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''Metro-Land'' is a

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documentary film written and narrated by the then

Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom The British Poet Laureate is an honorary position appointed by the monarch of the United Kingdom, currently on the advice of the prime minister. The role does not entail any specific duties, but there is an expectation that the holder will writ ...

Sir John Betjeman Sir John Betjeman (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, ...

. It was directed by

Edward Mirzoeff Edward Mirzoeff CVO, CBE (born 11 April 1936) is a prominent British television producer and documentary filmmaker. Early life Mirzoeff won an Open Scholarship in Modern History to The Queen's College, Oxford in 1953, obtaining a BA (Oxon) in 1 ...

, and first broadcast on 26 February 1973. The film celebrates suburban life in the area to the northwest of

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

that grew up in the early 20th century around the Metropolitan Railway (MR)—later the Metropolitan line of the

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The ...

. "

Metro-land Metro-land (or Metroland) is a name given to the suburban areas that were built to the north-west of London in the counties of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Middlesex in the early part of the 20th century that were served by the Metropo ...

" was a slogan coined by the MR for promotional purposes in about 1915, and used for about twenty years until shortly after the incorporation of the MR into the railways division of the

London Passenger Transport Board The London Passenger Transport Board was the organisation responsible for local public transport in London and its environs from 1933 to 1948. In common with all London transport authorities from 1933 to 2000, the public name and brand was Lond ...

in 1933. As Betjeman himself puts it at the beginning of ''Metro-Land'', it was a "Child of the First War, forgotten by the Second". Betjeman carries with him, as he travels, the pamphlet guide to Metro-land from the 1920s. The film was critically acclaimed and is fondly remembered today. A

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

was released in 2006 to coincide with the centenary of Betjeman's birth.

The concept

According to its director

, the programme was conceived in 1971 over a lunch with John Betjeman at Wheeler's Restaurant in

Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develo ...

.Edward Mirzoeff, DVD viewing notes, 2006. The two had recently collaborated on a BBC series called ''Bird's-Eye View'', which offered an aerial vision of Britain. ''Metro-Land'' was commissioned by Robin Scott, Controller of BBC2, with the initial working title of "The Joys of Urban Living". As completed, it is a series of vignettes of life in the suburbs of Metro-land, drawn together by Betjeman's commentary—partly in verse—whose text was published in 1978, and interwoven with black-and-white film shot from a Metropolitan Railway (MR) train in 1910. It is 49 minutes in length.

Locations in ''Metro-Land''

Betjeman's first appearance in ''Metro-Land'' is over a pint of beer in a station buffet, reminiscent of a scene in the film ''

Brief Encounter ''Brief Encounter'' is a 1945 British romantic drama film directed by David Lean from a screenplay by Noël Coward, based on his 1936 one-act play ''Still Life''. Starring Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway, and Joyce Carey, ...

'' (1945). This sequence was filmed at

Horsted Keynes Horsted Keynes is a village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. The village is about north east of Haywards Heath, in the Weald. The civil parish is largely rural, covering . At the 2011 census, it had a populat ...

, on the

Bluebell Railway The Bluebell Railway is an heritage line almost entirely in West Sussex in England, except for Sheffield Park which is in East Sussex. It is managed by the Bluebell Railway Preservation Society. It uses steam trains which operate between an ...

in Sussex. Other locations include: * Chiltern Court, an apartment block constructed over Baker Street station, the MR's London terminus; in 1972 (the year of filming) the block still contained a restaurant. The restaurant is now The Metropolitan Bar, part of the

Wetherspoons J D Wetherspoon plc (branded variously as Wetherspoon or Wetherspoons, and colloquially known as Spoons) is a pub company operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The company was founded in 1979 by Tim Martin and is based in Watford. It o ...

chain; * Marlborough Road, a station closed in 1939, whose booking hall had by the time of filming become an Angus Steak House. (This subsequently became a Chinese restaurant and then returned to railway use in 2012, supporting the new S class rolling stock on the Metropolitan line.) Betjeman also mentions the house where

