A 25ft Tyrannosaurus Rex roars at Charlie Chaplin while a Dalek looks on — and all within sight of the Thames. No, not a scene from the imagination of a particularly eclectic movie buff, but one of the prop-filled exhibition rooms at the London Film Museum.
This is where memorabilia marking some of the greatest moments in British cinema history can be viewed by visitors, ranging from the original Rank gong to a spear from Michael Caine’s epic Zulu, via the Pinhead costume from Hellraiser.
Occupying a vast 45,000 sq ft in one of the capital’s most recognisable buildings — the historic Grade 11-listed County Hall on the south bank, opposite the Houses of Parliament — everything about the museum suggests the big screen.
“Everything is designed to get you mentally into the scale of the movies,” says chief executive Jonathan Sands, who with Rick Senat as chairman, runs the museum. This month the pair have overseen the renaming of the venue from its previous title of Movieum, which it has operated under for the past three years. The name-change coincides with the opening of a major exhibition on the life of Charlie Chaplin, who grew up within a mile of County Hall in south London. It is the most substantial study of the actor’s life for more than 20 years and features hundreds of original contracts, scripts and images from his silent movie star’s career.
The centrepieces, standing out amid the sea of treasured items, are Chaplin’s trademark bowler hat and cane.
“They make my hair stand on end,” says the 37-year-old Sands. “It’s like having Victorian history in your hands.”
It is Sands’s and Senat’s links with senior film industry figures, built up over years working with major studios, which allows them access to such iconic pieces of British film history. With these kinds of important exhibits on show, they feel the museum can be seen as a shop window for the skills of British filmmakers.
After beginning his career as a stills photographer at Elstree Studios, Sands turned to prop making. He still runs Weird and Wonderful, a company providing TV and film producers with everything from severed heads to train carriage sets.
The majority of items on display at the museum are from his private collection and were previously kept in storage in a warehouse in Hertfordshire. Many were acquired at the end of shoots, sparing them from the rubbish tip.
Senat has spent 40 years at the top of the industry, working for Warner Brothers for 25 years and advising on productions including the Harry Potter films Batman Begins and Troy. He is a former vice-chairman of the British Film Institute and current chairman of the Film Education charity.
“I was attracted to the museum because I enjoyed the Museum of Moving Image [a now defunct part of the South Bank complex], and since it closed there’s been nothing which has attempted to do the same thing,” he says.
“Film is an art form and the most sophisticated skills that have gone into the industry are something worthy of celebrating. I am passionate about film, its history and what it can do.”
Sands adds: “You have to live for it. We are all creative people — filmmakers, photographers, set-makers — we are from the industry. The new name tells people straight away what we are doing. It’s a progression, not a complete change. We are growing up.”
For all the enjoyment they derive from acquiring pieces, both men are aware they are running a business. They have a 25-year lease on the south bank site, the signing of which, Sands admits, was “very scary. I knew we had to get the place open and have people coming through the door quickly to pay the rent”.
Perhaps their greatest skill is constantly updating displays with the most contemporary pieces. Among recent additions are the costumes worn by Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law in this winter’s latest blockbuster, Sherlock Holmes.
While mums and dads wander from room to room admiring Christopher Reeve’s original Superman costume or a fake corpse used for a chimpanzee autopsy scene, the children fawn over Harry Potter’s Nimbus 2000 Quidditch broomstick or an original Thunderbirds puppet.
“I’m always wary of what kids will think,” says Sands. “Adults understand the relevance and importance of what they are looking at, but we do have pieces for the kids to play with, sets, recording rooms, hands-on stuff,” Sands explains.
There is still work to be done. Next month the museum will host a Chinese New Year event focusing on tigers in films (marking the Year of the Tiger). It will be followed by a James Bond festival and then, in June, the year’s major project, an exhibition of the work of Ray Harryhausen, the “godfather of special effects”, who is famous for his stop-motion model animation seen in films like Jason and the Argonauts and One Million Years BC. It will open on June 29, his 90th birthday.
Work will also continue on encouraging schools to make the most of the educational possibilities the museum offers. Pupils already visit every day, learning about the industry through tours and classroom sessions.
“Film as an educational tool is perhaps one of the most powerful inventions of the past century,” says Senat. “We do definitely see our mission as giving children an experience which is both entertaining and educational and will help enhance their lives. The pleasure that I, just as an ordinary bloke, have had from the cinema is beyond comparison.
“Whether it’s from Avatar, Chaplin or Harry Potter, by exposing what we do we are adding to the interest in the industry. We are celebrating the excellence of British creativity.”
Additionally there are, of course, always more pieces to procure. For Sands, the ultimate acquisition would be — perhaps surprisingly, given he is such a fan of the Godfather series — the ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland’s Dorothy in Wizard of Oz.
“I know where the Oz stuff all is,” he says. “It’s just a matter of time until we can get it.”
