Ten incredible postwar modernist pieces by Pathé

 Now that British Pathé have shared their incredible archive on YouTube I thought I'd pick out a few highlights of their modernist coverage. It's basically Boring Postcards that move.

1. Firstly, here's pristine Stevenage, one of the first postwar new towns filmed here in 1959 shortly after the town centre was finally opened to the public. 



2. Next up we have this amazing footage of futuristic Miami from 1949. It even ends with a Britain Can Make It gag.


3. Then there's some dizzying silent footage from 1968, shot in Bonn, then the West German capital.

4. This is Tomorrow (1956) was the sensational art exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery, that featured work by everyone from the Smithsons to Richard Hamilton. Here's Pathé's take on the show.

5. Plans for a triple-decker makeover to Piccadilly Circus in London were unveiled in this optimistic 1968 report.

6. Then there's some incredible silent slum clearance and construction footage from the 1970s.

7. From the same period, here's some very odd but amazing footage of a tanned Basil Spence and his barracks, among other buildings.

8. Back to the new towns now, here's Harlow and Milton Ketnes in the late 60s, one almost finshed, the other barely begun.

9. Now for one of the most extraordinary buildings, Habitat from the 1967 Montreal Expo.

10. And lastly, for this little collection, here's an article on two modern schools in Paddington and Kidbrooke, from 1954, right in the hart of the school building boom.