British and Colonial was founded in 1909
by Albert Henry (A.H.) Bloomfield and John Benjamin (J.B.) McDowell, both
engineers. They set up a studio at Newstead House, East Finchley and offices
at 33 Denmark St, Holborn.
The first productions were very successful
with Bloomfield running the studio operations and McDowell handling distribution.
In 1910, McDowell became a member of the
Film Agency Ltd with Cecil
Hepworth, G. H. Cricks (of Cricks and Martin) and Percy Stow (of Clarendon)
to co-operate in distribution of their films outside of the UK.
In 1912, B and C needed to expand, so they
acquired an old skating rink on Hoe Street in Walthamstow that they called
the Hoe Street Studio. From this single stage studio, they produced the
Lieutenant
Daring series, as well as the Dick Turpin series. Their highlight came
in 1913 with the Battle of Waterloo, but they were struggling more with
distribution, including the closing of the Film Agency for international
distribution.
As the war started, McDowell was called
to active service as a war cinematographer. While B & C tried to continue
with some production, the studio was leased to independent producers to
try to stay open.
After the war, production expanded but the
success wasn't as good as expected. An expansion was done in 1920 in an
attempt to raise the quality, but it did very little good. The market had
changed
Over the next couple of years, B & C
struggled trying to produce a marketable product but finally declared bancruptcy
in June 1924.
Here are the films we have in our archive
on B
& C
Go back to British
Distributors