Thomas Hood Thomas Hood (23 May 1799 – 3 May 1845) was an English poet, author and humorist, best known for poems such as " The Bridge of Sighs" and " The Song of the Shirt". Hood wrote regularly for ''The London Magazine'', '' Athenaeum'', and ''Punch' ...

died, near the station, where the railway cut through the garden; *

St John's Wood St John's Wood is a district in the City of Westminster, London, lying 2.5 miles (4 km) northwest of Charing Cross. Traditionally the northern part of the ancient parish and Metropolitan Borough of Marylebone, it extends east to west from ...

: perhaps surprisingly, there is no mention of Lord's Cricket Ground, part of which had to be dug up in the 1890s to facilitate tunnelling for the

Great Central Railway The Great Central Railway in England was formed when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897, anticipating the opening in 1899 of its London Extension. On 1 January 1923, the company was grouped into the ...

into

Marylebone station Marylebone station ( ) is a Central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the Marylebone area of the City of Westminster. On the National Rail network it is also known as London Marylebone and is the southern ter ...

. Instead, Betjeman concentrates on St John's Wood as a Victorian suburb and, in particular, the former residence of a clergyman,

John Hugh Smyth-Pigott The Agapemonites or Community of The Son of Man was a Christian religious group or sect that existed in England from 1846 to 1956. It was named from the el, italic=yes, agapemone meaning "abode of love". The Agapemone community was founded by ...

, "whose Clapton congregation declared him to be Christ,/a compliment he accepted". This house, situated in Langford Place, has since been the home variously of Charles Saatchi and of

Vanessa Feltz Vanessa Jane Feltz is an English television personality, broadcaster, and journalist. She has appeared on various television shows, including ''Vanessa'' (1994–1998), ''The Big Breakfast'' (1996–1998), ''The Vanessa Show'' (1999), ''Celebr ...

; *

Neasden Neasden is a suburban area in northwest London, England. It is located around the centre of the London Borough of Brent and is within the NW2 ( Cricklewood) and NW10 (Willesden) postal districts. Neasden is near Wembley Stadium, the Welsh Har ...

, caricatured since 1962 by the satirical magazine '' Private Eye'' (for which Betjeman wrote) as the stereotypical "contemporary urban environment". Betjeman describes Neasden as "home of the gnome and the average citizen" (the former a reference to the preponderance of gnome statuettes in suburban front gardens). Background music is provided by William Rushton's recording of "Neasden" (1972) ("Neasden/You won't be sorry that you breezed in"), another ''Private Eye'' spin-off. It was re-mixed and re-mastered for the programme. Betjeman visits the Neasden Nature Trail (through Gladstone Park and the Brook Road allotments—now no longer accessible from Brook Road), where he met its creator, the ornithologist Eric Simms; *

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

, site of the

British Empire Exhibition The British Empire Exhibition was a colonial exhibition held at Wembley Park, London England from 23 April to 1 November 1924 and from 9 May to 31 October 1925. Background In 1920 the British Government decided to site the British Empire Exhibi ...

in 1924–25 and the stadium (demolished and rebuilt in the early 21st century), which first hosted the Football Association Cup Final in 1923 and where England had won the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

six years before ''Metro-Land'' was filmed. (Chants of "England!" can be heard in the background as Betjeman stands alone on the stadium pitch.) Betjeman recounts the partial construction (1890) on the site of the present stadium of " Watkin's Folly" (after Sir

Edward Watkin Sir Edward William Watkin, 1st Baronet (26 September 1819 – 13 April 1901) was a British Member of Parliament and railway entrepreneur. He was an ambitious visionary, and presided over large-scale railway engineering projects to fulfil his b ...

