In September 1921, Charlie Chaplin travelled to Southampton from New York on the RMS Olympic to publicise The Kid, Chaplin’s first full-length feature film, which would go on to become the second highest grossing film of the year.

Arriving at platform 14 of Waterloo Station on 7 September, he was met by his cousin, Aubrey – and thousands of screaming fans, who all clamoured to catch a glimpse of their idol. ‘A fierce roar of the great crowds smote his ears,’ wrote one newspaper, while The Times added: ‘At Waterloo the stage might have been set for the homecoming of Julius Caesar, Napoleon, and Lord Haig rolled into one.’

Escorted by police into a waiting limousine, Chaplin passed through Waterloo, down York Road and over Westminster Bridge. Returning to London after a nine-year absence, Chaplin marvelled at the new LCC building, but was moved by the ‘solemn’ sight of the Houses of Parliament, which left him on the verge of tears.

A hero’s return
Chaplin had chosen the Ritz Hotel for his stay, having been greatly impressed by its ‘gilt and splendour’ as a young boy. Thousands of fans surged towards Chaplin’s motorcade upon his arrival in Piccadilly, while others climbed onto the building to avoid the scrum. ‘Thank you very much for this generous, kind and affectionate welcome,’ remarked Chaplin to his fans. ‘This is a great moment for me. I cannot say much. Words are absolutely inadequate.’

Chaplin was then escorted by 40 armed police officers to his first-floor suite, where he waved to the crowds below, throwing carnations to his adoring fans. However, not everyone was impressed. ‘My boy,’ wrote one mother to Chaplin, ‘tried to get one of your carnations and his hat was smashed. I enclose you a bill for 7s 6d, for a new one.’

Landscape and memory
By 4pm Chaplin had shaken off his entourage and slipped out unnoticed through the Arlington service entrance at the back of the Ritz. He travelled by taxi across Westminster Bridge, up to Lambeth Walk, before he arrived at both his former childhood homes: 3 Pownall Terrace and 287 Kennington Road.

His return to his former neighbourhood proved to be extremely bittersweet after a series of tragedies and setbacks. Recently divorced from his first wife Mildred Harris, Chaplin lost Norman, his three-day-old infant son just ten days before filming began on The Kid. He also discovered that his first love, the Irish vaudevillian Hetty Kelly, had died of Spanish influenza in 1918 while travelling to London.

Taking a scenic tour of Kennington Park, he remembered his romantic trysts with Hetty, before arriving at 15 Glenshaw Mansions on Brixton Road, the first furnished home he shared with his brother, Sydney. Chaplin stopped off at his father’s favourite pub, the Horns Tavern, where he enjoyed a pint, before he revisited his former school in Kennington.

London pride
On 17 September, 50 students from Hoxton School serenaded Chaplin outside the Ritz with a stirring rendition of ‘The Moon Shines Bright on Charlie Chaplin’:

“When the moon shines bright on Charlie Chaplin
His boots are cracking, for want of blacking
And his little baggy trousers need mending
Before we send him to the Dardanelles
”

Initially, the lyrics were considered to be a thinly veiled dig at Chaplin’s defection to the US and his failure to enlist for duty during World War One due to a clause in his contract with the Mutual Corporation. However, Chaplin was rejected on the grounds of his diminutive stature, being one who stood at 5’4”, weighing only 126 pounds.

Moved by their performance, Chaplin invited the children up to his suite, where he gave each child a packet of sweets as he impersonated an old man in a picture gallery. Chaplin was presented a box of cigars and a letter by one boy, Charles Loughton, who remarked, ‘You were one of us. You are now famous all over the world. But we like to think you were once a poor boy in London as we are. You are now a gentleman, and all gentlemen smoke cigars. So, we have chosen a box as a little gift to “Our Charlie”.’

Three weeks later, after a long weekend with H.G. Wells and his family, Chaplin departed for New York again on the RMS Olympic.

Memory lane
Born in Walworth, south London in April 1889 to music hall performers, Chaplin’s early life was marred by alcoholism, poverty and mental illness. Charles Snr abandoned the family when Chaplin was 18 months old after his mother, Hannah, gave birth to his half-brother, Wheeler Dryden. By the age of seven, Chaplin had been sent to the Lambeth workhouse along with his mother, Hannah and Sydney, before entering the Hanwell School for Orphans and Destitute Children. Hannah suffered a severe nervous breakdown in 1895, and would spend the rest of her years between sanitoriums.

In 1903, Hannah moved to Cane Hill Lunatic Asylum before moving to Peckham House in South London. Charlie and Sydney brought her out to California months before his trip to London, where she lived out her final days until her death in August 1928.

Many parts
Chaplin’s career in vaudeville had begun by accident at the age of five after he was pushed on stage in Aldershot to support his distressed mother, who faced a crowd of jeering soldiers after she lost her voice due to laryngitis. He began getting regular work from the age of ten as a member of the Eight Lancashire Lads.

By 1910, Chaplin had emigrated to America, joining the Fred Karno Repertoire Company, working opposite Stanley Jefferson, better known as Stan Laurel. Chaplin branched into films in 1912, after gaining the attention of Mack Sennett. Signing a lucrative contract with The Mutual Film Corporation in March 1916, Chaplin saw his salary rise to $10,000 a week – with an additional bonus of $150,000.

But it was in 1919 that Chaplin surpassed himself when he joined forces with Douglas Fairbanks Snr, Mary Pickford and D.W. Griffiths to form United Artists. Now, for the first time, he had full artistic control and ownership of his work, as an actor, writer, producer, director, editor and composer.

Enduring legacy
During his illustrious 77-year career, Chaplin produced 82 films, including The Gold Rush and City Lights. However, his reputation was damaged in 1940, after he made The Great Dictator, a satirical attack on fascism in which he played ‘Adenoid Hynkel’. Chaplin’s movies were subsequently banned in Germany as Hitler believed Chaplin to be Jewish. He also found himself embroiled in a 1943 paternity case with Joan Barry – before entering into a happy 34-year marriage with Oona O’Neill, the daughter of playwright Eugene O’Neill.

In 1952, the US government decide to revoke Chaplin’s visa while he was promoting Limelight in London. Labelled a ‘communist sympathiser’, Chaplin and his family went into exile in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland, before he returned to America in 1972 to collect an Honorary Academy Award.

Knighted in 1975, he died on Christmas Day 1977 in Manoir de Ban, his Swiss manor house, with his wife Oona, and seven of their eight children by his side.