Royal Wedding 1947

Inhabit the unique perspective of an amateur filmmaker in the crowd at the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten, 1947.

This amateur marvelous monochrome manifestation of the 1947 royal wedding was shot from within the watching crowd outside Westminster Abbey. Then, black-and-white gives way to colour: people anxiously anticipating the arrival of their sovereign, before a brief but fulfilling shot of the car carrying the people of the hour as it passes the animated assemblage. Finally, a concluding sequence capturing the expansive Abbey in its full beauty.

Shot by amateur filmmaker Ivan Bawtree, formerly a photographer for the British Red Cross during the First World War. This film is from the collection of Sutton Archives, a member of the London's Screen Archives Network.