, Chairman of the MR), which had been intended to exceed the

Eiffel Tower The Eiffel Tower ( ; french: links=yes, tour Eiffel ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Locally nicknamed "' ...

in Paris. The "Folly" was demolished in 1907. He also recalls the

and a St. George's Day rally held there in 1924; * Harrow: Harrow School and Grim's Dyke, Harrow Weald, where the lyricist

W. S. Gilbert Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (18 November 1836 – 29 May 1911) was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his collaboration with composer Arthur Sullivan, which produced fourteen comic operas. The most fam ...

, collaborator of Arthur Sullivan, drowned in the lake in 1911, after suffering a heart attack. Betjeman recounts that Gilbert had gone swimming with two girls, Ruby Preece and Winifred Isabel Emery. Ruby later became known as the artist Patricia Preece, who was the second wife of Stanley Spencer; *

Pinner Pinner is a London suburb in the London borough of Harrow, Greater London, England, northwest of Charing Cross, close to the border with Hillingdon, historically in the county of Middlesex. The population was 31,130 in 2011. Originally a med ...

: Pinner Fair, described by Betjeman as "a mediaeval fair in Metro-land"; * Moor Park

Rickmansworth Rickmansworth () is a town in southwest Hertfordshire, England, about northwest of central London and inside the perimeter of the M25 motorway. The town is mainly to the north of the Grand Union Canal (formerly the Grand Junction Canal) and ...

, on whose

golf course A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". ...

Betjeman is filmed missing a tee shot. The fine club-house, an 18th-century mansion, is also shown. *

Croxley Green Croxley Green is both a village and a suburb of Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, England. It is also a civil parish. Located on the A412 between Watford to the northeast and Rickmansworth to the southwest, it is approximately northwest of central ...

: with a hint of irony, Betjeman refers to the Croxley Green "revels" as "a tradition dating back to 1952"; * Chorleywood, which Betjeman calls "essential Metro-land". He visits Chorleywood Common and The Orchard, an Arts and Crafts house (1899) designed by Charles Voysey (1857–1941), about whom he had written an article in the ''

Architectural Review ''The Architectural Review'' is a monthly international architectural magazine. It has been published in London since 1896. Its articles cover the built environment – which includes landscape, building design, interior design and urbanism ...

'' in 1931. Elsewhere in Chorleywood, Betjeman listens to local resident

Len Rawle Len Rawle, MBE, (born 1938 in Tonypandy) is a Welsh organ builder and organist. A London College of Music graduate, he is particularly noted for his restoration of Wurlitzer theatre organs. In 1973 he appeared in ''Metro-Land'', contributing '' ...

perform on the

Wurlitzer The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to as simply Wurlitzer, is an American company started in Cincinnati in 1853 by German immigrant (Franz) Rudolph Wurlitzer. The company initially imported stringed, woodwind and brass instruments ...

organ from the Empire cinema in Leicester Square, which had been installed in his house. (The organ was still there in 2006, when Rawle performed for a BBC film, ''Betjeman and Me'', made by

Dan Cruickshank Daniel Gordon Raffan Cruickshank (born 26 August 1949) is a British art historian and BBC television presenter, with a special interest in the history of architecture. Professional career Cruickshank holds a BA in Art, Design and Architecture ...

to mark Betjeman's centenary); * Amersham, the terminus of the Metropolitan by 1972, where Betjeman visits High and Over (1929), a house designed by

Amyas Connell Amyas Douglas Connell (23 June 1901 – 19 April 1980) was a highly influential New Zealand architect of the mid-twentieth century. He achieved early and conspicuous success as a student, winning the British Prix de Rome in Architecture in 19 ...

in the ''

modern Modern may refer to: History * Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Phil ...

