The London Nobody Knows

An excellent and all too short documentary on post-war London. Made in 1967 and narrated by James Mason, it shows the side of 60's London that most commentators either conveniently forget or more likely are blissfully unaware of.

A strange documentary nonetheless. I never had James Mason pegged as one to go wondering around the back streets of Spitalfields (where, then, some were still alive who could remember the Ripper murders....), old theatres in Camden, and Salvation Army hostels interviewing the unfortunates there.

A must-see if you have any liking of London history and the 60's in particular. Watch and see the past once more, and learn how much has changed, and how certain modern preoccupations (how areas improve and sometimes gentrify) remain with us still today. Very hard to believe today that some parts of London were so different in character a mere 40 years ago.

Factual. This is really a film version of a guided walking tour around some arcane bits of London in 1967. James Mason plays his part very well, but the script and the locations the film makers dig out are what make this such a valuable document. Just about all the places this film mentions are massively changed / disappeared now. You'll do well to ever see this film 'though - it's a real rarity.

A time capsule that reveals what the wrecking ball in 'Withnail & I' was busy tearing down. I wonder what contemporary audiences made of it. The end credits state that the production dates from 1967 not 1969, only deepening the sense of dislocation that permeates this documentary, which shows the remnants of Victorian London being swept away wholesale by Sixties developers. The faceless modern buildings being erected at the time have themselves now been woven into the fabric of London (I think one shot is of the then new, but empty-for-years Centre Point). James Mason is our unlikely guide, and notable in his narration is both a lament for the old and lost, and the sensible reminder that it was mostly pretty dreadful in the past, that the new is the conduit for improvement. The film wisely opts to focus on the smaller scale details: The public urinals (Peeing is something of a repeated theme), a street market, a rail yard, a cemetery, a ruined music hall, a single house, a deli, an eel and mash café, a Sally Army hostel, and then adds colour to these locations by including characters for whom (in every sense) time is running out: Street buskers, market traders, the on-their-uppers flotsam for whom meths drinking has actually become an option. Hearing them speak, we hear the reality of being down-and-out at a time when National Assistance and the National 'Elf could not be relied on to turn lives around. It's the old story, rents go up, poor people suffer. Times change. And for the average Eastender, scraping a crust from selling on street markets, or another long-gone trade? Popular and bustling Mark's deli has disappeared into oblivion, following the Grand Palais Yiddish Theatre, which leads onto another aspect inadvertently captured in the timing of the film: Demographic replacement. Look at the faces of the elderly in the Whitechapel slums, or the kids in the Tower Hamlets playgrounds, and what do you see? Something you would never see today. Today, Jewish life is all but driven out from Spitalfields and Brick Lane. There is a scene towards the end where a man in a wide brimmed hat repeats that he had tried to improve things for himself, but it hadn't worked out. He then proceeds sings a moving hymn, in Yiddish, which for me was the most poignant of all the individual voices on camera, heard over scenes of children's faces and the wrecking ball pulverizing bricks and mortar, confirming, as the final sequence playfully suggests, that the End Is Nigh, but no-one cares. Note: One great song made famous in the 1930's by Leslie Sarony plays over an earlier scene of derelict Victorian graves and statuary, entitled 'Aint it Grand to be Bloomin' Well Dead?"

If you enjoy the "off the beaten track" walks and can see beyond the banality of an everyday street, "The London Nobody Knows" is for you. Based on Geoffrey Fletcher's book of the same name, it follows a path round London's more seedy and incongruous locations. Despite being made in 1967 many of the locations visited still remain today, while some are sadly gone forever. This film makes a viewer want to go out and explore their own "town/city nobody knows" and realise that there is always a lot more around them than first meets the eye. Narrated and presented by James Mason, this film really should be seen by fans of Psychogeography.

This is a good film to see if you're into this sort of thing: history, local culture, hidden meanings and so on. A number of people he mentioned the difficulty in accessing the film, but it can be seen at the British Film Institute on the Southbank for free, six days a week in their Mediatheque. It's well worth a visit as you can see other similar movies too, grouped by genre, location and so on. As i happens, the St. Etienne film, 'Finisterre' (2006?), was based on this film i think. It can also be seen a the BFI! Enjoy... It says I need to write some more to submit. The narration is really well done, and creates a sinister feel. However in this viewer's opinion it's perhaps a little overblown: the images and interviews speak for themselves, and don't need the colouring of his style of narration. Londoners will enjoy drawing parallels between the London of the film and the city of today, and I suppose that's one of the most enjoyable aspects of watching the film 40 years on - the opportunity to identify consistent London themes that run and run regardless of the particular fashions and stylings of the time.