Greetings from Leighton Buzzard (Postcard Friendship Friday)

I mentioned in a previous post one of my favorite book series from childhood, The Borrowers. The first book takes place near the town of Leighton Buzzard in England. As a child I thought that was an exceedingly odd name for a city, and I still do. I was surprised to find out it was a real place.

I don't recall it being featured much in the other Borrowers adaptations for film and TV, but the 1997 Borrowers film with John Goodman shows it prominently. And it is one of my favorite little bits of background scenery/set painting/related effects in movies, only seen briefly in the film.

While the 1997 "Borrowers" film takes a lot of liberties with the original story compared to the other adaptations... taking it quite in the direction of "Home Alone" actually, This is made up for with the art, props, clothing design and other aspects which give it an "otherness". It is a step in the direction of another England...a few steps toward the look and feel of the wizarding world of Harry Potter, and a few steps away from the very mundane Muggle England. An England where Peter Pan steals the kids in Kensington Park. An England that the "Wallace and Gromit" films could take place in, with the countryside of The Wind in the Willows being just over the hill. An England that has been rebuilt after being ravaged by the Martian tripods in The War of the Worlds. And perhaps something steampunkish. And across the ocean, you will find the New York of "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow".

A closeup of the background from the movie appears below. It is intentionally made to look like a movie matte painting of decades ago, like they used in "The Wizard of Oz" (1939), but there is something else going on as well, because the multiple airships in the skies are moving in the scene. It is similar in ways to the surreal scenes of Gotham City in the 1989 "Batman" movie, down to the connecting skywalks, so  many stories up. Like Gotham might have looked like this in the late 1910's. I love how this looks. Make sure to click on the image below to see a larger, wider view.

Leighton Buzzard skyline / cityscape detail

Greetings from Leighton Buzzard (Postcard?

A postcard from this area of the "other" Leighton Buzzard might look something like this (right), a postcard from beyond the edge. Unfortunately, the real Leighton Buzzard looks nothing like this. The postcard below from the early 1900s shows High Street in Leighton Buzzard, a view much like you might find in any other city in England. No gabled skyscrapers, no airships.

High Street, Leighton Buzzard, Postcard

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Addendum:
 The line "Peter Pan steals the kids in Kensington Park" above was from a song. I should have attributed it or linked it. It probably went a long way to make that paragraph "lyrical" in the words of a commenter. I was sure in an "anglophile" mood when I wrote the paragraph. The Peter Pan line comes from the title song of Kate Bush's album "Lionheart", and the song is indeed a love song to England:

...Oh England My Lionheart 

Peter Pan steals the kids in Kensington Park

You read me Shakespeare on the Rolling Thames, 

That old River Poet that never, ever ends

 Our Thumping hearts hold the Ravens in, 

And keep the tower from tumbling ....