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London 1924


robtheplod

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11 hours ago, Tim Lewis said:

Soundtrack from the 1995 film Across the Sea of Time by John Barry of the James Bond theme fame

 

 

 

Well spotted!

Point of information: John Barry did not compose the James Bond theme.

Edited by Athy
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4 hours ago, Athy said:

Well spotted!

Point of information: John Barry did not compose the James Bond theme.

I didn't say that he did!  Before posting I did some detailed research, i.e. looked on Wikipedia, and the story of the James Bond theme is quite interesting:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Barry_(composer)

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12 minutes ago, Tim Lewis said:

I didn't say that he did! 

Er, I'd say that you did actually: "John Barry of the James Bond Theme fame" certainly implies that he was its composer.

I'm familiar with the story; there was some dispute, but it's generally accepted that Monty Norman composed the tune. Barry certainly arranged it for the film, and the guitarist from his group The John Barry Seven, the slickly-named Vic Flick, played that memorable guitar line. (For those old enough to remember, Vic also played on 'Hit Or Miss', the 'Juke Box Jury' theme tune).

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On 28/09/2020 at 16:21, Pluto said:

The first colour photos were prior to this, being taken by John Mercer from Clayton-le-Moors. In the 1850s, he produced several prints in a variety of colours. Mercer was a self-taught chemist, who taught himself to read and write as a teenager whilst working as a handloom weaver. He is best known for Mercerisation, a way of preparing cloth for printing, but he did much other ground-breaking work on chemicals for printing textiles. https://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/john-mercer-the-local-unsung 

Up to a point, Mercer's are not really colour photographs are they. Red and white photographs, rather than black and white. The colour of the photograph has nothing to do with the colour of the subject.

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On 28/09/2020 at 13:23, magnetman said:

I got most of it but this little scene confuses me. 

 

Screenshot from the film. 

 

Screenshot_2020-09-28-10-08-56-397_com.android.chrome.png.bc0988b0dec49f07c480c4e3fa028fb8.png

The structure on the left is visible on this 1922 photo of St Pancras lock from the CRT archive

 

pan.jpg

Edited by Tim Lewis
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4 hours ago, Derek R. said:

I drove through there about 2 hours ago. Slightly different scene now. 

Going back to the Islington tunnel keepers houses if it was a house, this picture I found on the internet seems to indicate that it only stood proud of the tunnel by a few feet if that. 

Screenshot_2020-10-01-19-52-31-899_com.android.chrome.png.89ec5fc7d67125353a12ae06694d0f99.png

 

IMG_20201002_110249.jpg.ea780fba41ae85d94182c86c427b7996.jpg

 

And the presence of what would appear to be a woman and some flowers and general decoration and curtains  does give it the impression of being an actual house. 

 

I like the old GUCCo/GJCCo ballast weights. I guess they were for dropping vessels down that were too high to get in the tunnel. 

 

Question is how were they picked up ??

 

Or maybe they are something else. They do look rather heavy. 

 

I wonder if the date of that picture is after the purchase of the the Grand Junction by the Regents and the formation of the Grand Union ie 1929. 

 

People think of it as the Regents Canal but perhaps it is more accurate to call it the Regents section of the Grand Union. 

Edited by magnetman
  • Greenie 1
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That's a nice image. But I would take issue with the depth of just a few feet. Compare the size of bricks of the front wall of the house, with those of the wall beside the tunnel mouth. There is also the barrow behind the tunnel keeper, with the appearance of more distance beyond to the ladder against the wall. I would suggest a depth of at least eight feet, and maybe ten, that would give sufficient depth within the house for a working class accommodation. Having been brought up in such a small house in N. London, our front room was 11' x 8' - and that was the biggest room in our two up two down.

 

Interesting to see the hinged shutter that could be swung around to block off the downsatirs front window. Also leaning against the tunnel wall, what looks like a board that could either be a shutter for the door, or the door itself? Probably the former, as the door is not visible due to it being wide open. Lovely picture. Curtains; pot plants, and maybe a bird cage within - that's a home. Maybe an ex-bargeman and his wife spending their last decade or so off the boats.

 

Is that coal in the sacks? Most likely, but was the top layer painted or 'floured' to show pilfering? The weights. Two people with a bar, a small length of chain and up they come.

Regent's Canal - from back when it was? The other item of interest is the box on the wall just above the ladder. It has a weather shield above and a conduit going up the wall. Might this have been a telegraph or bell system connected to the other end of the tunnel?

 

Just a few thoughts.

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Wouldn't he have been the tunnel-keeper?

Of course it's a house, and we can't tell how far it goes back.

May we assume that a G.U. steamer has just been through, or did Islington have its own tunnel tug?

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2 hours ago, Athy said:

Wouldn't he have been the tunnel-keeper?

Of course it's a house, and we can't tell how far it goes back.

May we assume that a G.U. steamer has just been through, or did Islington have its own tunnel tug?

I believe the vessel shown in the title of the film on post #1 is the steam powered tunnel tug. 

 

 

Edited by magnetman
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Other points to note are the changes between the film image and the still.

Both the wall face and the house have been rendered (death to brickwork), a little wicket fence put up and the shuttering for the window gone. Might be the same barrow though!

 

Back to the weights in the still. Bet they're 2cwt, which would match the size of the coal sacks. Maybe he had a little business going, set of scales tucked away possibly? Conjecture of course.

Edited to correct: Look at the towpath in the film still - coal sack and a few lumps scattered about. That's the fuel supply for the steam tug.

Ah - watching it again those aren't lumps of coal - they're birds hopping about!!

Edited by Derek R.
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Yes I think the GUCCo weights at Uxbridge boat centre which look similar were 2cwt. Only thing is that seems a bit light for an iron weight looking at the size. 

 

Good point about selling the coal :)

 

Several houses around there the owners of some of which now seem to spend quite a lot of time moaning about coal smoke ;)

 

 

ETA that would also put the picture I found as older than 1929 if the film was 1924... 

 

 

And the wheelbarrow was for transferring the coal to the tug. 

 

It would seem easier to take bunkers from another boat but I suppose the boats were all on a mover and only the occasional one stopped to offload coal by the house. 

 

The weights look in that case like they are simply stacked there to hold up the coal store. 

Edited by magnetman
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