Wednesday 3 June 2009

The Film, the General and the Irish...

Back on the Kilburn High Road we have the Sir Colin Campbell Pub.

It has a rich social heritage as a pub and a real tradition as an old local boozer.

There's a bit of bad feeling that there's no hanging sign outside and some attribute that to that fact that Sir Colin was an English soldier and not hanging it is a small anti-english gesture... I'm not sure either way and haven't had chance to ask.

But I have only just stumbled on this

http://www.channel4.com/film/reviews/film.jsp?id=171139

http://www.lovefilm.com/film/County-Kilburn/126536/

http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/619618

It's a film that essentially is based in and around the Campbell

The interesting thing is the extent to which the film captures the atmosphere of the Irish tradition and the way in which the High Road has moved on in the 9 years since it was filmed.

I'm enjoying the DVD and would recommend it to all those who love Kilburn... There's a good review here if you scroll down http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0258507/

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sir Colin Campbell was Scottish. The lack of a sign may be a planning issue or they don't work in very windy spots.

Anonymous said...

Somewhere there is the old sign that used to hang outside the pub of Sir Colin in Scottish uniform. I once asked the landlady where it was about five years ago and she said it was in a back room somewhere.
It should be put back!

Colin Campbell was the best loved officer in the Victorian army. He was a working class Glaswegian who rose up through the ranks to become a general. Normally that was unheard of in Victorian times.
He ended his life as Lord Clyde and never married.
Des Brittain.

Anonymous said...

60% of the soldiers in the British army at the time of Crimea were Irish.
My ancestor was one. He was the Dublin bugler who actually sounded the Charge of the Light Brigade. William (Billy) Brittain. His bugle was in our family for generations and is now in the regimental Museum near Grantham.
This is why I feel so strongly about the sign being removed.