Views of Halifax (c.1905)

Halifax
1905
Silent
2m

Pedestrians and bus passengers watch a procession through Edwardian Halifax.

This film starts out as a slice-of-life street view before stopping to appreciate a large-scale procession headed by a brass band, a large number of women and girls wearing elaborate hats and, finally, men and boys. The purpose of the procession is unclear: it's less overtly religious than other Halifax processions, although the word 'CHOIR' can be glimpsed on one of the fluttering banners.

A street scene of Halifax town centre. This is followed by a procession that begins with a brass band and various groups of ladies, girls, fathers and sons in the procession.

Street Life

Pavements thronging, traffic pressed nose to bumper (or tail): these astonishing films show Edwardian streets buzzing with life.

'Street scenes' were a staple of early filmmaking, and Mitchell & Kenyon's are particularly stunning, revealing in sharp detail how our ancestors behaved, dressed and moved in public, as well as how their towns and cities were organised.

These streets throng with human and other traffic. Motor cars were still a rarity, but the tide of vehicles never let up: horse-drawn carts, bicycles, omnibuses and trams (some of them electrified). They may miss the sounds and smells of the city, but these extraordinary images evoke a rapidly changing society: an urbanised, increasingly mobile, consumer Britain not so very different from our own.