Liverpool Street Scenes (1901)

Liverpool
1901
Silent
1m

Traffic and pedestrians - including an early motor car - in Edwardian Liverpool.

Seen from the city's 'Holy Corner', Liverpool is a hive of people and traffic: in the early 1900s much trade was conducted on the streets. Liverpool had become a wealthy city, and the shop fronts are filled with items for sale. Unusually, we see a motor car, a potent symbol of prosperity. One of the passengers may be Sagar Mitchell - half of filmmaking duo Mitchell and Kenyon.

Two rolls of film were used to make up this one film and it would have proved of great interest to local people, many of whom will have paid between sixpence and a hefty two shillings in the hope of catching a glimpse of themselves on screen. The film would also have been seen as great advertising for the vehicle and its seller, and for all the shops featured.

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.