The Swaine Story Behind Mary Poppins

In Disney’s 1964 Mary Poppins, Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke captured the nation’s hearts with a film full of imagination and unforgettable songs. At its centre was Mary herself, descending through the London sky with carpet bag in hand and her unmistakable parrot headed umbrella held aloft. Blending live action with animation, the film became an immediate British favourite bringing in 103 million at the box office and, much like a spoonful of sugar, has gone down rather well ever since.

Mary Poppins herself first appeared in the writing of Pamela. Lyndon. Travers before taking centre stage in the 1934 novel Mary Poppins. Travers is said to have drawn inspiration for the character from her formidable great aunt, a woman with a knack for turning ordinary chores into something more interesting. It is a quality Mary possesses in abundance. Tidying the nursery is transformed from a chore into a song, a simple chalk drawing becomes the doorway to an entirely new world and, with the right umbrella in hand, even a journey across the London rooftops is perfectly possible. 

Travers also looked to her own childhood when imagining Mary’s famous parrot headed umbrella. Growing up in Australia, she was fascinated by a parrot headed umbrella belonging to one of the household servants. It would accompany its owner on days out before being carefully wrapped in tissue paper upon her return, safely beyond the reach of curious young hands. Naturally, this only made it all the more intriguing. Years later, the memory found its way into Mary Poppins, where the parrot headed umbrella became one of Mary’s most distinctive possessions. Long before Disney brought it to the screen, then, the umbrella had already travelled from Travers’ childhood into the pages of her story.

And it was no ordinary umbrella. More companion than accessory, the parrot has a decidedly sharp tongue, chiming in with cheeky remarks and opinions of its own. It is a wonderfully eccentric detail, but one rooted in a very real childhood memory.

By the time Hollywood came calling, Thomas Brigg was already a well established name, having made umbrellas in London since the nineteenth century. When Disney needed to transform Travers’ imagined umbrella into something fit for the screen, it turned to Swaine Adeney Brigg. The house was commissioned to create two of the film’s memorable pieces: Mary Poppins’ famous parrot headed umbrella and the whangee handled umbrella carried by Dick Van Dyke. 

For a brand that has spent generations making umbrellas for London weather, creating one capable of conquering the London skies was a rather special moment. More than sixty years later, the parrot headed umbrella remains one of cinema’s most recognisable props, forever linking the craftsmanship of Brigg with a little piece of film history and, of course, a touch of Mary Poppins magic.