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From: BFIfilms
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  • very nice...

  • hasnt changed much

  • 0:36 I'd like to know what he was reading

  • that man in 0:31 who is looking back... his face looks scary, almost as if he is wearing a mask.

  • Imagine going back in time, and letting them try Runts (the fruit shaped candy).

  • @Floodlezoot lol

  • Imagine going back in time and telling them that one day their faces would end up on youtube...

  • Wow....everytime I see these kinds of old pixs there is always a woman with the black dress and hats that make them look like witches....freaks me out. Was black witches the fashion in those days? lol...

  • The oldest person in the world was born in 1896.

  • Video's people all dead

    We just watching Dead People walking

  • @ClaudeLeung1985 I just thought the same thing.

  • @ChrysChambers What you thought?

  • a different world, no blacks for starters

  • @sweetypie000 bet there was next to no violence, the streets were clean and pakis weren't hanging round on every street corner...

  • @sweetypie000

    europe is fucked. Even if you start with 10% open borders are going to make europe an asian continent. Not meaning that in a racist way but France and the UK alone has enough to do it within a few years. When economic problems wear those 2 countries down lax migration laws inside the EU will see spreading populaces

  • Putting the filthy streets and shorter life expectancies aside, they sure as hell dressed better than people do now. Christ, even the poor dressed better than some people nowadays.

  • 1896. Back when there were no cars or anything.

  • Had you look again didnt i ........LOL

  • If you look closely at the first carriage the driver is talking on his cell phone.

  • @99ontguy1 He was talking to his carrier pidgeon.

  • notice the horrible smog in the background from all the coal burning

  • Back in the day... @_@

  • 0:22 Groucho!!!!!

  • God I wish time machines were real. It would be awesome to just live one day in the 1800s and get to experience it.

  • @Silkara78 I have the same desire and during that one day I would keep on telling about the scientific development and achievement but people would never pay attention and may be I would have been declared as irrational, insane person

  • @Silkara78

    I'd be making a beeline to the nearist chemist to buy a bottle of Laudanum.

  • @76i86989789 yes he looks like a greeper. But u tel me.. if u where to film the same place in 2011. Would u find someone very antiquie too? u might say yes one from the during the ww2 perhaps ?

  • But its interesitng how these people walk past and just notice someone with a camera but some are not as (who cares) and looks els where. Considering a camera in 1898 is like new technology at the time.. people or lots didnt new what it was.. But its interesting. 0:17 that guy in a long black suite style looks like todays (gothic look alike) with that long thing hes wearing) I wonder what clothes fashion of of been like in 1840 compare to 1898 ?

  • i notice only some may look quickly at the camera but then turn around or look els where which was more important then stare someone with a camera. So thats interesting.. FACTS: todays life if you hold a camera and film wher there is lots of people... people will stand there or stare at you. Just like how people would of done in 1898 :) things just never change.. Today its like as if people have never seen someone holding a camera and filming. It seems like the old days. Anyone ever wonder that?

  • @VOXS2 Interesting and great observations,

  • dig the hats!

  • Wow, i'd be exaughisted if I ever wore that type of woman's apparel. Films exaggerate too much when it comes to periodic costumes.

  • @elvaelvirababe

    the film is real,you know

  • @menacinghat Oh no, I meant periodic films nowdays.

  • Beautiful over time in those times

  • I saw one ``blue collar`` ........ the rest were white .

    Particular era .

  • I want to go back in time and bring a modern video camera and a book of future history to give to someone.

  • my granpa Clyde was born in 1896. He looked like Uncle Sam.

  • superbe voyage dans le temps !!! J'adore !!

  • These early movies are remarkable as historic documents. Just people going about their business in what is to us, another world.

  • 0:12 Vintage double-deckers :D

  • I only went on this video because the world's oldest woman was born in 1896

  • We, as a people, don't wear enough hats.

  • the wealthy men back then wore such nice clothes they realy dressed up to the nines, if you see the man with the top hat walking with his wife you can see how much effort people made to dress themselves back then.

  • 0:31 is it just me or is that guy kinda creepy

  • @mylastaidkit he looks like an old drunk i just think he is haggerd from years of drinking lots of gin

  • Think about it.....everyone in this video....is dead now.........

  • so um u mean kids in 2100 will be able to search any porno made in 2000?

  • The oldest living woman today was born in 1896. It's amazing to think there is someone alive today who was alive when this was filmed and sad to think that soon there will nobody left who were born in the 1800s.

  • The bridge became internationally notorious in 1982, when the Italian banker Roberto Calvi was found hanged below one of its arches in what was originally believed to be a suicide, but is now officially regarded as a murder.

  • I can't believe I'm watching life in 1903 unfolds...I don't like to watch old films usually. Occasionally, I'd fall in love with a beautiful young thing and I'm keep thinking she's now fertilizing daffodils.

