Local Trader's Gazette

From the collection of

Screen Archive South East at the University of Brighton collects, preserves, catalogues and provides public access to its collection of films and magic lantern slides. The collection charts the rise of screen culture in the region and the nation and captures many aspects of life, work and creativity in the South East from the late 19th century to the present day. It is available for research, screenings, creative re-use and commercial access.

Local Trader's Gazette

Screen Archive South East at the University of Brighton
East Sussex
1930-01-01
Silent
9m

This amazing discovery shows how cinema advertising used to look in Bygone Britain - a truly nostalgic gem of a film for lovers of Britain's past

This stunning film shows a series of vignettes of shops and businesses located in the High Weald - on the Kent and Sussex border, with traders advertising their services directly to the local cinema audience - combining both exterior and interior shots. Highlights include a woman getting her hair shingled at the hairdressers, an anti-war poster in a shop window and a marcelled 'cutie' listening to her Pye Rising Sun radio while enjoying an outdoor tea with her boy-friend.

Near Your Local Cinema

Local goods for local people! Screen advertising wasn’t all national brands and chain stores.

Purpose-built cinemas began appearing around Britain shortly before WWI, booming in popularity during the War and developing into the ‘picture palaces’ of the 1920s - when adverts jostled for space alongside newsreels before the main feature. Local businesses were quick to see the potential of a big screen and a captive audience to promote their wares.

While they didn’t have access to the budgets of the national brands, regionally-specific businesses had the benefit of that personal touch. Products and services evolved over time, but that scratchy ad for your local Indian restaurant, so integral to the cinema-going experience into the 1990s, had its roots in the booming entrepreneurship of the industry many decades before.