This film is part of Free
Lewisham's Film Review
Journey into a lost London with this exquisitely detailed tour of the shops and street life of 1920s Lewisham.
Overview
This exquisitely detailed tour of the south-east London borough of Lewisham traverses town centre tramways and the Rivers Ravensbourne and Quaggy, gliding past ornate-signed outfitters and grander edifices like the Chiesman Brothers department store. We visit Deptford High Street and Catford, glimpse women workers leaving a Watney's bottling plant - and schoolboys practising their country dancing.
While you might spot the odd familiar name (Sainsbury's, Boots), most of the streets in the film have changed a great deal since the 1920s, thanks to extensive building work in the 30s and post-war redevelopment. Several high-explosive bombs fell during the London Blitz of 1940-41, but the worst damage occurred in 1944 when a V-1 flying bomb devastated Lewisham town centre, killing over 300 people.
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