  • You actually saw coppers walking the streets in them days to show the General populace they were being protected.

    Strange how they keep a low profile these days.

  • @crewzaa i think it was because all police men went on foot in tem days so there appeared to be more of a presence, nowadays lots of them go around in umarked vehicles and in plainclothes in the 1800s very few officers were plainclothes officers during the ripper investigation they actually had to pull uniformed oficers to work undercover when in fact they had no covert experience such was the scant numbers of non uniformed men.

  • Imagine going back in time and asking them if they wanna play a game of Call of Duty.

  • @LynxCoding hahahaha

  • lol everyone in this video is dead nao

  • Is the fare that time are FIXED? they don't have any taxi meter?

  • there are still people alive who were born in 1896. amazing

  • @hallowedbeeddie what? seriously? o.o

  • @5Deadpool yes. look it up on wikipedia. the oldest people alive right now were born in 1896. they have lived in 3 cdifferent centuries. amazing

  • @hallowedbeeddie damn,your right! awesome!

  • 0:29 to 0:32 WTF A GUY WITH A MASK???

  • @StefGraffiti What you talking about .

  • 1896 eh, back when Britain ruled over a quarter the world and was a superpower.

  • @RepublicOfVietnam

    it's easy to troll the world when there is rampant ingnorance. Britain deserves its present state.

  • 1896? Makes me sad to see this.... poor Oscar Wilde was in prison...

  • Gosh this must be one of the oldest videos on YouTube!

  • BigTman1 misses the point completely....this maybe only 114 years ago...but this was close to the very start of video capture.... A truly captivating piece of film...It's short movies like this that now has given everyone the great comfort of watching all the amazing movies made there on after..... We are now really a spoilt generation for choice...I would have given anything to watch the first ever movie screened at a cinema house back in the day...:)

  • I love times back then! Soooo much simpler! I agree, it is a historical treasure!

  • That young lad boy reading the newspaper looks like his wearing a fashionist modern looks just like the 1902s. Know unless this video is defently not 1896 and only 1919 will know but i could be wrong... just it seems alittle modern dressing there on this video and wouldnt thought fashionw as like that allready in 1896 until the new looks started in 1921, Anyways that young lad looks educational. reading factory sort of news... maybe a new candy store opens.. or news about horses farms

  • From the distanc eof this video... was that fog ? i seem to see so many videos of this regardless its 1901 and theres allways that fog distance looks.. as if these years there was a huge polution up in the air ? I wonder what these people would had smell like and what life walking by the bridge the air would smell like.Nice i see a young boy walking by reading the newspaper. It reminds me like todays passing by the bridge you would see anyone reading the newspaper like that even a young chap

  • I also agree its a shame that when i also look on google maps i spoted the exact where this camera video was.... on the side of the bridge... these nice luxury street lamp lights are not there anymore.... they took it down ot they sorta cut the pole in half... it would of been luxury if they where never to take that down because it makes the bridge very luxury. But from what i see on google map since pictures where 2009 the street lamp lights are taken off from the bridge How come they took it?

  • Its just such a nice peace of history in the making. I personaly never new that in 1896 there would be things like that.. I had the feeling it was more like the bridge wasnt invented and such hehe. I wonder if that bridge was still kinder new and fresh looks at the time of this video ? Course if you walk by it today it will sure to look very old and been used so much that it doesnt look fresh new as it was back then. Or was the bridge looking old in 1896 ?

  • Yep i too can not believe this is 1896. I see that person you are talking about the tall young lad with that long black suite.. Looks like a 1920s modern fashionist.. And defently not a 1896 but again i wouldnt no what was actually modern fashion in 1896 :) But yes its very interesting sort of stuff... Isnt there a more video of this ? this seems kinder too short. Im sure the film men was filming this alittle longer ?

  • That first young tall guy walking by the camera the first one has a nice long jacket.. though i cant still imagen this was 1896 ? the guy looks way more modern dressed like 1920s by all means.. While the rest of the people typical dressing style of that year... though ive looked at ather videos deom the 1915s still dressing the same.. or not until 1920 when ladies no longer wears these long classic costumes as it became more of a change. still interesting though.

  • i would love to fine out the exact spot where this camera men was located... like i wonder if its posible to google map the exact spot. And see if everything the lights and the background looks the same.. Could make it out a walking by kid with a newspaper today hehe

  • My grandparents were all born around the year 1885, I have to wonder what my grand kids will think when they are old and look back!

  • fantastic footage. so many society changes in 100+yrs

  • 0:30 i saw Glenn quagmires, great great, grandad

  • that old guy near the end was probably born in the 1830's.

  • wow the Joker was already there @0:32

  • the worst part of the times was to go out for some fresh air and smell nothing but horse shit with the ammount of horses there is!it seems that this place had lovely architecture, half the buildings arent there anymore :(

  • no hoody or anti social yob to be seen

  • The car was only a few years away, these people would have been around long enough to see early cars.

