DATE July 15th
PLACE London, England
I arose to go to church and I got an underground to St James Park & then from there I walked to Westminster. The service was beautiful & I took in a great part of the many statues there within. This afternoon Mrs Josey + 2 went through the Museum (British Museum Fine Arts Bldg). It was very beautiful. Then we got on an Omnibus + went all over the town on it. Tonight we went to The New Gallery Kinema House [1] and saw John Barrymore & Camilla Horn in Tempest [see a clip below].
DATE July 16th
PLACE London, England
Today we took a sight seeing bus around the city and visited Westminster hall and the Parliament Bldgs & Westminster abbey In the afternoon The Tower was the main item & St Paul’s Cathedral which is half closed. The crown jewels were most marvelous and they are so perfectly guarded. The largest diamond in the world (Colliman I) is held in the septer & the next two in the Kings crown.
ON THIS DAY
Like today, Britain was having a heatwave on 16 July 1928. Click on the link to watch a British Pathé film which was shot on the same day that Vincent’s tour visted London. Phew!
Vincent Price Journal 1928 (reproduced courtesy of Peter Fuller)
DID YOU KNOW?
London’s popular S-Type buses were introduced in 1920, but did not have covered tops until 1926. These bone-shakers ran on solid wheels until 1928 when pneumatic tyres were introduced. They were withdrawn between about 1930 and 1932, and replaced with LT and ST types. One S-Type (S742) survives as part of the Transport of London Collection.
One of the big silent films to come out in the UK during 1928 was director Anthony Asquith’s romantic thriller Underground, about two young Londoners who meet and fall in love on the city’s iconic tube. You can read more about this exciting and action-packed silent which was been re-released in the UK to coincide with the tube’s 150th anniversary. Click here to read more.
[1] The New Gallery Cinema is a Grade II listed building located at 121-125 Regent Street W1B 4TB. It first opened as a movie house in 1913. In 1925, Britain’s first film society, the London Film School, was founded at the cinema. Its original members included George Bernard Shaw and HG Wells and its objective was to screen banned works alongside mainstream films. The cinema closed its doors in 1953. Today, it is the site of the Burberry store. You can read more about its history on the Cinema Treasures blog (here).
[sic] Although Vincent misspells words in his journal, we have kept them as he wrote them.
My First Trip Abroad | Vincent Price (July-August 1928) 