Workpeople and Girls on Stoney Street, Nottingham (1900)

Nottingham
1900
Silent
1m

Edwardian laceworkers hasten home at dinner time.

This is one of Mitchell & Kenyon's earlier 'factory gate' films, and is shot from an unusually high camera position. As workers from the nearby lace factory, Thos. Adams and Co, walk towards and past the camera, they peer upwards as if trying to see what is going on. The film was shown in October 1900, as part of an exhibit of ' Electric Living Pictures' at the Goose Fair in the Old Market Square.

Crowds of people in front of the camera in Stoney Street, Nottingham

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.