  • 1896, my gret granda was born in 1897. died 1952. served in WW1 in Seaforth Highlanders & RMGC, later as ambulance & ended up back in Dyce. wow, anamazing man. australian-born, he was a tailor by trade.

  • @owtatowttowt my grandmother was born in 1906 and died in 1980 but she could remember the 1912 titanic disaster and the 1916 rising against british rule in ireland. even though we have lots of modern technology today them times seemed more interesting.

  • I remember another video on youtube where a guy was driving around the city, just filming everything. No events or editing or documentary narrating, just a video of things the way they are. I thought, that's such a useful and simple idea. 100 years from now, that video will be one of the best references about the millennial years they have. Our movies and TV shows won't tell them much, and will be obsolete anyway, but an un-tampered-with video of our world will always be valuable

  • if these people were alive today they wouldn't believe that there aren't any horse carts around, and what would it be 100 years from now same place where the film was taken...what no more cars around??

    Nice film.

  • What`s unusual about this movie is the frame rate is set pretty natural...I mean if you look at the people walking, it`s pretty much dead on perfect. They aren`t walking speeded up or slowed down which is what you usually see with movies this old.

  • Wow this movie is almost as old as Madonna.

  • @JamesTKirkCobain You have an obsession with her!

  • I'm a great believer in time travel. The laws of physics show that gravitational time dilation is a fact and time travel becomes a real possibility, So my next trip to the past will be London 1896, by Blackfriars Bridge

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  • The bridges over the thames all over London, and Blackfriars Bridge in particular, have a reputation for attracting depressed, desperate suicidal people to jump to the river; it's an eerie feeling when crossing this bridge at night.

    This film is a historical treasure

  • amazing piece of history it looks like a movie set for a period drama

  • the 5th Dimension

  • awesome

  • Shadows of our past.

  • The quality is pretty good for that age...

  • its amazing to see london how it was 100 years ago in such good HQ its amazing and intesting

  • hey i found the joker!!!! 0:30

  • @DozaSlayer To hell with that, I see Jack The Ripper at :45. *smirk*

  • This is is soo awesome. it's like you're there. LIke a glimpse into the past..

  • Thats me in the hat appearing in shot on the right hand side at 0:13. I was 26 years old.

  • every single person you saw in this video is dead.. makes me sad.

  • Wow, that is awesome. It`s like going back in time. Like Roger Ebert says of fim, "windows back in time". We can`t go back in time physically, but we can look through these windows and see it.

  • Did you see the bicyclist wreck and the two blokes fighting in the background? Why didn't anybody stop them?

  • From the late Victorian era. People appear very smart dressed, the pace of life looks easy.......very British.

  • When film like this is slowed to its correct speed (rather than the handcrank system which made everyone walk fast) you really feel like its so much more real

  • we think coz of technologly weve got it so good, but in reality weve never had it so bad!!....weve lost our human touch, the art of conversation, community etc all goodness and simplicity of life lost in a sea of capitalist corperate bullshit!! its just space age gone wrong today!!

  • Was that Camilla Parker Bowles at 00.09 ?

  • 0:22 Now THAT is a lady xxxxxxxx

  • I wonder what that kid (dead kid now) was reading in his newspaper?? any guesses er maybe how much a 2 week package tour was to Bromley or something

  • So engrossing. One of the best 37 secs of film I ever saw.

    I have only just discovered the BFI videos. Brilliant.

  • Whoever filmed this had no idea thousands of people would one day be watching this little clip on "computers"

  • wonderfull vidéo !!!!

  • Its incredible to see something so old, back in the days when the moving picture must have been a real novelty

  • scary man at 31 seconds !

  • The one walking towards the camera, not the guy with a beard? Yes. Odd.

  • 1896! suprisingly clear film! a lost world. no TV. no Radio. no aircraft yet.

  • You wouldn't see that many aircraft or televisions if you took a camera to Blackfriars Bridge today though, to be fair.

  • You can still see lamposts like this on battersea bridge.

  • Look at all the people looking back at the camera like they have never seen a Sony video camera before.

  • "It would be better to make more of an effort to catch those who are abusing the system." That should be easy, but it won't happen, lest the authorities be accused of "profiling" or some other childish complaint. I shall repeat: In PRE-1965 America, when the demographics were still as the Founders intended for them to be, the democratic process worked, and very well. Now, it's a whole, new, terrible situation and perhaps certain aspects of our governing system should be re-thought.

  • Comment removed

  • But surely the "one citizen, one vote" system is the most morally correct method - It justifies itself as it doesnt discriminate. Any right thinking person would rather that than the elitism that you propose.

    As Churchill once remarked: "It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried."

