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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 items in this collection

Visit to Pompeii

  • 1901

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
  • 1898-02-01

A Sea Cave near Lisbon

  • 1896

Pope Leo XIII Being Seated Bestowing Blessing

  • 1898

Fisherman and Boat at Port Said

  • 1897

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

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

Phantom Ride - Chamonix

  • 1900

Patrick Street, Cork

  • 1900

Boys Bathing - Venice

  • 1898

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

Panorama around the Eiffel Tower

  • 1900

Tram Journey through Southampton

  • Southampton
  • 1900

Railway Ride over the Tay Bridge

  • Tay Bridge
  • 1897

A Steamship Passes By

  • 1899

Panorama of Calcutta, India, From the River Ganges.

  • 1899

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

Rocky Shore

  • 1896

Churned Waters

  • 1899

The Mount Pilatus Railway

  • 1900

Gang Making Railway - South Africa

  • 1898

Queensbury Tunnel

  • 1898

Royal Train

  • 1896

Tetherball, Or Do-do

  • 1898

Up the River

  • 1896

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

  • Bushey
  • 1897

Ox Wagon

  • 1898

Greasy Pole Game aboard Ship

  • 1900

Comic Scene on Board Ship

  • 1898

Panorama - Windsor Castle

  • Windsor Castle
  • 1898

Pleasure Steamers on a River

  • 1900

The 'Bluff', Durban

  • 1898

Ships Coming to Anchor, South Africa

  • 1898

Pope Leo XIII Leaving Carriage and Being Ushered Into Garden

  • 1898

Adderley Street, Cape Town

  • 1898

Ship at Sea

  • 1898

Bangor Yacht Race

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

Buxton Skyline (1901)

  • Buxton
  • 1901

A Ride on the Peak Tramway

  • 1900

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

Street

  • 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

Mailboat Munster Arriving at Holyhead from Dublin

  • Holyhead/Caergybi
  • 1898

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

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

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

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

  • 1898

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

  • 1898

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

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

Shipping on the Thames

  • 1898

Train Tunnel

  • 1898

The Vatican Guards, Rome

  • 1898

Waves Breaking on a Pier

  • 1896

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

Dignitaries Coming down Gang Plank

  • 1896

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