Director: John Boulting
Release Date: August 1950
On 5 August 1950 the Daily Mirror reported that ‘Yesterday the film unit travelled to Methley-road [Kennington] in force. Cameras, arc-lights, grease-painted actors and men with step-ladders and tripods got ready.’ By the following Tuesday, 9 August, the Daily Herald added that ‘Over the week-end director John Boulting was shooting his “Seven Days to Noon” on the steps of 10, Downing-street. The filmmakers were told they could do what they liked provided they kept out of the house – the Prime Minister, of course, is away at Chequers. A crowd gathered all day as “Cabinet Ministers” arrived and departed.’ The Kinematograph Weekly, 18 August, noted the production had ‘switched their cameras from South to North London last week, to locations outside a church at Ladbroke Grove, where a platoon of infantry was used.’ This unnamed location was St. John’s Church, St John’s Gardens while the report added that ‘A Bayswater square figured in another set-up.’ There appears to be no such set-up in the finished film. Filming moved farther west with the Uxbridge and West Drayton Gazette reporting, 26 August, that ‘About fifty assorted vehicles, including three London Transport buses, five coaches, a 25-year-old open car, a coster’s cart, removal vans and motorcycles, which formed a convoy on the Western-avenue viaduct on Tuesday and Wednesday [23-24 August]. The reference to a ‘viaduct’ remains obscure. The Kensington News and West London Times, 2 September, added that ‘On Tuesday [30 August], they were filming Barry Jones, who plays the leading part, coming out of the Natural History Museum, and during the last five weeks the company has been working around London, including a shot of someone coming out of what will be a hotel in Pembridge Square, Notting Hill Gate. The last is another shot which appears not to have made it to the finished film. The Northern Chronicle and General Advertiser for the North of Scotland, 21 September, reported that the unit had been ‘hard at work in the bomb damaged Holy Trinity Church, near Vauxhall Bridge.’ Presumably a reference to Holy Trinity, Bessborough Gardens, Pimlico, which was used for church interiors. On 22 September the Liverpool Daily Post noted recent filming at Waterloo Station while, on the same day, the Hampstead News report filming at the ‘Regent’s Park Zoo’ where ‘a group of soldiers searched the grounds’. The Derby Daily Telegraph noted early morning filming in Lambeth Walk where soldiers shoot a looter. On 30 September the South London Observer reported that filming had taken place at the ‘Jolly Gardeners’, Black Prince-Rd., Kennington.’ The report added that ‘The scene which took all night to shoot will take only 1 1/2 minutes to show on the screen.’
Capture 1
A postman arrives in Downing Street.
Capture 2
A letter warning of the planned destruction of London is delivered to the Prime Minister.
Capture 3
As London goes about its business a train arrives at Waterloo Station.
Capture 4
Commuters exiting Cannon Street Station Approach, into Cannon Street, and heading north along Walbrook.
Capture 5
London Bridge and the view into the City.
Capture 6
Hugh Cross leads the way, followed by Andre Morell, as they call at Denham Farmhouse, 86 Totteridge Lane (Totteridge Common), the home of Barry Jones the suspected author of the threatening letter to the Prime Minister.
Capture 7
Jones picking up his 'devices' from Left Luggage at Waterloo Station.
Capture 8
Tuesday begins with a view of Whitehall as the Government swings into action.
Capture 9
When Jones seeks spiritual guidance in 'St. Stephens Westminster' he prays in the ruin of Holy Trinity Church, Bessborough Gardens, Pimlico.
Capture 10
As Jones crosses Bridge Street the view is into Parliament Street.
Capture 11
Knowing the authorities are looking for him Jones visits 148 Black Prince Road, Lambeth, where he has his moustache removed.
Capture 12
Whilst the previous capture was very anonymous its neighbour, at 150 Black Prince Road, was very easy to locate in Kelly's Street Directory.
Capture 13
Needing a room Jones looks at advertisements in the window of 154 Black Prince Road, with the view into Lambeth Walk. The 'Picture Post' is dated 2 July 1949 and surprisingly, for this seemingly early date, asks 'Is there a British Colour Bar?'
Capture 14
The view from Westbourne Park Villas as Jones walks in Westbourne Park Passage.
Capture 15
Jones heading east along Westbourne Park Villas.
Capture 16
70 Westbourne Park Villas where Jones rents a room.
Capture 17
Tuesday sees the arrival of 'ministerial' cars and a healthy crowd of on-lookers.
Capture 18
After leaving Scotland Yard Cross and Sheila Manaham, she's playing Jones' daughter, walk in Derby Gate approaching Parliament Street.
Capture 19
As the twosome catch a taxi the view is north along Parliament Street towards Whitehall.
Capture 20
The view across Parliament Street, into King Charles Street, as the taxi u-turns.
Capture 21
The taxi in Trafalgar Square, facing Cockspur Street, where Manaham spots Jones.
Capture 22
Jones outside 58 Trafalgar Square as he approaches Trafalgar Square Station.
Capture 23
Cross spots Jones in Trafalgar Square.
Capture 24
Cross and Manaham approaching Trafalgar Square Station.
Capture 25
Jones descending to the platforms at Trafalgar Square Station.
