Director: Brian Desmond Hurst
Release Date: October 1951
On 21 June 1951 The Daily Mirror reported that filming had taken place in ‘the rambling, hundred-years-old graveyard of St. John of Wapping, [Scandrett Street] London.’ The report added that ‘A studio-built tombstone, engraved “Ebenezer Scrooge” and neatly whitewashed…. was laid in a sparsely inhabited spot beneath old oak trees. A plaster skeleton of a bush was dug in beside it and the whole was given a sprinkling of dead leaves.’ However rain disrupted the filming with the report continuing that ‘The only episode that was shot was the ghost beckoning Scrooge into the graveyard’ and that the rest of scene was to be shot in the studio. Despite this report it’s clear that Sim was also filmed approaching his home in Scandrett Street. The News Chronicle reported, 24 July, that ‘The Royal Exchange was turned into a film studio last night for a film company to shoot interior scenes for “Scrooge” – an adaption from Charles Dickens’s story “A Christmas Carol.”‘ On 10 August the Hampshire Telegraph and Post elaborated, when presumably referring to the filming on 23 July, that the Royal Exchange had been ‘used as a film studio for the first time’ and that ‘Just after midnight Alastair Sim emerged from his dressing room – the janitor’s office – and joined in an acid conversation with Peter Bull and Douglas Muir, playing fellow members of the Change. Later Sim changed into Scrooge’s frilled night-shirt and faded dressing-gown for the supernatural visit and then back into beaver-topper and heavy muffler for his encounter with the hapless debtor. The last sequence was filmed on the Royal Exchange steps which had been covered with snow and illuminated by giant arc-lights erected opposite the Bank of England.’ A reporter in the Westminster & Pimlico News, 24 August, noted that ‘I was in the the Grenadier public-house, just off Hyde Park Corner’ when ‘Alistair Sim and some film extras in Dickensian costumes arrived to do a scene for the film. It was “Scrooge.” This is an old-world corner of Westminster and admirably suitable for this type of movie.’ This scene presumably ended up on the cutting-room floor.
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Alistair Sim, Douglas Muir and Peter Bull discuss Christmas in the Royal Exchange.
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Clifford Mollison on the steps of the Royal Exchange as Sim approaches.
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As Sim approaches the view is along Cathedral Street, Southwark, with St. Mary Overy's Wharf and Dock in the distance.
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Sim approaching his home, at right, in Scandrett Street, Wapping. At the time of filming the building was St. John of Wapping Charity (National) School and now 8 Scandrett Street. To the left is the ruin of St. John's Church.
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While this appears to be back projection it does show another aspect of Cathedral Street as Roddy Hughes looks on from his coach.
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As George Cole and Patrick Macnee approach in Cathedral Street, with St. Mary Overy's Dock in the distance, Anthony Wager stands by the ladder.
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Another view of Cathedral Street as Kathleen Harrison looks for Sim.
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With Ernest Thesiger to the left Sim signs a death register in the vestry at Southwark Cathedral.
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In a fantasy scene Sim is accompanied by 'The Spirit of Christmas Future' to the Royal Exchange.
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The same 'spirit' escorts Sim to his grave in St. John's Grave Yard, Scandrett Street.
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Mervyn Johns' arrival at work affords another view north along Cathedral Street.
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Sim and Glyn Dearman heading south in Old Barrack Yard.