MovieChat Forums > Seven Days to Noon (1950) Discussion > Help with location shots

Help with location shots

posted 18 years ago by jcurrie58
15 replies | jump to latest

I watched this film last week on Channel 4. I wonder if anyone else who saw it can identify one of the buildings? There is a shot of a large building with pillars in the foreground and St Paul's is in the background. I taped this film and have frozen it at the point where it is shown, but still can't identify it. It's near the end of the film when the city has been evacuated and takes place on the Saturday. I thought at first it was Buckingham Palace but there were too many buildings nearby. Can anyone help? Also, is there a St Stephen's Church, Westminster? I worked in the Westminster area once but can't recall a church of that name. All in all, this was an excellent thriller. Oh, that British films can produce something of similar quality these days!

[–] a_heathen_conceivably 17 years ago

Don't know the building, but is this the shot (someone else may - eventually - be
able to help)? http://uk.geocities.com/[email protected]/building.jpg

"Oh look - a lovely spider! And it's eating a butterfly!"
'' ,,

[–] jcurrie58 16 years ago

Sorry for the year's delay in responding.

Yes, that is indeed the shot. I still can't identify it though.

[–] ib011f9545i 16 years ago

I can't tell you what building it is but I was in London a couple of weeks ago and walked from the South Bank north across the footbridge towards EMBANKMENT tube station.
On the bridge,is it called the MILLENNIUM bridge? there are some boards showing outlines of the buidlings you can see and naming them and giving the date of building and the designer.
I recall there are a couple of apartment blocks/office blocks and a hotel.
Hope this is of some help.

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] ib011f9545i 16 years ago

Trying to find your building on the internet or in old guide books.
It is difficult because the outside of the building has probably changed since 1950.

I looked at
THE ADELPHI BUILDING
LANGHOLM HOTEL
DORCHESTER HOTEL
RITZ HOTEL
STRAND PALACE HOTEL
WALDORF HILTON HOTEL

It does not seem to be any of these.
Some London residents must know the answer?

[–] jcurrie58-1 13 years ago

Having viewed this film again (and having asked the original question) I wonder if it is in fact the British Museum, which I think has the Greek columns in front. I also wondered if it was UCL. I really must investigate more and see whether the Liverpool Victoria building in Bloomsbury Square still exists. I will post further when I have the answer.

[–] bowroaduk 16 years ago

That is the former Liverpool Victoria Friendly Society Building (1921-34) in Bloomsbury Square WC1. It still stands and I traced it, via Google Earth, after realising the shot was taken looking south-east given the positions of St.Paul's and Tower Bridge.

The next question perhaps is where did they get that long-shot from? My guess is the top of Senate House, University of London, as this is a tall building and the angle seems right to include the Georgian terraces nearest the camera (which might not be so if they'd used the roof of the British Museum, the other possible candidate).

When the Professor enters the Underground it is of course at Trafalgar Square station on the Bakerloo Line and he is later seen exiting at Westbourne Park station on the (then) Metropolitan Line which is a logical journey. However shortly afterwards he throws his raincoat over the side of a footbridge only for it to fall onto the buffer of a railway carriage, the next we see shunters pasting evacuation labels onto same. The only thing is that the rail staff are Southern Region whereas the Westbourne Park area was in Western Region territory!

I'd love to know where the two lodging houses were [found one since, in Westbourne Park Villas]. Probably cleared away as part of post-war "slum replacement" programmes but maybe restored as desirable up-market town houses?

What I always find especally poignant with this film is the "acknowledgements" in the opening credits which lists "The War Office, Metropolitan and City of London Police, British Railways (Southern Region), London Transport Executive, Port of London Authority, The Automobile Association and the Royal Automobile Club" not forgetting "the Citizens of London". How many of these still exist in the same form in 2008?

[–] ib011f9545i 16 years ago

Great well done in fidning this building.

You have got me thinking how much the organisations you name have changed over the years,the police forces are much the same in function at least,maybe the Met covers a bigger area nowadays?

The War Office became part of the Ministry Of Defence in 1966 I think.
The Army itself has changed a lot,National Service in 1950 until 1960 and an all volunteer force much smaller and not based all over the world.
They could not provide thousands of soldiers to search London nowadays.