'' style ("perhaps old-fashioned today") that overlooked the town. (Thirty years earlier he had referred, rather contemptuously, to "an absurd admiration of what is modern, as though 'modern' meant always a flat roof, a window at the corner ... in fact not genuine contemporary architecture at all but 'jazz'".) Of the former Metropolitan beyond Amersham, Betjeman remarked, "In those wet fields the railway didn't pay/The Metro stops at Amersham today"; * Quainton Road, a station in the outer reaches of Buckinghamshire that was finally closed to Metropolitan passengers in 1948, but has since become home to the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre. Betjeman reminisces of having sat there in the autumn of 1929 watching the

Brill Brill may refer to: Places * Brielle (sometimes "Den Briel"), a town in the western Netherlands * Brill, Buckinghamshire, a village in England * Brill, Cornwall, a small village to the west of Constantine, Cornwall, UK * Brill, Wisconsin, an un ...

tram depart. His daughter

Candida Lycett Green Candida Rose Lycett Green (née Betjeman; 22 September 194219 August 2014) was a British author who wrote sixteen books including ''English Cottages'', ''Goodbye London'', ''The Perfect English House'', ''Over the Hills and Far Away'' and ''The ...

organised an excursion from Marylebone to Quainton Road in 2006, using the extant freight line from Aylesbury, to mark his centenary; * , near to the Claydons, the most distant outpost of the Metropolitan, closed since 1936, which by the 1970s had largely been reclaimed by nature. Betjeman appeared to close the programme here with the words, "Grass triumphs. And I must say I’m rather glad", although the scene was in fact filmed at Shipton Lee, some five miles to the south of the former terminus.

Critical reception

In general, ''Metro-Land'' was favourably and warmly received.

Miles Kington Miles Beresford Kington (13 May 1941 – 30 January 2008) was a British journalist, musician (a double bass player for Instant Sunshine and other groups) and broadcaster. He is also credited with the invention of Franglais, a fictional language, ...

wrote to Mirzoeff that it was "just about the most satisfying TV programme, on all levels, that I've ever seen". Clive James, writing in ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

'', dubbed it an "instant classic" and predicted accurately that "they’ll be repeating it until the millennium". (It was shown on BBC Four in 2006, in the same week that the DVD was released, and most recently was shown on BBC Four again in January and June 2013, and in September 2014).

Christopher Booker Christopher John Penrice Booker (7 October 1937 – 3 July 2019) was an English journalist and author. He was a founder and first editor of the satire, satirical magazine ''Private Eye'' in 1961. From 1990 onward he was a columnist for ''The Su ...

rated it as the best of Betjeman's television programmes ("Like others, I have been endlessly grateful … over the years for the more public activities of the 'outer' Betjeman"), while Betjeman's biographer A. N. Wilson recalled that it was "too good to be described simply as a 'programme'". In a contemporaneous review for the London ''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'', Simon Jenkins launched into imitative verse: "For an hour he held enraptured/Pinner, Moor Park, Chorley Wood./'Well I’m blowed' they said, 'He likes us./Knew one day that someone should."

Music soundtrack

Tiger Rag "Tiger Rag" is a jazz standard that was recorded and copyrighted by the Original Dixieland Jass Band in 1917. It is one of the most recorded jazz compositions. In 2003, the 1918 recording of "Tiger Rag" was entered into the U.S. Library of Cong ...

" by

the Temperance Seven The Temperance Seven is a British band originally active in the 1960s, specialising in 1920s-style jazz music. They were known for their surreal performances. Career The Temperance Seven was founded at Christmas 1955 by students at the Chels ...

is heard over the opening title sequence – a 33 rpm vinyl disc played at 45 rpm to provide "a suitably manic sound" – and is followed by "Build a Little Home" by

Roy Fox Roy Fox (October 25, 1901 – March 20, 1982) was an American-born British dance bandleader who was popular in Britain during the British dance band era. Early life and career Roy Fox was born in Denver, Colorado, United States. He and his ...