  • Oh yes, "one citizen, one vote" is morally correct. Try explaining that to the ACORN fraudsters and the other scum who voted at least twice in order to ensure the victory of a person who probably isn't even Constitutionally eligible. And let's be truthful: you and I BOTH KNOW which members of American society :( are capable of such unfairness, although I suspect you would rather lie than admit it.

    Let's just say that the "one citizen, one vote" system worked in pre-1965 America.

  • A much more gracious, elegant era, with a well-dressed, civil, courteous population. I would gladly relinquish many modern conveniences to return to The West as she was intended to be, and what she was intended to be is obvious in this lovely clip. Thanks for sharing.

  • So you would quite happily relinguish your right to vote?

  • (relinquish)

  • After last year's "election" (selection?), I believe that the American electorate is too ignorant and unsophisticated to participate in a democracy. (Or at least, 54% were.) We should return to our origins, that being a Constitutional Republic, and forever forsake this now-unfeasible idea of "democracy." This "one citizen, one vote" no longer creates a worthy government. The "right to vote" lacks the cache it once did, as it is now a terribly abused privilege, as blatantly indicated in 2008.

  • These are remarkable to watch! Truly fascinating!

  • 1896 was NOT a long time ago. Henry Allingham, one of Britain's last WWII veterans, was born that year. Most of us born before the mid-1980s knew people who were born around that year. Children alive today will see the year 2109, only a short 100 years from now. People will look back at this year, at the dawn of this new century, and wonder what life was like in "those simpler times".

  • 1896 was a long time ago, for example if one man in that video was 30 he would be 144 years old. He was before the airplane, record, light bulb, radio, automobile, Bore war, WW1, last spic was 4 years ago, the nickel. I could go on forever.

  • @BigTMan1 Well, I have to disagree, because 1896 was a long time ago, and the only person I knew born around that time, was my late great aunt, who was born in 1900. However, it's interesting footage, on how life was like 115 years ago.

  • @BigTMan1 lol @ simpler times.

  • @BigTMan1 They`ll just Google 2011! Also they will be able to watch 110 year old home video of such quality that it might have been recorded 10 minutes before. Theres no film of Ben Disraeli.

  • @BigTMan1 These last one hundred years have been the fastest technologically advancing in history. We had barely developed flying when we started dipping our toes into outer space, and now we can, to some extent, live up there. I wouldn't say it's a long time ago chronologically, but socially, politically and technologically, it might as well have been 1496.

  • the 19th century :)

  • The speed in this clip has been set to a realistic level.

    The fast speeds that old films are usualy shown at give the people an other worldly look.

    But this one is so real i thought i was there.

    A man walking towards us looked so contempory that he made the woman next to him look alarmingly imposing in her Victorian regalia and morality.

    The sights of the times.

    Pity we cant have the clip clop sounds

  • Dead people walkin....

  • the last guy walking left to right is probably Jack The Ripper . . .

  • i think jack was dead when this was filmed he committed his murders in 1888 so 8 years later and still no similar killings i would say he was dead

  • Can't see any Blacks or Indians???

  • hahaahahhaha lmao would be funny if a coon appeared and mugged the kids newspaper hohohoh

  • Lol, nothings changed.

  • notice there are no fat people? Cook your food at home and walk more.

  • Instead of those lovely horse carts we now have 18tonners. Sad to see the horses gone.Bring back the horse!

  • cool cloths

  • It is wonderful that we have a view back to our not so distant ancestors. In another hundred years I wonder what society will be saying about us.

  • yea i wonder

  • I hope the the human race is still about to be honest !

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  • almost eerie we are seeing people walking and talking that are all dead now and so long ago but so cool to watch

  • A England that is gone forever. :(

    I'd love to step into a time portal just so I could experience the atmosphere from that era. Even for just a few seconds. Anything to get me out of this destructive, insane, meaningless, reality TV-driven world we're currently living in. Heck, I'd even settle for the cavemen days.

  • i know right i really do miss em times and i am only 12 years oldl lol

  • england that is gone forever?? eh?

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  • great stuff i love watchn old footage of cities thanx 4 uploading these vids! amazing ho the world has changed an pple also

  • Yes ..so old movies played until, recently looked ridiculous. Now I guess computerisation has given us the correct original speed agin. Note that these cameras were hand cranked so the image will neve seem completely steady.

  • creepy..

  • And to think, Jack the Ripper had committed his crimes just 8 years prior to this not far from there!

  • My god, look at that fellow with that camera contraption, it will never catch on you know, what what what. By joe, Henry only yesterday at the gentlemens club said the horses would be replced by some clanking machine i tell you, the mans mind is gone i say!!!

  • i cant believe how fashion has changed over the years.

  • The Guy That Turned Around At 0:31 Has A Funny Lookin Face. It Almost Looks Like He Has A Mask On

  • hey your right!!! lolol