Typical London Street Scene in 1935

[Wiseguy A]

Oldest-ever British surveillance footage

BoingBoing links to the latest issue of the journal Surveillance and Society, including an article on the earliest use of film surveillance by British police, in 1935.

If you watch the clip, you can see a slice of casual, unstaged life from the period.

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/02/22/oldestever-british-s.html

 

[Fletch]

Blokes in flat caps 'anging about...

 

[H.Johnson]

There was, of course, a study that was widely carried out in Britain during the 1930s that was called 'Mass Observation' that included surveys as well as observation, not for reasons of crime prevention but from sociological ('population study') reasons. Some people find this rather 'Orwellian' and may have been where he got some of the ideas he used in '1984'.

 

[Creeping Past]

Despite its independent status, I've always harboured the suspicion that Harrison's and Jennings's Mass Observation survey was a handy way of gauging reaction to policy, among other things, if not an unconventional intelligence gathering system.

Informants produce reports to be collated, analysed and weighed against the reports of others. That says 'surveillance' to me, whether or not it was entered into freely by participants.

These days, bloggers happily chunter away, tagging their content as they go, producing datasets that the mass observation people would have found most interesting.

That's some great footage, too, lest I take the thread way off topic. Great British workwear.

 

[Feraud]

Note the fellow at 1:32 hanging out with the boys and his baby stroller.
Baby daddy representing in '35.

 

[H.Johnson]

This is of course Chesterfield in Derbyshire, a town near where I live. I like particularly to note the absence of street markings. Seeing the bus (a Standerwick Scout, I think) reminded me that in the Summer there is a vintage bus service (usually a 1930s bus) from Chesterfield Station to Hardwicke House, through villages little changed since this film was taken.

The activity that the police are monitoring (as gathering of evidence) is probably illegal off-course betting on horse races, which was viewed as being as pernicious and corrosive to society as drug dealing is today.

 

[Amy Jeanne]

I love it. Would have been more interesting if there were more women with gleaming white shoes.

 

[Heather]

Neat!:eusa_clap

 

[BellyTank]

There was, of course, a study that was widely carried out in Britain during the 1930s that was called 'Mass Observation'...

I remember seeing a British "TV movie" a while back, about a depressed woman, during WW2. A bit shaky on the details. She was keeping a journal, which was submitted to an authority, at a regional level- presumedly under this study.

I suppose this already existing form of "social study" would be an especially useful form of documented public surveillance, under wartime conditions.

I wonder if it was originally instituted in anticipation of a possible World war..?


B
T

 

[dhermann1]

Public leaning posts?

It took me a while to figure out what the big iron posts were all about. They're hitching posts for horses. The hansom cabs would have been long gone by then, but because it would cost money to remove the posts, I suppose, they stayed. I'll bet they didn't disappear till after the war. There was a village near me in western New York that didn't remove its hitching posts till 1061.

 

[Luddite]

I'll bet they didn't disappear till after the war. There was a village near me in western New York that didn't remove its hitching posts till 1061.

They mostly went during the war, as did the larger pecentage of street furniture, to be converted into military hardware.

 

[Brian Sheridan]

Hey, wasn't that Andy Capp staggering down the street?

 

[Sefton]

Quite a few hatless and tieless men there to further deflate some of those myths. Not much automobile traffic then, either. People just casually stroll across the roadway. Men arm in arm shows a nice level of comfort with male to male contact. Is this comfort level something typical in England still or am I reading too much into this?

 

[BellyTank]

You don't see it nowadays- maybe those'30s guys were drunk.


B
T

 

[H.Johnson]

The physical proximity is almost certainly because the men being observed are breaking the law - this film is evidence of crime, not routine coverage such as CCTV today. I'm pretty sure that at least four of them are 'bookies runners' and many of the others are placing illegal bets. They are disguising the passing of betting slips and stakes.

Let us remember that this is not normal behaviour, any more than footage taken in a red light area or an area where drugs are being dealt today would be 'normal'.

Interestingly this square, which is so devoid of traffic in the 1930s, was pretty much turned into a car park in the 1960s and 70, is now a pedestrian area. I bet that today you would see shifty characters (in ball caps) hanging around passing things from one to another.

Progress? Go figure, as I believe they say.