The film opens with a shot of the plaque commemorating the visit of HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, followed by brief shots of HRH Prince Philip getting out of a coach and being shown various pieces of equipment. Interior and exterior shots of the treatment works. Onlookers photograph HRH Prince Philip. Brief shot of the Prince leaving the Greater London Council (GLC) Mobile Laboratory of the Scientific Branch caravan. HRH Prince Philip speaking with a group of men, presumably employees of the Beckton works, including several young West Indian men. More views of the works. Shot of the Duke of Edinburgh's standard on a flagpole. HRH Prince Philip is greeted by civic dignitaries and shown around the pumping station. HRH Prince Philip unveils the wall plaque seen at the beginning of the film. Seated audience claps.

The final sequence, apparently unrelated to the previous scenes, shows Arthur Green and his female assistant at work in the Greater London Council (GLC) Mobile Laboratory of the Scientific Branch caravan. His assistant lowers some form of unidentified monitoring device in to the water of the sewage works. Arthur Green, working from behind a protective barrier, mixes a solution which is then carefully poured in to the water (possibly a radioactive isotope).

Amateur film shot by Arthur Green, a Greater London Council Assistant Scientific Officer, recording the official opening by HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, of the Greater London Council (GLC) Beckton Northern Outfall (sewage) works on 22 October 1953.

Notes

Summary: The Northern Outfall is a high level sewer which is drained by gravity to Beckton, part of the original drainage and sewage plan for London designed by the engineer Joseph Bazalgette. The site at Beckton was chosen because foul drainage discharged at that point would not be carried on the tide up as far as London.

Date: Kodak stock marking is two circles, indicating 1939(!).

Technical: unlike other films shot by Arthur Green in the Museum's collection, this film is unedited, out of chronological order and has no titles.