Crowd Entering St George's Hall, Bradford (1901)

Saint George's Hall
1901
Silent
1m

Bradford boys wait eagerly for the picture show at the famous St George's Hall.

Huge crowds throng outside St George's Hall Bradford on a wet February day in 1901, waiting to see a film show of 300 'animated pictures' by the Edison Co. Young boys are much to the fore (this may be the queue for the cheap seats), enthusiastically playing up for the camera. Newspaper reports tell us that this very film of goings on outside the hall, would later play inside as part of the show.

Crowds of boys

Note: Features Waller Jeffs who was the manager of all moving pictures shown at this venue, as well as A. D. Thomas, who commissioned this piece of boys going to see themselves on film.

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.