/infant/junior school then on to Stationers. Belonged to the Army Cadets in the Drill Hall. Remember Priory Park, especially when the occasional funfair visited. Swimming Pool was a great place, inc its cafe.
Seeing the youngsters scampering around reminds me of what freedom we had to get bruised, grazed, nettle-stung or whatever without adults fussing over us.
Saturday morning pictures at the Ritz or the Odeon was enjoyable and in teens for evening films. There was also a glimpse of the entrance porch to The Atheneum dance hall and of our lads' local, The Bird in Hand.
Although I wasn't born until 1960 which was probably the year after this film was shot. but i do remember the area very well as a child, Crouch End Broadway with the Clock Tower, Town Hall, Park Road Swimming Pools with that refreshing Fountain, Hornsey High Street, Went and lived in Hornsey and Muswell Hill in the 60's & 70's sadly moved out in the early 80's due to work commitments and worked at Alexandra Palace for the BBC when they were using the Studio's too make progammes for the Open University so i occasionally pay visits too the area as i have never after all these years lost any effection for any of it & this film holds so many memories of growing up here. Thanks so much once again.
In 1947 we moved to 27 Roseberry Gdns, which was the first of a row left standing on the right side due to bombing. My father was a West End hairdresser. The actor Peter Sellers would come every few weeks to have his hair cut at No 27 and stay for tea and a chat.
In the early 1960s we moved to Rokesly Avenue.
I remember the Blacksmith near the top of Rokesly Avenue, and chickens running down the roads (people kept them for the eggs)
Unfortunately in 1952 Polio Struck affecting my Sister Ann and I. She has been disabled since then, I escaped that. Too many other memories to include here. I live in Palmers Green now.
Tony Porter of Rokesly infants and junior schools from1950
I was brought up in Ramsey Court, moving in as a baby with my parents in 1963. To see it on film from around those times, stirs so many emotions of my parents (now both dead) and our lives there.
The Princess Alexandra was owned/managed by Charles and Margaret Young when I was a child. It was my dad's local and he and I walked their wonderful labrador, Prince, for them. We'd take him over to recently closed racecourse at Ally Pally and many other local spots featured in the film. I'd hide behind a tree etc., and he'd refuse to move on until he found me again. In the early '70s, ran out of the pub and was knocked down and killed by a W7 bus. I was devastated at the news, and I have never forgotten him.
Too many other recollections to list.
An absolute privilege to see this film - something I never thought existed.
It is so great to see front gardens, instead of concrete parking places as they are today. We didn't appreciate what a well cared for Borough it was. I was also slightly amused at the number of older ladies in hats making a beeline for the park benches !!!! I remember shopping at the Co-op on the corner of Park Rd with Ration Books, then going to the Clinic near the Town Hall for tins of National Dried Milk and bottles orange juice., paying the Gas and Electricity. Bills at their offices by the Town Hall, queuing for bread at Dunn's and going to Wilsons Department Store for Haberdashery!!... then there was the Paper Man who stood outside Barclays Bank on the corner of Weston Park..... and getting the chimney swept by Firkins in Middle Lane. Happy days .
Watching the film while glancing at the bomb map helped identify why some blocks appear as there do in Crouch End.
Hornsey was targeted during the war because of its railway junctions amongst other things. Campsbourne Estate was constructed over a part of Hornsey that was flattened by the Luftwaffe, this is very clear looking at the film of that area. Much of London remained untouched for years because the cost of clearing and rebuilding and by 1959 (the time of filming) the urban revival was in full swing as shown by some of the new buildings next to old craters.
Fantastic walk back through local history.
Films back then were released several times in the years following their first release, so it probably wasn't its first outing. My Dad took me. I saw all of the Pink Panther films there through the seventies (Still a huge Peters Sellers fan). The Police Box (Tardis type) filmed at the foot of Muswell Hill is brilliant. I'm surprised BBC Worldwide haven't slapped a breach of copyright order on the films distributors.
I cannot be absolutely certain, but I do believe that is my Dads van outside the flats.