London
One thing I noticed, is that this film makes London look really grotty. All the buildings are stained black and look like they need a good scrub.
share[deleted]
There has been a lot of sandblasting since those days. It is a lot cleaner now.
shareThe Clean Air Act was in 1956, and Wilson became PM in 1964.
However, the effects of centuries of soot and smog took a long time to erase - there are still many blackened buildings in London today, though most of the major landmarks have been cleaned.
Don't forget that the film was made just twenty years after the almost total destruction of London in WW2. The rebuilding programmes of the 1960s were just getting underway, so everything was still pretty dingy and austerity-era.
I've lived there and London is still pretty dirty if you compare it to most (but not all) cities in the rest of Europe.
sharealmost total destruction of London in WW2
Almost total destruction? Have you ever been to London? share
Well, to be fair to the guy, it was very badly damaged:
"London suffered widespread damage during World War II as a result of aerial bombardment, which devastated the docks and many industrial, residential, and commercial districts, including the historic heart of the City."
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-10113/London
Dave
The one thing you have missed with your quote above ".....including the historic heart of the City" is totally incorrect. The City is one square mile in E postal districts ... E1, EC1 and so on.
This film was mainly shot in SW1, a good distance away from the City.
The same buildings used for filming in Grosvenor place SW1 [Dalby's employment exchange/Firework head office] are still there, brown bricked and dingy. I go past them everyday on my way to work.
The buildings around Trafalgar Square - Dalby's office - are all grey stone built.
So from two main scenes we conclude that London is dirty.
I grew up in the years immediately after WW2 and although bomb damage was prominent not all London was damaged during the war - to suggest otherwise shows an absolute misunderstanding of the blitz and affected areas.
Remember the film was made in 1964'ish; things were beginning to change. Britons truly hadn't had it as good and this was reflected in the way in which they dressed as can be seen in the film, and the cars they drove. We were changing from steam train to electric and although the smog was about it wasn't regular.
Police used to put out flaming beacons to mark roundabouts when the smog was down - the smoke that used to come off them was really phenomenal.