image | Location | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|
Horsted Keynes, sussex | Horsted Keynes railway station | Betjeman opens the film in the in the station buffet at Horsted Keynes, on the Bluebell Railway in Sussex. He finishes a pint of beer and boards a Metropolitan Railway steam train. | |
Marylebone, London | Baker Street station | Chiltern Court, an apartment block constructed over the MR’s London terminus (now Baker Street tube station) | |
Marylebone, London | The Chiltern Court Restaurant | In 1972 (the year of filming) the apartment block above Baker Street station still contained a restaurant. The restaurant is now The Metropolitan Bar, part of the Wetherspoons chain; | |
St John's Wood, London | Marlborough Road station | Betjeman visits the disused platforms of Marlborough Road station (closed in 1939). He exits the booking hall, at the time of filming in use as an Angus Steak House restaurant. | |
St John's Wood, London | Thomas Hood's house | Betjeman mentions the house where Thomas Hood died, next to Marlborough Road station, where the railway cut through the garden | |
St John's Wood, London | John Hugh Smyth-Pigott's house | Amid several shots of suburban streets in St John’s Wood, Betjeman concentrates on a sinister "helmeted house", a Victorian Gothic dwelling that was once the residence of a clergyman, John Hugh Smyth-Pigott, [1] "whose Clapton congregation declared him to be Christ,/a compliment he accepted". This house, situated in Langford Place, has since been the home variously of Charles Saatchi and of Vanessa Feltz; [2] | |
Neasden | Neasden Lane | Over establishing shots of the suburb of Neasden, Betjeman describes the area as "home of the gnome and the average citizen" (the former a reference to the preponderance of gnome statuettes in suburban front gardens). The accompanying music is a recording of Willie Rushton singing the humorous song "Neasden" (1972) ("Neasden/You won't be sorry that you breezed in"). Both Betjeman and Rushton wrote for the satirical magazine Private Eye which frequently lampooned Neasden as the stereotypical "contemporary urban environment". [3] | |
Neasden | Gladstone Park | Betjeman visits the Neasden Nature Trail in Gladstone Park and the Brook Road allotments (now no longer accessible from Brook Road), where he meets its creator, the ornithologist Eric Simms. | |
Wembley | Betjeman recounts the partial construction (1890) on the site of the present stadium of " Watkin's Folly" (after Sir Edward Watkin, Chairman of the MR), which had been intended to exceed the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The "Folly" was demolished in 1907. He also recalls the British Empire Exhibition and a St. George's Day rally held there in 1924; | ||
Wembley | Referring to "this Middlesex turf", Betjeman stands alone on the pitch of the original Wembley Stadium (since demolished and rebuilt in the early 21st century), which first hosted the Football Association Cup Final in 1923 and where England had won the World Cup six years before Metro-Land was filmed. | ||
Wembley | Prior to its use as a sports ground, Betjeman recalls the hosting of the British Empire Exhibition on the Wembley site in 1924–25, in particular the Palace of Arts. King George V and Queen Mary are seen enjoying fairground rides. | ||
Passing through suburban Wembley streets, Betjeman describes the show-houses of the newly built Metro-Land estates, each placed on streets with evocatively rural-sounding names that now cover former fields. | |||
Kingsbury | Betjeman stands atop one of Ernest George Trobridge's eccentric castellated houses in Kingsbury. | ||
Harrow | A vista of Harrow on the Hill signifies a transition between suburbia and rural Middlesex | ||
Harrow | Although Harrow School has preserved much of the rural quality of Middlesex, Betjeman notes that it has been unable to resist being surrounded by "the rising tide of Metro-Land". | ||
Harrow | In the heartland of Metro-Land, Betjeman compares the rows of 1920s suburban mock-Tudor houses to the romantic images in the developers' brochure. | ||
Harrow Weald | At Grim's Dyke, Harrow Weald, Betjeman examines Norman Shaw's Victorian architecture and observes the Harrow Ladies' Byron Luncheon Club in the opulent function room. | ||
Harrow Weald | In the grounds, he shows the pond where the opera lyricist W. S. Gilbert, collaborator of Arthur Sullivan, drowned in 1911, after suffering a heart attack. [4] Betjeman recounts that Gilbert had gone swimming with two girls, Ruby Preece and Winifred Isabel Emery. [5] | ||
Pinner | Betjeman visits Pinner Fair, "a mediaeval fair in Metro-land", on the feast day of the parish saint, John the Baptist. | ||
Moor Park | On its golf course Betjeman is filmed missing a tee shot. | ||
Moor Park | The fine club-house, an 18th-century mansion, is also shown. 34 years later, the Mail on Sunday recalled Betjeman's "hilarious" round, noting that many of the houses in private roads around Moor Park station were now owned by Indian businessmen. Accordingly, it dubbed one road in Moor Park " Bollywood Boulevard of Suburbia"; [6] |
Other locations include:
{{
cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (
link)
