Britta's Letters from her life divided between city-life in German's capital Berlin and life in a Bavarian village

Wednesday 3 February 2016

London in 1927 & 2013


Dear You, 
I just found this - in an article from the Londonist - and share it with you - so beautiful!
They restored a film made by Claude Friese-Greene.
Have to see London very soon...
(Query: can you be homesick when you weren't born there?)


22 comments:

  1. I have seen this before Britta and what I love is that London hasn't really changed very much ... a few roads have been made wider or pedestrianised, I love Petticoat Lane where nearly all the men have caps on which are replaced by bobble hats in the modern film !! ..... and there are only a few skyscrapers, most of which are quirky, interesting buildings.
    You are an honary Londoner Britta so you are allowed to be homesick !!
    Thanks for showing the film .... I loved watching it again. XXXX

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Jackie for the "honorary Londoner" - I appreciate that!!
      And yes: I thought too that noch so much has changed - the traffic is different, and once now (!) more trees in a street - and of course the skyline. But the in both terms it is a beautiful city!

      Delete
  2. I'll watch that film tonight, thank you Britta. I am the only member of my immediate family not to have been born in London, but I still feel homesick about it sometimes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But you have the privilege to be so near, Tom! And that trainride to Bath was great - much better than a flight with Ryanair.

      Delete
  3. Maybe it's because I'm not a Londoner . . . that I don't love London so. I like, off the top of my head, Venice, Vienna, Trieste, Prague, Palma (Mallorca) and Cardiff. Sometimes I feel homesick for some undefined green and pleasant place in the British Isles, the Lakes, Snowdonia, the Dales, Northumberland, the Hebrides. I couldn't say where exactly.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Where were you born? The cities you name are very beautiful (though I haven't seen much of Cardiff).
      Maybe the mixture of familiarity and adventure, the feeling of belonging, and spending time on something is a reason for homesickness (and not being there).
      I can see the charme of the landscapes you mention -longing for the Genius Loci, and the balance nature has to offer.

      Delete
    2. Brigitta, I was born in Snowdonia. This feeling of homesickness you speak of is called Hiraeth in Welsh. There's a 3 mins song 'Hiraeth' by Max Boyce on YouTube.

      Delete
    3. Wow, I looked it up - and an article on "ITV Wales series about Snowdon" - very beautiful!
      As I wrote in a comment to Pondside here: Wales is still a blank spot on my otherwise quite filled map.
      The only one of Wales I knew face-to-face was Desmond Llewelyn (Bond "Q") - and by TV Tom Johns. Max Boyce sounds very captivating!

      Delete
    4. Don't forget Bryn Terfel.

      Delete
  4. What an odd and familiar thought. I was homesick for Wales until I went there and realised that THIS was what I'd been dreaming of.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, Pondside: the feeling to be in the right place, to belong there (without having to "prove" something, that is to feel at home. (I bonded with Edinburgh easily). I've never been in Wales - I must dare to go there.

      Delete
  5. It was so interesting seeing the then and now of London and I observed the same as Jackie that not much has changed a few horse drawn carts still in use then and more trees now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I believe that this the charme of London -so much has remained, or only changed slightly. It was a very cute film, I think.

      Delete
  6. Comparing a city at a time in the past to the present can be startling sometimes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I saw a film about Berlin once and now - that was so interesting. Even more interesting, how they manage to rebuild all the old buildings - good craftmanship is not dead.

      Delete
  7. I loved seeing this Britta especially the charming buses, and how lovely to see those horse drawn working carts.
    I don't think that I have actually ever experienced home sickness - I love to go away but at the end I am always ready for my own home. As Oliver Godsmith wrote East, West, Home's Best.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. When I'm in London I always take one special bus, that is still "an old one", but not for tourists, just an ordinary line.
      And to Goldsmith's quote: if one doesn't have to move house it is a lot easier - though talking about home sickness for London, that is muddy thinking on my part (we moved a lot - and with one exception I always liked the cities and people). Well - maybe it is a phenomenon like spiritual kinship. (Sort of)
      I love the Arab saying: "My home is where my carpet is." :-)

      Delete
  8. I only lived in London for four years, and I'm homesick for it (as long as I could spend most of the year living where I now live).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You hit the nail right on the head, Cro: maybe the important part of "longing" is not to be able to fulfill the desire instantly or permanently - "elusiveness" paints a hue of romanticism around it.

      Delete
  9. Dear Brigitta, anything synchronized with Pachelbel's Canon in D will make me homesick, nostalgic for some place I have never been --Saudade (I'm 1/2 Portuguese). Lovely post!

    ReplyDelete