Blackfriars Bridge (1896)

Top-hatted Victorians and horse-drawn traffic cross Blackfriars Bridge.

The definition of 'rush hour' in London grows woollier as the years pass: at its worst it seems to stretch demonically from 6am to 9pm.

Journey back over a century to July 1896, though, and this tantalising half-minute of footage reveals our Victorian counterparts making their way to work across the Thames by tram, horse-drawn carriage and, for the health-conscious (or the poor), good old Shanks' pony. More or less business as usual then, although compared to the daily human onslaught we face in 21st century London, the commuters caught by R.W. Paul's static camera proceed at an enviably elegant pace.
(Film courtesy of the British Film Insitute)

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• BFI
• Silent
• Film
• Early
• British
• Documentary
• Actuality
• Non
• Fiction
• Bridge
• London
• Traffic
• Carriage
• Horses
• Commuters
• Rush
• Hour
• Victorian
• 1890s
• RW
• Paul

[wownouser]

What is great about these films is that pace of the people - walking, moving, the carriages, horses, is almost right, not like in other silent movies where the pace is unnaturally faster, which makes everything unreal. Here you can see people move and look just like us. I feel like jumping into their streets and tell them - "hi, I'm from the future, I'm from 110 years in the future. So many things have happened that you don't know about". It's amazing. really like being in a time machine.

[trigga1uk]

fantastic,

[MasterSystem90]

0:31 the guy who turns and looks at the camera. Creepy son of a bitch.

[Csforce]

@EJWhitton its a pipe

[wownouser]

@darrenburnfan

Indeed it is...

[darrenburnfan]

@wownouser Well, the cinematrograph is the nearest we've yet come to having a time machine.

[darrenburnfan]

And in the background, The City of London School, 76 years before Darren Burn started there at the age of eleven in 1972...in fact, 65 years before he was even born!

[Revolva8891]

Astonishing how the background of the scenery still looks the same 115 years later.

[rayygun]

This is when youtube comes into it's own.

[ForkieUK]

Truly marvellous!

[a4Audi2153]

@EJWhitton i know right! exactly what i wa thinking...