. As Betjeman sits at a table in the Chiltern Court restaurant, "When the Daisy Opens her Eyes" by Albert Sandler plays. When Betjeman looks at 12 Langford Place, 'Agapemone', 'the abode of love', country house of the Reverend John Hugh Smyth-Pigott, "The Witch of Endor" from "Le Roi David" by

Arthur Honegger Arthur Honegger (; 10 March 1892 – 27 November 1955) was a Swiss composer who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. A member of Les Six, his best known work is probably ''Antigone'', composed between 1924 and 1927 t ...

is heard. The sequence at Neasden is accompanied by the song of the same name by William Rushton. The Wembley sequence features three tunes:

Elgar Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...

's "Civic Fanfare", towards the beginning,

Walford Davies Sir Henry Walford Davies (6 September 1869 – 11 March 1941) was an English composer, organist, and educator who held the title Master of the King's Music from 1934 until 1941. He served with the Royal Air Force during the First World War, dur ...

' "Solemn Melody" (as Betjeman stands in the Palace of Arts), while the pleasure park footage uses the beginning and the end of the 1926 recording of "Masculine Women, Feminine Men" by the Savoy Havana Band (HMV B-5027). The section that features people working in Harrow is accompanied by "Family Favourites" by Rod McNeil and "

Down by the Lazy River "Down by the Lazy River" is a song written by Alan and Merrill Osmond and performed by The Osmonds, it was produced by Alan Osmond and Michael Lloyd. "Down By the Lazy River" was released on January 15, 1972 and appeared on the band's 1972 albu ...

" by

The Osmonds The Osmonds were an American family music group who reached the height of their fame in the early to mid-1970s. The group had its best-known configurations as a quartet (billed as the Osmond Brothers) and a quintet (as the Osmonds). The group ...

. During the sequence at Harrow School, the " Harrow School Song" is heard. When the sequence of stained-glass windows at Harrow are shown, " Sunny Side of the Street" by

Jack Hylton Jack Hylton (born John Greenhalgh Hilton; 2 July 1892 – 29 January 1965) was an English pianist, composer, band leader and impresario. Hylton rose to prominence during the British dance band era, being referred as the "British King of Jazz" ...

plays. Part of the segment on Grim's Dyke in

Harrow Weald Harrow Weald is a suburban district in Greater London, England. Located about north of Harrow, Harrow Weald is formed from a leafy 1930s suburban development along with ancient woodland of Harrow Weald Common. It forms part of the London Boro ...

is accompanied by "Tit Willow" by Gilbert and Sullivan. "Golfing Love" by Melville Gideon accompanies the footage featuring golfers at Moor Park, and while the paintings in the Moor Park clubhouse are shown, Handel's ''Double Concerti'' plays. "Build a Little Home" is played again during part of the sequence at Chorleywood. The sequence featuring Len Rawle and his Wurlitzer is accompanied by the works: "

Crimond Crimond is a village in Aberdeenshire, in the northeast of Scotland, located northwest of the port of Peterhead and just over from the coast. Geography The main A90 road runs through Crimond and is lined by Crimond Church with a village ...

", "Varsity Rag", and "

Chattanooga Choo Choo "Chattanooga Choo Choo" is a 1941 song written by Mack Gordon and composed by Harry Warren. It was originally recorded as a big band/swing tune by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra and featured in the 1941 movie '' Sun Valley Serenade''. It was ...

". Finally, during part of the sequence showing High and Over, "

Everything I Own "Everything I Own" is a song written by American singer-songwriter David Gates. It was originally recorded by Gates's soft rock band Bread for their 1972 album ''Baby I'm-a Want You.'' The original reached No. 5 on the American ''Billboard'' ...

" by Bread is heard.''The Best of Betjeman'', pp. 215–236.

References

External links

*
Metro-Land
' at the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lot ...

Screenonline Screenonline is a website about the history of British film, television and social history as documented by film and television. The project has been developed by the British Film Institute and funded by a £1.2 million grant from the National Lo ...

* {{Metropolitan line navbox 1973 television specials BBC television documentaries Documentary films about transport Amersham Transport design in London London Underground in popular culture Works about London Documentary films about London Films directed by Edward Mirzoeff