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Windsor in Old Films - Various

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thamesweb	Windsor in Old Films - Various	Lead	[-]
Posts: 2501 (12-Feb-2004 06:11 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Tags : None Back in February 2004, we crossed off an idea from our 'Wish List' - to feature screen images from old films to illustrate Windsor as it was. Our first article is here, using Norman Wisdom's 1962 film 'On The Beat'. www.thamesweb.co.uk/winds...t1962.html This film features the area that was to become the Vansittart Estate, views of Gardiner's Cottages and Arthur Road and - best of all - plenty of views of the streets that were lost when Ward Royal was built. These included much of Oxford Road, Goswell Road, Grosvenor Place, Denmark Street, Edward Square as well as some views of Peascod Street as it was in 1962. There are also views taken at the high point in the film, when Norman Wisdom is pursued by hundreds of police around Arthur Road roundabout! These views provide fascinating memories for those of us old enough to remember, and we hope of interest to those not so old, but who are also interested in Windsor's past. Let us know what you remember of the area and what other films were filmed in Windsor - there are lots! We hope to feature scenes of 'Windsor as it was' using these other films too. Last Edited By: thamesweb 30-Aug-2009 08:15 PM. Edited 2 times.
thamesweb	Laughs in Windsor	#1	[-]
Posts: 2501 (21-Feb-2004 05:41 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Our thanks to the Windsor Observer for publishing (Issue 20 Feb 2004) our letter about Norman Wisdom's film and the valuable reference it provides for how Windsor once was! The letter read... *Quote:* The Royal Windsor Web Site (www.thamesweb.co.uk) this week features an article comparing scenes in Norman Wisdom's comedy film, 'On The Beat', made in Windsor in 1962, with the same locations in Windsor today. www.thamesweb.co.uk/winds...t1962.html Embarrassingly many of the Victorian homes and streets that featured then were smothered by Ward Royal in the late 1960s so it is good to have this record of Windsor as it was. It would also be good to have a museum where all Windsor's past history could be readily available to visitors and residents alike. Regretably, it seems this is not to be. Some things are just not funny.
Unregistered(d)	Windsor as it was	#2	[-]
Posts: 0 (23-Feb-2004 03:19 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Congratulations on the views of Windsor now and as it was when Norman Wisdom made his films here. It is remarkable just how much of Peascod Street has been 'modernised' and 'improved' in just 40 years. Ward Royal is of course a disaster area and must be in someone's sights to have another go at, but now that most of the flats are now privately owned, it is not going to be an easy task to remove this eye-sore.
Unregistered(d)	Windsor in Film	#3	[-]
Posts: 0 ( 3-Apr-2004 05:43 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	One of my more vivid memories of Windsor is one that recalls the making of "On the Beat" in 1962. A bunch of us left school early that day, and were headed for the river via the traffic circle down by the old gas works by the railway lines. Suddenly it was as if the entire Windsor Police Force had come charging out of the area that used to be the open market (Now Prince Edwards Court, I believe). We all thought we'd been busted for truancy, and then one of us saw Norman Wisdom leading the charge - relief -they were making yet another film in Windsor. In the same vein - Are there any memories of Hammer Horror at Bray Studios, and making of Rocky Horror at Oakley Court?
Unregistered(d)	I never expected to see "then and now" photos!!	#4	[-]
Posts: 0 ( 8-Jul-2005 02:31 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Could you please forward my sincere thanks to the chap who took the time to photograph and compare locations past and present for On The Beat film. I love this film and have always wanted to know where it was filmed especially as it has some lovely old terrace houses and shops in the original locations. How sad to see so many lovely old streets demolished. When I did a search for On The Beat, I never expected to see "then and now" photos of the locations it is good to know someone else thinks it is time well spent to hunt these things out! Neil
thamesweb	Thanks for your kind remarks	#5	[-]
Posts: 2501 ( 8-Jul-2005 02:35 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	It is a pleasure! I am glad it is appreciated and I hope it leads to more viewers of this classic English comedy. I am always open to suggestions for other film locations in Windsor, especially those that show the town as it was, before a 'vista' was lost forever due to redevelopment.
