Old London Street Scenes (1903)

Traffic congestion in Edwardian London.

Made over 100 years ago, this footage shows a number of scenes shot around central London, taking in locations such as Hyde Park Corner, Parliament Square and Charing Cross Station. We see crowds of people disembarking from a pleasure steamer at Victoria Embankment, pedestrians dodging horse-drawn carriages in Pall Mall and heavy traffic trotting down the Strand.

There are plenty of famous landmarks to spot here, including Big Ben, the National Gallery and the Bank of England, and it is fascinating to see the similarities between the customs of then and now - the dense traffic (mainly horse-drawn, with the occasional motor car) is highly reminiscent of today's London rush hour, while advertising on public transport is clearly no new phenomenon - in one scene, an advert for Nestlé's Milk seems to be plastered on every other vehicle.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• BFI
• Silent
• Film
• Early
• British
• Documentary
• Actuality
• Non-fiction
• London
• Whitehall
• Parliament
• Charing
• Cross
• Trafalgar
• Thames
• Hansom
• Cab
• Omnibus
• Horses
• Transport
• Nestlé
• Automobile
• Car
• Cars

[Steerpike07]

Amazing. This is as close to time travel as you and I will ever see. We are very lucky to be able to access this stuff at the press of a few buttons. I feel privileged. Thank you YouTube and thank you LondonScreenArchive.

[ScottishCaledonian]

And now London is infested with blacks, Muslims and asylum seekers

[DeepSnowBand]

@chisroar Wow. Great idea. Where was this filmed?

[DeepSnowBand]

@trinitymike Areas close too the Thames especially

[DeepSnowBand]

@kungura I got a brand new load of fertiliser...

[DeepSnowBand]

@wwefanworld Oh get over yourself. Were all people. They have just as much right too be here as you and that scares you. People like you are a minority. If you werent BNP would be in power.

[DeepSnowBand]

@maxiboy666 Oh and another racist great. How many Muslim's have you seen spitting or swearing? All that I have ever met are kind considerate people. People at my school who are white spit constantly.

[DeepSnowBand]

@Whiteruthenian Another racist. You should start a club... Oh yeah. You already have one. BNP or KKK. Bastard.

[DeepSnowBand]

@MrJm323 We also have a whole isle at the supermarket devoted too tea :) All those are still around. Although Kodak are in a pretty bad way money wise.

[DeepSnowBand]

@ScottishCaledonian Actually I'm white and live near Southampton where there are many different races. They are all people. If you saw a black person injured on the floor after being attacked, would you leave them too die? If you heard a song you really liked, then discovered it was performed by black people would you like it any less? What if you fell in love with a black woman? 'Judge people by the content of their character not by the colour of their skin' Martin Luther King.