Bow bells

In “The London Spy”, Ned Ward’s delightful account of low life in the 18th Century, we are told how “the joyful alarm of Bow Bells call’d the weary apprentices from their work to unhitch their folded shutters and batten up their shops till next morning”. This is the atmosphere evoked by this film presenting faces, streets, buildings around the dock-yards of London’s East End. There is no commentary: the photographed scenes are accompanied by satirically matched snatches of music hall songs.