thamesweb	The Omen filmed in Windsor	#6	[-]
Posts: 2501 (13-Dec-2005 06:37 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	A scene from the film 'The Omen' was filmed in Windsor at the Safari Park in 1975. The scene is said to have featured Lee Remick in a car attacked by baboons. We have also heard of a terrible accident at that time when keeper Sidney Bamsford was killed by a tiger during the filming. This was apparently reported in the Windsor Express on 7th November 1975
Unregistered(d)	Views of Windsor from Old Films	#7	[-]
Posts: 0 (29-Dec-2005 02:14 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	'The Stranger Left No Card" (mid-1950s?) included shots round the Guildhall and, I seem to recall, down by the bridge. The film's other claim to fame was that its music (I even think there was no dialogue) was taken from a piece called Swedish Rhapsody, which subsequently became very popular.
Maz	Windsor films	#8	[-]
Posts: 20 ( 7-Mar-2006 02:49 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Many congratulations to whoever set out the then and now pictures of Windsor. Such impressive work and interesting for someone like myself who is so keen to see the area where the gasworks were before it was changed. Also the other areas that can be seen in the films relevant to my mother's early childhood. (Looking for where Moss Cottage was).
thamesweb	Re: Windsor films	#9	[-]
Posts: 2501 ( 7-Mar-2006 06:38 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	You are very welcome. I am glad it has been enjoyed.
windsorsoup	Museum	#10	[-]
Posts: 8 ( 8-Apr-2006 07:56 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Linking four items here. In a letter to the Observer printed recently I argued for planning gain ( bribery) in any permission given to any company which takes over Caleys which would specify a museum. The future of Caleys building including a museum was immediately dismissed by Councillors Fagence and Gliksten. Perhaps we need new councillors in Windsor who will take an interest in Windsor instead of the domination by Maidenhead. However although needed a museum sounds a bit fusty , all Aldermens robes and stuff. But I suggested the inclusion of a museum of the local film industry with reference to films made locally, films referred to on this board. One film which is excellent No sex please were British with ,inter alia, Leslie Phillips. Excellent shots of Windsor , one of police cars running up Peascod Street. So a museum in Caleys including a showing of old films of Windsor. And next election councillors who concern themselves with Windsor.
thamesweb	Re: Museum	#11	[-]
Posts: 2501 (10-Apr-2006 10:48 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	It is a sad reflection on our council that they have for so long made so little effort in providing a proper museum in Windsor. It is absolutely right that if a museum should ever materialise it should be bright and interesting, and the suggestion to include clips of Windsor as it was, taken from old films - indeed any source - is one aspect of achieving that objective. Showing the complete film might be overkill, but clips, knitted together with the prime aim of illustrating the 'development', may be popular. I recently came across the shortest of clips in colour of launches on the river just down stream of Windsor Bridge and filmed from the Eton side, followed by little more than a frame or two of the Olympic Torch being carried across the bridge in 1948. The cameraman won't have realised then that the real interest in his film was the view of 'Farm Yard' and the attractive brickwork of the buildings, since lost to rather less elegant offices along the river at that point.
Unregistered(d)	great great!!!!!	#12	[-]
Posts: 0 (12-Jun-2006 06:43 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	GREAT! what more can I say, It's so good to see the past and present pic's, as other's here have said, love to see the places people saw from what we now see; and if you think about some of the shot's (new housing) what was better, a row of small terraced homes with a small back yard or a block of concrete with half the people? well keep it up. thanks again.
johntunstill	Re: Windsor in Old Films - 'On The Beat' et al	#13	[-]
Posts: 1 (24-Oct-2006 07:58 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Hearty congratulations for a fantastic job you've done with "On the Beat". We do a similar thing on our site www.reelstreets.com, showing then and now shots of old British films. We were going to put "On the Beat" up on our site but, seeing how good your effort has been, we've decided we cannot compete! Regards John Tunstill
thamesweb	Re: Windsor in Old Films - 'On The Beat' et al	#14	[-]
Posts: 2501 (18-Dec-2006 03:06 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	We have received the following enquiry from 'myopia'. Anyone any ideas? I have seen your fantastic website featuring scenes from On The Beat and Carry On Cabby,and I'm extremely impressed. I wonder if you could help me please? My friend's mum comes from Windsor,and she has been trying to find a film made in the early sixties about a magician; it ends with him leading the band in front of Windsor Castle,and in the front of the crowd is my friend's granny. She thought it may have been On The Beat but it isn't , and she also thought it might have begun with a K and was similar to a series of children's toys and puzzles. (Any suggestions will be gratefully received!)
loudcox	Re: Windsor in Old Films - 'On The Beat' et al	#15	[-]
Posts: 3 (27-Dec-2006 10:10 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	There are a number of "Then and Now" photos taken from the Carry On film series available from: [link=http://www.thewhippitinn.com/locations/]The Whippit Inn![/link] Some of the "Now" photos are inevitably out of date, such is the pace of destruction and construction at the moment...
