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The Grand Tour

The Victorian age witnessed a transport revolution, but even at the end of Victoria's reign, overseas travel was still beyond the reach of many. Films, though, could transport their audiences to distant lands.

Filmmakers followed the indispensable Baedeker guides (the Lonely Planet of its day), presenting their own vicarious 'Grand Tour': from Vienna to Venice, from Niagara to the Nile. And with most people seldom venturing far from their homes, images of Britain's own varied landscape carried a taste of the exotic. One spectacular innovation - the 'phantom ride', filmed from a moving vehicle - gave audiences the sensation of the journey itself.

77 videos in this collection

Beautiful panorama of the ruins the of Pompeii, with views of Vesuvius

Visit to Pompeii

  • 1901
Glimpses of the Exposition from the river Seine

Panorama of the Paris Exhibition No. 3

  • 1900
Conwy's bridge, castle and station glide past, as if in a dream, in this beautiful phantom train ride film (no ghosts but apparently no train either) from 1898.

Conway Castle - panoramic view of Conway on the L.& N.W. Railway

  • Conwy Castle
  • 1898
Breath-taking view of waves breaking at the mouth of the Boca do Inferno.

A Sea Cave near Lisbon

  • 1896
A film first - a Papal blessing for the camera

Pope Leo XIII Being Seated Bestowing Blessing

  • 1898
Victorian-era quayside scenes filmed in northern Egypt

Fisherman and Boat at Port Said

  • 1897
A Victorian view of Egypt: exotic and elegantly filmed.

Women Fetching Water from the Nile

  • 1897
Get up close to the ancient British icon - before the coach parties descended.

Stonehenge - Panorama of the Ancient Druidical Remains

  • Stonehenge
  • 1901
The wonder of Niagara captured in an early film

Panorama of Niagara Falls

  • 1901
A view of the many sea-going vessels around Saltash and Plymouth.

Cinematographic View of the Royal Albert Bridge (1901)

  • Royal Albert Bridge
  • 1901
Admire the view but don't look down, as this short film takes you on a breathtaking trip through the Alps

Phantom Ride - Chamonix

  • 1900
A bustling Victorian street scene taken from Patrick Bridge

Patrick Street, Cork

  • 1900
An intimate, playful scene of young lads cooling off and larking about in a Venetian backwater

Boys Bathing - Venice

  • 1898
This was one of a series of actuality films made by the Victorian pioneer Birt Acres during 1895. The film is thought to have been shot on the occasion of the opening of the Kiel Canal by the German Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Opening of the Kiel Canal

  • 1895
The luxurious RMS Lucania is bound for New York in one of Mitchell & Kenyon's most elaborate and striking films.

Cunard Mail Steamer Lucania Leaving For America (1901)

  • Liverpool
  • 1901
Stand in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower and tour the pavilions of Paris's Exposition Universelle of 1900

Panorama around the Eiffel Tower

  • 1900
Vivid tour of Victorian Southampton

Tram Journey through Southampton

  • Southampton
  • 1900
Stunning train's eye views across the Tay rail bridge from Fife to Dundee

Railway Ride over the Tay Bridge

  • Tay Bridge
  • 1897
With energetic waving of handkerchiefs to those on shore, a large steamship heads off

A Steamship Passes By

  • 1899
One of the earliest films to be shot in India apparently shows the Calcutta ghats - or does it?

Panorama of Calcutta from the River Ganges

  • 1899
Watching the trains go by on a summers day at Wood Green Station.

Railway Traffic

  • 1898
Views from an Edwardian railway trip, filmed just east of the Devon-Cornwall border and over the Tamar.

Beautiful Panorama of Railway Ride from St. Germans to Millbay (1901)

  • Plymouth
  • 1901
The hypnotic spectacle of waves breaking over rocks

Rocky Shore

  • 1896
A hypnotic study of the wake of a ship at sea

Churned Waters

  • 1899
Take a trip on the steepest rack railway in the world, scaling Mount Pilatus in the heart of the Swiss Alps

The Mount Pilatus Railway

  • 1900
Working conditions in South Africa before the outbreak of the Boer War

Gang Making Railway - South Africa

  • 1898
Evocative images taken at the mouth of Victorian Britain's longest train tunnel

Queensbury Tunnel

  • 1898
Detective work reveals... this very early film was shot at Southampton Royal Pier Station. But who's the VIP on board?

Royal Train

  • 1896
At sea for weeks on end, Victorian sailors had to find ways to amuse themselves and get a little exercise in too

Tetherball, Or Do-do

  • 1898
A river tragedy is narrowly averted in this early dramatic scene

Up the River

  • 1896
A wonderfully clear view of Bushey Station in Victorian times

Railway Traffic on the L.N.W.R.

  • Bushey
  • 1897
Scene in a bustling South African market town before the Boer War

Ox Wagon

  • 1898
High jinks on the high seas: sample Union-Castle Line's on-board entertainment.

Greasy Pole Game aboard Ship

  • 1900
A dispute on the ocean waves

Comic Scene on Board Ship

  • 1898
This panorama takes in Windsor and Eton Riverside station, Windsor Castle, and plenty of Victorians at leisure.

Panorama - Windsor Castle

  • Windsor Castle
  • 1898
Victorians messing about on the river

Pleasure Steamers on a River

  • 1900
Small yachts sailing off Durban bluff

The 'Bluff', Durban

  • 1898
Enticing amateur snapshot of South Africa before the outbreak of the Boer War.

