Co-operative Wholesale Society Clothing Factory in Manchester (c.1900)

Manchester
1900
Silent
1m

Victorian Manchester mill workers enjoy the novelty of a moving picture camera.

The showman who appears at the beginning of this film, like the gang of cheeky lads who loiter in shot later, would have been working with Mitchell & Kenyon to animate the crowds passing through the factory yard. The incorporation of such staged antics was a key element of these films - reminding us their purpose was to entertain and not to be the social documents we see them as today.

Cotton factory gate.

The Victorian World

Vivid portraits of everyday Victorian life, thanks to the first generation of filmmakers to take to Britain’s streets.

Some of the most fascinating of early films are those which are content to watch the world go by. Numerous filmmakers parked their cameras on street corners, in parks, on seaside promenades or outside workplaces or churches to capture fleeting moments of everyday life.

In their own day, these films held a mirror up to Victorian society. Today, these images of our ancestors – relaxed, smiling and laughing, gazing at us through the camera lens - are a gift of moving history. The offer us extraordinary insights into a lost world, more vivid than any still photograph or written account.