Acclaimed Brighton film archive recalls late Queen's visits

Screen Archive South East is an acclaimed source of film imagery covering a huge range of subjects, and contains footage covering over 70 years of the late Queen's life, alongside other royal events throughout the past century.

The footage in the silent tribute film - showing on the University of Brighton's Twitter and Facebook channels - begins with a wartime visit by then Princess Elizabeth on 4 December 1945. Still dressed in military uniform, the Princess visited Preston Manor in Brighton, after reviewing troops at King Alfred in Hove, at a time when it was a Royal Navy training site.

Further black-and-white footage captures a visit by Princess Elizabeth on 18 May 1951 when, just a few months before her ascent to the throne, she visited Brighton & Hove as part of a tour of Sussex which also took in Hastings and Lewes. On this occasion, she visited the Brighton Palace Pier, Royal Pavilion and Hove Town Hall.

The old Essoldo Cinema in Brighton dressed up for the late Queen's Coronation in 1953 - image courtesy of University of Brighton Screen Archive South East

The late Queen visiting Brighton & Hove in 2001 - image courtesy of University of Brighton's Screen Archive South East

Two years later, and the world has turned to colour in capturing celebrations in Brighton and Burgess Hill of the late Queen's 1953 Coronation, complete with flag-draped facades and people showing off royal memorabilia created for the occasion.

The film concludes with a 2001 visit by the late Queen and Duke of Edinburgh to meet children from the city's Goldstone Junior School, Knoll Infant School, Hill Park School (called Hillside at the time) and Aldrington Church of England Primary School. This visit also included a trip to the Brighthelm Centre to greet St John’s Ambulance volunteers and Big Issue sellers. On this day SASE’s technician Rod Willerton was given exclusive access to film the royal visit.

Dr Frank Gray is Director of the University of Brighton School of Art and Media's Film Office, which oversees Screen Archive South East as well as the city's annual Cinecity film festival in November. He said: “The university’s three decades of support for the archive has enabled its collection to be developed and used by students, artists, filmmakers, television companies and producers, regionally, nationally and internationally.

“I was lucky enough to meet the Queen in Brighton in 2007, when I was able to tell her of the films we had of her from age 19 to 75 in our collection. She seemed very pleased to receive this news.”

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