image | Location | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|
Horsted Keynes, sussex | Horsted Keynes railway station | Betjeman opens the film in the in the station buffet at Horsted Keynes, on the Bluebell Railway in Sussex. He finishes a pint of beer and boards a Metropolitan Railway steam train. | |
Marylebone, London | Baker Street station | Chiltern Court, an apartment block constructed over the MR’s London terminus (now Baker Street tube station) | |
Marylebone, London | The Chiltern Court Restaurant | In 1972 (the year of filming) the apartment block above Baker Street station still contained a restaurant. The restaurant is now The Metropolitan Bar, part of the Wetherspoons chain; | |
St John's Wood, London | Marlborough Road station | Betjeman visits the disused platforms of Marlborough Road station (closed in 1939). He exits the booking hall, at the time of filming in use as an Angus Steak House restaurant. | |
St John's Wood, London | Thomas Hood's house | Betjeman mentions the house where Thomas Hood died, next to Marlborough Road station, where the railway cut through the garden | |
St John's Wood, London | John Hugh Smyth-Pigott's house | Amid several shots of suburban streets in St John’s Wood, Betjeman concentrates on a sinister "helmeted house", a Victorian Gothic dwelling that was once the residence of a clergyman, John Hugh Smyth-Pigott, [1] "whose Clapton congregation declared him to be Christ,/a compliment he accepted". This house, situated in Langford Place, has since been the home variously of Charles Saatchi and of Vanessa Feltz; [2] | |
Neasden | Neasden Lane | Over establishing shots of the suburb of Neasden, Betjeman describes the area as "home of the gnome and the average citizen" (the former a reference to the preponderance of gnome statuettes in suburban front gardens). The accompanying music is a recording of Willie Rushton singing the humorous song "Neasden" (1972) ("Neasden/You won't be sorry that you breezed in"). Both Betjeman and Rushton wrote for the satirical magazine Private Eye which frequently lampooned Neasden as the stereotypical "contemporary urban environment". [3] | |
Neasden | Gladstone Park | Betjeman visits the Neasden Nature Trail in Gladstone Park and the Brook Road allotments (now no longer accessible from Brook Road), where he meets its creator, the ornithologist Eric Simms. | |
Wembley | Betjeman recounts the partial construction (1890) on the site of the present stadium of " Watkin's Folly" (after Sir Edward Watkin, Chairman of the MR), which had been intended to exceed the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The "Folly" was demolished in 1907. He also recalls the British Empire Exhibition and a St. George's Day rally held there in 1924; | ||
Wembley | Referring to "this Middlesex turf", Betjeman stands alone on the pitch of the original Wembley Stadium (since demolished and rebuilt in the early 21st century), which first hosted the Football Association Cup Final in 1923 and where England had won the World Cup six years before Metro-Land was filmed. | ||
Wembley | Prior to its use as a sports ground, Betjeman recalls the hosting of the British Empire Exhibition on the Wembley site in 1924–25, in particular the Palace of Arts. King George V and Queen Mary are seen enjoying fairground rides. | ||
Passing through suburban Wembley streets, Betjeman describes the show-houses of the newly built Metro-Land estates, each placed on streets with evocatively rural-sounding names that now cover former fields. | |||
Kingsbury | Betjeman stands atop one of Ernest George Trobridge's eccentric castellated houses in Kingsbury. | ||
Harrow | A vista of Harrow on the Hill signifies a transition between suburbia and rural Middlesex | ||
Harrow | Although Harrow School has preserved much of the rural quality of Middlesex, Betjeman notes that it has been unable to resist being surrounded by "the rising tide of Metro-Land". | ||
Harrow | In the heartland of Metro-Land, Betjeman compares the rows of 1920s suburban mock-Tudor houses to the romantic images in the developers' brochure. | ||
Harrow Weald | At Grim's Dyke, Harrow Weald, Betjeman examines Norman Shaw's Victorian architecture and observes the Harrow Ladies' Byron Luncheon Club in the opulent function room. | ||
Harrow Weald | In the grounds, he shows the pond where the opera lyricist W. S. Gilbert, collaborator of Arthur Sullivan, drowned in 1911, after suffering a heart attack. [4] Betjeman recounts that Gilbert had gone swimming with two girls, Ruby Preece and Winifred Isabel Emery. [5] | ||
Pinner | Betjeman visits Pinner Fair, "a mediaeval fair in Metro-land", on the feast day of the parish saint, John the Baptist. | ||
Moor Park | On its golf course Betjeman is filmed missing a tee shot. | ||
Moor Park | The fine club-house, an 18th-century mansion, is also shown. 34 years later, the Mail on Sunday recalled Betjeman's "hilarious" round, noting that many of the houses in private roads around Moor Park station were now owned by Indian businessmen. Accordingly, it dubbed one road in Moor Park " Bollywood Boulevard of Suburbia"; [6] |
Other locations include:
{{
cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (
link)