Ships Coming to Anchor, South Africa

  • 1898
One of a rare and revealing series of films capturing the first moving images of the Pontiff. Here the Pope leaves his carriage and enters a garden, his rheumatism clearly visible, providing insight into Leo's state of health at the time.

Pope Leo XIII Leaving Carriage and Being Ushered Into Garden

  • 1898
Cape Town's handsome high street just before the outbreak of the Boer War

Adderley Street, Cape Town

  • 1898
A clever early film that uses the new medium to drag the audience out to sea

Ship at Sea

  • 1898
This amateur film of a sailing event is the first film taken by an Irishman in Ireland

Bangor Yacht Race

  • 1898
A striking panorama of the Peak District town and its magnificent Georgian Crescent.

Buxton Skyline (1901)

  • Buxton
  • 1901
Stunning glimpses of Hong Kong at the dawn of the 20th century through this roller-coaster ride on the vertiginous Peak Tram

A Ride on the Peak Tramway

  • 1900
An improvised deck game to pass the time en voyage

Sports on Board Ship

  • 1898
Crystal-clear views of town, sands, sea, tourists and locals at the Lancashire resort.

Panoramic View of the Morecambe Sea Front (1901)

  • Morecambe
  • 1901
A close brush with the precursor to the number 73 bus in Victorian London.

Horse-drawn Traffic in Euston Rd

  • St Pancras
  • 1899
Downtown Belfast is easily recognisable in these scenes from a tramcar ride in 1901.

Ride on a Tram Car through Belfast (1901)

  • Belfast
  • 1901
Captivating early film by the pioneer of Welsh cinema.

Holyhead Mail Boat 1898

  • Holyhead/Caergybi
  • 1898
A surprisingly close encounter with late-Victorian traffic, looking down Oxford Street from Marble Arch

Hirse Buses - Oxford St Marble Arch 1

  • 1898
A fascinating film tour into the heart of Edwardian Liverpool.

Liverpool As Seen from the Front of an Electric Car from the Pierhead to the Circus (1901)

  • Liverpool
  • 1901
The Pope arrives in a carriage and bestows a blessing.

Pope Leo XIII in Carriage

  • 1898
A journey across the well-known Scottish railway bridge, filmed from the engine front.

Over the Tay Bridge on an Express Train (1901)

  • Tay Bridge
  • 1901
Welcome to Place de L'Opera: an early filmed snapshot of Paris landmark the Palais Garnier.

Daniels No. 7

  • 1900
A 'phantom ride' along a fondly remembered Devon railway, crossing the distinctive Taw Bridge into Barnstaple on the way to Ilfracombe

View from an Engine Front - Barnstaple

  • Barnstaple
  • 1898
A driver's view of the Furness Railway through Furness Abbey Tunnel and Station.

Phantom Ride on the Furness Railway (1901)

  • Furness Abbey
  • 1900
Rare images of the first filmed Pope

Pope Leo XIII Carried through the Vatican Loggia on His Way to the Sistine Chapel

  • 1898
A rare early film capturing the man and not just the figurehead

Pope Leo XIII Walking At Twilight Through Some Favourite Haunt In the Gardens

  • 1898
Don your straw boater and join Victorians at play as you potter down the river at Henley-on-Thames

Thames River Scenery - Panorama of the Crowded River

  • Henley-on-Thames
  • 1899
Splendid views of Edwardian Rochdale from the front of a tram after a recent dusting of snow.

Rochdale Tram Ride (1905)

  • Rochdale
  • 1905
A break from the Boer War as a travelling film camera brings footage of an exotic feeding time back to Britain

Scene on Mr. N. Smit's Ostrich Farm, Impanzi, Natal, South Africa

  • 1900
All ashore! Passengers disembark and crew offload after a long Atlantic crossing.

S.S. Saxonia in Liverpool (1901)

  • Liverpool
  • 1901
A large liner draws away from the quay, but where is she headed?

Ship Departing from Port (c.1901)

  • 1901
Filmed by Rotherhithe, this film provides a glimpse into Victorian working life on the Thames.

Shipping on the Thames

  • 1898
A view out of a railway tunnel, which could have formed part of a longer 'phantom ride' film.

Train Tunnel

  • 1898

The Vatican Guards, Rome

  • 1898
Intrepid tourists brave the great waves breaking on the marina wall at Brighton

Waves Breaking on a Pier

  • 1896
A washerwoman's work is never done - especially when there's a drunken chimney sweep at large...

Washing the Sweep

  • 1898
A steamship tour along the picturesque coast from Liverpool to the Menai Straits.

Trip to North Wales on the St Elvies (1902)

  • Liverpool
  • 1902
The headgear says it all in this parade of VIPs

Dignitaries Coming down Gang Plank

  • 1896
Scenes from the 'Clyde Fortnight'

Clyde Regatta

  • 1898

Through Miller's Dale (Near Buxton, Derbyshire) Midland Railway

  • 1898

Railway Track Viewed from Train

  • 1900

Wall Collection

  • 1900

Menai Bridge - The Irish Day Mail from Euston Entering the Tubular Bridge over the Menai Straits

  • 1898

Boat Passengers Embarking

  • 1900

Railway Traffic

  • 1900