Beckenham in 1935

This 53 minute video was shot in 1935 in Greater Beckenham. It's hard to choose a favourite scene. Elegantly-dressed ladies shopping for the latest mod-cons at the electricity showroom on the High Street? Lads learning to swim at the elegant public baths? Crowds scrambling for a seat at Tennis Week? Or the evocative sight of water-sprinklers dampening down the dusty summer streets? You decide!

[@harmlessdrudge]

How beautiful Beckenham looked back then. The world we have lost forever.

[@xx6489]

My dear Beckenham.. for a few short decades you shone so brightly in your proud charter. Nestled in a far corner of our beloved Kent you showed what a near perfect conurbation could be. Snatched by the grasping hands of London you were sadistically and systematically destroyed by the traitors who have slowly but utterly overtaken our institutions.

[@oddjobtriumph1635]

so so true ... once London gets its hands on something ....it ends up turning to shit
i live in Beckenham .... i always said i will stay here as long as it is viable ... once it becomes just another place..taken over by diversity and corruption ..i'm moving

[@roomullan3050]

How very well put

[@gardensofthegods]

​@@oddjobtriumph1635oh no how sad to hear this ... but I guess that's always the story though isn't it ... a lovely area getting gobbled up by the bigger entity and then developers come in and all they want to do is turn everything into buildings and concrete ... tear down the woods and the lovely trees and greenery ?
And I understand everything everybody else said here believe me .
Yes always sad when a beautiful little place loses its charm and quaintness .

[@IGM_Dex]

Great film. Great to come across such a beautiful piece of history. In 1935 I doubt I would be a land owning citizen but I am glad I am today :)

[@jean-pierredeclemy7032]

Recycling is not new but less bending over!
All those houses were lit by gas originally, how many people living in them now know that?
Pagoda styled "Chinese Garage" was still selling cars 65 years after this film was made, one of our cars still has the sticker in the back window.
Great films, thanks for posting.

[@chrisaris8756]

I was born in Beckenham in 1949 but so much of this is familiar. I hoped to catch a glimpse of my Grandfather who worked bricklaying in the furnaces of the power station. He would often lose his eyebrows and moustache when he under estimated how hot the furnace still was. The fumes gave him emphysema that plagued him til he died I the early 50s.
I remember in the late 60s helping to organise the first outdoor concert in the Recreation Ground with David Bowie. What a great day! I was selling candy floss and as it was breezy I was covered in the stuff by the end of the day.
Does anybody remember Siseleys homemade sweet shop next door to Sainsbury’s in the high street? Paradise. Wish it were still there. What a lovely town it was, and self sufficient til it was dragged down by the GLC and then Bromley in the 60s and 70s. Such great memories - and am I wrong but were summers longer and hotter then? Certainly seemed it. Thanks for posting this. Any more??

[@gardensofthegods]

Oh wow I ran into you again .
Sorry you did not see your grandfather here .
From comments people are making it sounds like the town definitely is nowhere near as charming as it used to be .
But haven't you been having hotter summers recently there in England ? I wouldn't know anything about that since I'm here in America .

[@blissy1]

Noticed that all the hospital windows where open for fresh air!

[@margaretrowe4261]

1935 I was at woodbrook school aged 6 , loved it !

[@gardensofthegods]

My word , are you saying you were in that school in 1935 ?
If so , that is incredible ! And God bless you , my dear .

[@margaretrowe4261]

@gardensofthegods thank you fornyour kind words, I am nearly 95 !

[@gardensofthegods]

@@margaretrowe4261 Wow , that is incredible ... is it genetics ? ... do you have others who live long in your family ? My Mom was almost 97 when she passed and that was because she had Alzheimer's or she would have lived longer . I'm 65 .
All the changes you must have seen in your lifetime wow .
I find myself talking with others about all the changes we've seen and some of them not so good and how we wish we could turn back the clock ... do you ever feel that way ?
I was in England years ago on a business trip in Autumn of 93 and I loved it there so much and did not want to have to come back to America ... I felt so at home in England ... and my mother's ancestry has very deep roots there .
I also feel that the climate there is more suited for me since I don't like the extremes of weather we always seem to get here ... although I do know you've had some very extreme weather there also in more recent times , right ?

[@roomullan3050]

What an amazing film when Beckenham was a truly nice place to live. I lived in Bec in the early eighties. Loved it but wouldn’t live there now, not for all the tea in China. Almost every lady wore a hat and the refuse men worked holly hard

[@gardensofthegods]

Yes other people also mentioning how it's changed

[@gregtaylor6146]

Halcyon Days ...... before the World's vermin descended upon the once Great Britain.

[@gardensofthegods]

Reminds me of the song Living on a Thin Line by Ray Davies .😢

[@margaretrowe4261]

Exelentfilm

[@oddjobtriumph1635]

@30:46..kids today would want to know where you plugged it in.