Reelstreets Research

Well.............this is how SHOULD be done! And from a guy who lives in Macedonia!!!

John 1. Unfortunately, I have never lived in United Kingdom (not in a single day). Because of that fact, I always choose interesting pictures from a special street scene of the particular film, and pictures which offer many clues. For instance, name of the shop, sign of the road, can be of great help (if they are real names). I also choose flyovers, bridges, aqueducts and big buildings, because they are easy to search, especially flyovers. If someone under the picture has mentioned with suspicion that some scene was filmed for instance Edgware Road, I will search if that scene was really filmed there or not. 2. This is my explanation: A. For the road and street signs, I always use http://www.streetmap.co.uk/ B. If the name of the shop, road, street is not clear or missing some letters, I always use this web site: http://www.taliesin-arlein.net/names/search.php because for most of the cases these names are in fact surnames. For the searching query I always write an asterisk * at the start of the surname, or at the end of the surname. C. When i search particular scene, and the name of the street was previously mentioned with suspicion, the most important thing is that I always use combination of http://www.multimap.com/ Bird's Eye option for searching; and http://maps.google.com/ Street View option for finding, (if these 2 options are available for that spot). D. For finding postcodes I use http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm E. I also use http://www.imdb.com/ for checking movie locations of the particular film. F. Sometimes I use these old maps web sites: http://www.old-maps.co.uk/IndexMapPage2.aspx http://www.ponies.me.uk/maps/osmap.html http://www.npemap.org.uk/tiles/map.html G. I always use Google engine for various information, for searching name of the shops, streets, postcodes, and most important to find web sites like: http://www.macfisheries.co.uk/page8.htm http://www.windsorpubs.info/herts_arms.htm http://www.janetandrichardsgenealogy.co.uk/broadstairs_etc_-_commercial_directory_a_to_c.htm H. Also, sometimes I need information from yellow and white pages directories which are available and are easy to find on the net. I. Sometimes, can be very useful my excellent skills in geography and history (especially british), and also my knowledge of remembering counties and origins from 5000 most common british surnames. 3. Beside finding movie locations, for myself very interesting researches are: A. Finding secret and fictional locations in United Kingdom from the books; and B. Finding locations from the well known actual events in United Kingdom, but the real locations today are unknown and therefore i am searching the real places (which unfortunately are filmed somewhere else). An example of my research what I have found last year: The "Carlton Hotel, Broadstairs, Kent" from the movie "Chariots of Fire" was filmed at the 18th hole of the old course at St Andrews Golf Club, The Royal and Ancient course club house and hotel, St. Andrews, Fife, KY16 9JD. http://www.scotlandthemovie.com/movies/andrews.html I was looking if this hotel in Broadstairs really existed or was fictional. In the IMDb Trivia http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082158/trivia there is information about Aubrey (Evelyn) Montague's letters to his mother. Then, in this web site http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20082112,00.html I have found a proof that letters are authentic and genuine. So, Carlton Hotel, Broadstairs, Kent existed by that name. But the problem was: the hotel in Broadstairs with the name Carlton is not existing now. I was searching in Google many web sites and I couldn't find such hotel and I thought probably Carlton Hotel has different name now. Today, in Broastairs there are existing hotels, like: Royal Albion Hotel, Cintra Hotel, Anchor House Hotel, Fayreness Hotel, Bay Tree, Devonhurst, Gull Cottage Hotel... I was looking some evidence which any of these hotels previous was called Carlton Hotel, but I couldn't find anything. After that, I was searching in Google only by the name Carlton, because probably this hotel, today is not a hotel. Then, I have found this web site - old commercial directory for Broadstairs: http://www.janetandrichardsgenealogy.co.uk/broadstairs_etc_-_commercial_directory_a_to_c.htm And there was information for the address of Carlton Hotel: Victoria Parade. In Google I was looking this query: "Carlton"+"Victoria Parade" and I found this web site: http://www.bupacarehomes.co.uk/carehomes/asp/index.asp?ch=CarltonLodgeNursingCentre There is information for this nursing centre that originally was a private house and hotel. So, "Carlton Lodge Nursing Centre" at 21 Victoria Parade, Broadstairs, Kent, CT10 1QL must is the real "Carlton Hotel, Broadstairs, Kent" mentioned from the letters by Aubrey (Evelyn) Montague to his mother in the movie "Chariots of Fire", that was filmed at the 18th hole of the old course at St Andrews Golf Club, The Royal and Ancient course club house and hotel, St. Andrews, Fife, KY16 9JD. So, I had found the real hotel which were staying british olympic team during their training on June 28th 1924 before Paris Olympic Games, the same year. Best regards Greg