BFI Player, the online video streaming service run by the British Film Institute, recently launched a channel called Britain on Film, featuring footage from across the years and across the country.
Among the local films that can be viewed for free are two featuring Palmers Green in the 1950s:
- Southgate Celebrates the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II
- Southgate's New Running Track, Broomfield Park
The Coronation film is fascinating for many reasons, not least for the sheer number of people who in the 1950s were involved in various local clubs and societies.
The Running Track film, wrongly placed as being from the 1930s, but clearly filmed in 1950, is notable for including Norris McWhirter (a local resident and one of the runners) and John Disley, a Welsh Olympian and one of the founders of the London Marathon.