Capture 26
Cross heading for the telephones at Trafalgar Square Station.
Capture 27
Jones, meanwhile, has just stepped out of Westbourne Park Station into Great Western Road.
Capture 28
With the Metropolitan pub to the left and Westbourne Park Station to the right, the view is from Great Western Road as Jones walks on an unnamed footpath.
Capture 29
When Jones spots the police outside his digs he crosses Westbourne Park Villas towards the footbridge leading to Torquay Street.
Capture 30
The police outside 70 Westbourne Park Villas with Porchester Road in the distance.
Capture 31
On the footbridge Jones decides to toss his raincoat, part of his police description, onto the train lines.
Capture 32
However, as he tosses his raincoat off the bridge the view is of the carriage sidings at Clapham Junction, in a view facing south-west.
Capture 33
The sign on the door reads 'A.M. Pullin' indicating that Jones runs into Olive Stone outside 105 Golborne Road, North Kensington.
Capture 34
Jones' view, from an aspect of the Bedford Theatre, into Camden High Street where Jays were at No. 82.
Capture 35
Stone and Jones exiting the Jolly Gardeners with Black Prince Road to the left and Lilac Place to the right.
Capture 36
Crossing Lilac Place.
Capture 37
A taxi pulls up in Black Prince Road, outside the Jolly Gardeners, at the corner of Lilac Place.
Capture 38
Thursday shows a crowd at Speakers Corner, Hyde Park. Behind the lodge is Park Lane and North Row.
Capture 39
Uncertain. I must presume, because of that telephone number, that the drivers are discussing the issue outside the taxi rank in Pont Street.
Capture 40
Actors John Stone and Charles Groves discussing potential work opportunities in Charing Cross Road.
Capture 41
Jones exiting the Natural History Museum.
Capture 42
Having just left the Queens Head Stone walks in Vauxhall Walk with Black Prince Road at the corner. The terrace is on the east side of Newport Street.
Capture 43
Jones reaches the corner of Cromwell Road and Exhibition Road.
Capture 44
Crossing Cromwell Road at Exhibition Road by the Victoria & Albert Museum.
Capture 45
Crossing Exhibition Road, towards an entrance to South Kensington Station, and the view into Cromwell Gardens.
Capture 46
Friday begins with art being removed from the Tate Gallery.
Capture 47
Pensioners being evacuated from the Royal Hospital Chelsea.
Capture 48
Methley Street, Kennington, facing Radcot Street.
Capture 49
Evacuation proceeds at Tower Pier.
Capture 50
Evacuees somewhere on Western Avenue.
Capture 51
The bridge carries Battersea Rise over the lines between Clapham Junction and Earlsfield.
Capture 52
Facing west along the main line in Southhall.
Capture 53
Chelsea Bridge.
Capture 54
Waterloo Station as the evacuation is complete.
Capture 55
Saturday dawns with the view from Pall Mall East into Cockspur Street.
Capture 56
Facing south along Regent Street towards the Duke of York's Column.
Capture 57
The view from East Poultry Avenue into West Smithfield.
Capture 58
Covent Garden facing into King Street.
Capture 59
Covent Garden facing Russell Street.
Capture 60
Belgrave Square viewed from Belgrave Place.
Capture 61
Said to be Ward Street, Lambeth, facing Bolwell Street and perhaps it is.
Capture 62
Troops gather in the Bank intersection as the hunt for Jones begins.
Capture 63
Pelham Crescent.
Capture 64
Unidentified.
Capture 65
Wembley Stadium.
Capture 66
Cleaver Square, Kennington, with the Prince of Wales pub rising above the houses.
Capture 67
Unidentified.
Capture 68
Old Bailey at the corner of Fleet Lane.
Capture 69
The view south-east with Victoria House, Bloomsbury Square, dominating the view. The short side of the building fronts onto Bloomsbury Place.
Capture 70
With Christ Church, Woburn Square, in the foreground the view is north-east towards St. Pancras Station.
Capture 71
Troops searching Wembley Stadium.
Capture 72
As the soldier stands in Cripplegate Buildings the view is south-east where the ruin of St. Alphage stands on the south side of London Wall.
Capture 73
A search is made of the London Zoo.
Capture 74
The search continues in the devastated area south of Cannon Street.
Capture 75
The search reaches Edgware Road Station on the Bakerloo Line.
Capture 76
Unidentified. Jones continues to elude the army.
Capture 77
Sunday dawns with a view of Piccadilly Circus.
Capture 78
The Mall from Admiralty Arch.
Capture 79
Harley Street, viewed from Marylebone Road, as the army arrives.
Capture 80
Trafalgar Square.
Capture 81
More of Trafalgar Square and Whitehall.
Capture 82
Passing the Queen Victoria Memorial and Buckingham Palace.
Capture 83
Troops marching in St. John's Gardens, Notting Hill.
Capture 84
St. John's Church, St. John's Gardens, where Jones is found to be praying.
Capture 85
A car, carrying Morell, Cross and Manaham, speeds across Horse Guards Parade.
Capture 86
Another aspect of St. John's Gardens.
Capture 87
The all-clear is sounded, following the defusing of Jones' devices, as Stone walks on Westminster Bridge.