[East End Street Scenes]

Street scenes in London's East End including a parade of the Poplar and Bromley Tabernacle Men's Group.

The first scenes are filmed in a fairly well off street. The terraced houses are well built, with bay windows, basements and iron railings in front of the houses. There is a poster in the window. This isn't readable on the film, but may be an election poster, or may advertise an excursion. It is not impossible that the two could be connected. A woman in an apron stands in the doorway and a young boy comes out carrying a parcel wrapped in paper. There is a shot of a woman walking along the street with a basket. She appears to be selling something door to door. An elderly woman comes to the door and inspects her wares, although she sends her away without buying. The next series shows a fruit and vegetable cart in the street. The vendor selects wares as people stand around talking. The second sequence shows a poorer area with houses fronting straight onto the street. At a shop, a woman assistant helps load a gramophone onto a handcart. There is another poster in the window. A man pulls the handcart away. He is joined by a group of children. The third sequence is filmed outside a large, municipal looking building. This may be a school or it could be the Poplar and Bromley Tabernacle that features later in the film. Men and a woman, some of them very well dressed, stand outside talking whilst a young man carried on cleaning. The fourth sequence returns to the street with the bay windows. A boy returns to the house through the gate. This is shot twice. It is not repeated as the second time the boy doesn't close the gate. A woman answers the door.The next sequence returns to the poorer area. Children are playing in the street and the man with the gramophone in the handcart comes into view with the handcart being pulled by two boys. A woman stands in a doorway with a baby in a pram. Another woman comes out of her house and the cart moves on. The man may have been playing music in the street, possibly to raise money. The final sequence takes place in the same area. It shows a parade of the Poplar and Bromley Tabernacle Men's Group. This is led by a band. The banner reads, Poplar and Bromley Tabernacle. Our Men's Meeting. Every Sunday Afternoon at 3pm. Working Men Delighted. Always Something Good To Hear And Think About. Individual placards read: 'We Want Men'; 'Here's A Seat For You'; 'Will You Be One?' The parade passes through the street, joined by some children. Others mill around in the street.

Featured Buildings

Poplar and Bromley Tabernacle

Keywords

Housing; Leisure; Street scenes; East End of London

Background Information

Part of a small collection of 35mm films, found in an empty Essex house without any explanatory information. Their content reveals that they relate to the Baptist church community of Poplar and Bromley Tabernacle, London where the Reverend Alfred Tildesley was an enthusiastic early adopter of the cinematograph. For more than 17 years he organised Thursday evening film shows, and is known to have arranged for films to be made of the Tabernacle activities. See Dean R. Rapp, A Baptist Pioneer: The exhibition of film to London's East End working classes 1900 - 1918 published in Baptist Quarterly, 40:1, pages 6-21, 2003