London’s Screen Archives enables Londoners see their past come alive on film. Managed by Film London, we are a unique network of historic film collections that cares for, collects and screens heritage film across the city. Together we preserve London’s rich film heritage from feature films to home movies, public information films, newsreels, and records of the capital’s many different industries.
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'Hoist with Its Own Petard'
Short, snappy film showing a smoke-stack from a war-time powder factory being razed by explosives.
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Overview
Starting with close-ups of a man industrially inserting gunpowder into the base of a chimney, the action that cuts to across the canal. An explosion sends smoke pouring from the base, and then the chimney – slowly at first, but then in a rush – plunges dramatically to the ground. In the background, you can see the Shot Tower, built in 1828 and still standing in Crane Park between Twickenham and Whitton, all that remains of a gunpowder factory dating to the reign of Henry VIII.
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