Mr Whippy	Re: Windsor in Old Films - 'On The Beat' et al	#16	[-]
Posts: 25 (28-Dec-2006 02:05 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	">www.imdb.com/List?endings...K
Unregistered(d)	The tarry smell of the gasworks!	#17	[-]
Posts: 0 (11-Jan-2007 06:40 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	What agreat site this is - bringing back so many tiny growing up memories of this part of the town I had long forgotten. Even the smell of the steam laundry at one end, and the tarry smell in the air around the gasworks at the other end of Sydney Place. Not to mention a two-bob bowl (bring your own bowl) of unsurpassable ice cream from Vettises on the corner of Arthur Road. Ah, happy days. Ward Royal? Enough said. Many thanks for all your efforts at bringing me such pleasure. Hazel
thamesweb	Re: Another Film made in Windsor	#18	[-]
Posts: 2501 (15-Jul-2007 08:47 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	We received the following enquiry a little while ago, and then a solution followed... *Quote:* I have seen your fantastic website featuring scenes from On The Beat and Carry On Cabby, and I'm extremely impressed. I wonder if you could help me please? My friend's mum comes from Windsor, and she has been trying to find a film made in the early sixties about a magician; it ends with him leading the band in front of Windsor Castle, and in the front of the crowd is my friend's granny. She thought it may have been On The Beat but it doesn't sound like that, and she also thought it might have begun with a K and was similar to a series of children's toys and puzzles. Can you help please? Any suggestions will be gratefully received! Then we received this... *Quote:* I have found the film! It's called The Stranger Left No Card, shot in1952, directed by Wendy Toye and starring Alan Badel. It's a short film, 24 minutes long, so not available on video or DVD, but apparently it turns up on TV from time to time. Thanks a lot for the update. We will look out for this one. Anyone any ideas how we can track down its next screening?
thamesweb	Re: Another Film made in Windsor	#19	[-]
Posts: 2501 (15-Jul-2007 08:50 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Strangely the film was mentioned earlier in this thread but our enquirer could not tie the clues and the film title together at that time... Now we have cracked it! Can't wait to see it!
thamesweb	Re: 'The Stranger Left No Card'	#20	[-]
Posts: 2501 (21-Jul-2007 07:13 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	This is a strange film! Just 24 minutes, but featuring a number of 'long gone' areas of Windsor, although much of it was shot alongside the Riverside Station which has hardly changed at all as you look east towards the Home Park and St George's School. The offices opposite are of course much more recent. The various locations around the Guildhall lead to a 'fun' moment as some kids wave from an open landau to the 'star' of the film, yet are in a totally different street! See if you can spot the two separate locations. I also enjoyed a glimpse of a wooden, four sided, 'Keep Left' bollard, about the size of a square Dalek, which I had forgotten about but which used to be quite common and which leapt back into my memory the moment I set eyes on it. Oh, yes, and the bus stop west of the Guildhall before the stop was moved down to the Parish Church. The best 'that is how it was' moments are the scenes outside the hotel by Windsor Bridge on the upstream, Eton side. The building was lost in the early 1970s. The film contains a number of 'as it was' moments - the W H Smith bookstall on the station platform, the old trains, ticket collectors, the quietness of the road outside, and the high wall around the grassed banks at the foot of the castle walls proper, demolished in 1961, a demolition job I thoroughly approved of. Finally the guards strangely keep to the right as they turn left around Victoria's statue. Now I wonder why that was? Probably looked better through the view finder. I am grateful to Chris C for giving me an opportunity to see this film. It really was great fun, although the storyline is... no, I won't spoil it for you. I do hope you can find a copy and enjoy it too.