Huge changes at British Rail of course,sectorised into NETWORK SOUTH EAST and INTERCITY and REGIONAL RAILWAYS in the 1980s it is several private companies now.
(Have you seen TRAIN OF EVENTS, an odd film but great for Railwaymen like me)

Has London Transport changed much really?,some of the bus routes were sold off I think but they still run buses and the tube,but I am not sure of the details.

The Port Of London no longer exists,at least in London,the Docklands Development Corporation took over the real estate but somebody must own the ports that still work such as Tilbury.
(Have you seen the film POOL OF LONDON,it shows London as a huge port.)

The AA and the RAC are now owned by foreigners I think and they don't salute motorists anymore or ride about on sexy old motorbikes.

[–] bowroaduk 16 years ago

This seems to confirm that Senate House was used for the longshot.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fc/View_from_BT_Tower_webcam.GIF

[–] SueBee55 15 years ago

Well done that man! That's a tough one. Using Google Earth, the largish building to the left (with 3 white panels) is now the Park Inn, ex Bonnington Hotel. See a pic at http://www.londonnethotels.co.uk/Bonnington_Hotel.htm

[–] SueBee55 15 years ago

it's puzzling me too and I know London very well. It would help if we knew the direction the shot was taken from.

[–] surfchow 15 years ago

Just watched this film for first time having in my ignorance never even heard of it .Brilliantly shot. .Regarding location of the church .I would put money on it being St John's Church Lansdowne Crescent Holland Park. i used to take my daughter there for dance class .Not technically Westminster but then thats movies
surfchow

[–] bowroaduk 14 years ago

Watched this again today. The boarding house appears to be in Westbourne Park Villas (unfortunately not on Google Streetview). The professor emerges from an alleyway (Westbourne Park Passage) and turns right. On the left can be seen the high wall bordering the main line into Paddington station. Directly opposite the alley on the other side of the road (but out of shot) is the footbridge from where he later throws his coat. Difficult to tell if the house is still standing, clearly it survived the war.

Interesting to see a scene on the Underground actually filmed at the correct location (Trafalagar Square - today's Charing Cross) instead of Aldwych as is usual nowadays. As the 1938 Tube Stock train departs one of the '58 Trailers' comprising an older car can just be glimpsed.

[–] Roy_Batty_Nexus6 11 years ago

Surfchow you are perfectly correct. It is St John's Church in Landsdowne Crescent and also in St John's Gardens. If you enter St John's Gardens from Ladbroke Grove you will recognise the church side entrance door that they filmed outside. You will also recognise the house behind where the soldiers were standing, and where the panicking soldier was standing at the end of the film.

''All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain .... Time to die''.

[–] tdwalk 11 years ago

Thanks for that, Roy. The interior scenes in the derelict church were filmed in an abandoned church which used to stand in Bessborough Gardens, close by Vauxhall Bridge. I was only 5 years old at the time, and we lived in one of the large houses which still exist along the south side of the Gardens. I can clearly remember the large film crew being set up for what seemed like a couple of weeks in the street immediately in front of the house. The Gardens themselves used to be in two portions then. The pathway which runs from NE to SW used to be a road carrying traffic from Vauxhall Bridge to Bessborough Street. The southern portion of the gardens was mainly taken up by the church which stood at the eastern end, bounded by the (now) pathway, Grosvenor Road and our street (which was also known as Bessborough Gardens). We always assumed that the church was war damaged, although from memory there was little damage to the external structure.
At the time, I didn't realise that they were only filming the interior, so when my Dad took me to see the film I was very confused when I saw the exterior shots of the church, until he explained the tricks employed in film-making. Thanks to you (and other posters) for pointing out the the location of these exterior scenes after all these years. I have only come across these very interesting posts tonight while doing some idle searching down memory lane.
I've lived in Sydney, Australia for many years now and it's many years since I've passed by Bessborough Gardens, so I've relied on Google Earth to update me on the area. If you look at the historical view of the Gardens you can clearly see the previous road now pathway mentioned above, together with a very blurred image of the church and its steeple in the SE corner.
By the way, filming at this location may explain why Goldie walks "home" towards Big Ben. Depending on the continuity of filming, the crew may just have moved across Vauxhall Bridge Road and filmed her walking along the embankment with the river on her right. This is just a guess, however, as it's quite a few years since I last saw the film.