Newsreel archive
British Pathé has uploaded its entire collection of
85,000 historic films, in high resolution, to YouTube. This unprecedented release of vintage news reports and cinemagazines includes a treasure trove of historical footage of Chiswick.
You can lose yourself for hours watching local pastimes, people and events such as the Oxford & Cambridge University boat race, the Olympic trials at Chiswick Stadium, visits from the royal family, and the opening of the Chiswick flyover. Here is a selection of local gems in chronological order:
The Order Of The Bath - At Chiswick (1923)
Our bathing belles - A Chiswick study (1927)
Vim and vigour! Filmed at Polytechnic, Chiswick (1932)
Busmen's new school at Chiswick (1937) 'Here at Chiswick, London bus drivers learn to be the model of safety and courtesy that they all are'.
Land speed record holder Captain George Eyston's car at Chiswick (1938)
Buses old and new - At Chiswick (1938)
Cambridge boat race crew filmed on 'the choppy waters of the Tideway' at Chiswick (1939)
Brentford & Chiswick -
Honour For Monty (1945) Field Marshal Montgomery (in open landau) travels to Chiswick to receive the freedom of the joint boroughs of Brentford & Chiswick. 'Chiswick's favourite son' was a Sunday school teacher who went on to become one of Britain's greatest commanders.
Olympic trials at the Polytechnic Stadium, Chiswick - athletics. (1948)
King and Queen at Marathon Race, Windsor to Chiswick (1948)
Tornado hits Gunnersbury Station (1954) 'The hardest hit area was Acton, as the freak storm carved its path across West London'.
Windsor to Chiswick Marathon (1955)
Chiswick Flyover opened (1964) - YouTube 'Quite a week for imaginative engineering'.
Spanning the years from
1896 to 1976, the archive is particularly strong in its coverage of the First and Second World Wars.
British Pathé was once a dominant feature of the British cinema experience, renowned for first-class reporting and an informative yet uniquely entertaining style. It is now considered to be the finest newsreel archive in existence – not only from Britain, but from around the globe – of major events, famous faces, fashion trends, travel, sport and culture.
Whether you’re looking for coverage of the Royal Family, the Titanic, the destruction of the Hindenburg, or quirky stories about British pastimes, you can view and share films
here.
