Hull Fair (1902)

Kingston upon Hull
1902
Silent
3m

The ornate pavilions of cinematographs, boxing booths and menageries at Hull Fair.

Hull's was Britain's largest fair, held annually since the Middle Ages. This film gives a real feel for the atmosphere of its spectacular shows - Bailey's American Circus, Bostock and Wombwell's Menagerie and Randall Williams' Cinematograph. Two black men are among the fighters luring the punters to Hughes' boxing booth. Alfred Hitchcock's 1926 boxing film The Ring has a strikingly similar scene.

The black faces - not the only ones to be found in the Mitchell and Kenyon collection of films - remind us that Caribbean immigration into Britain didn't suddenly start with the arrival of the Empire Windrush in 1948.

Before Windrush

Precious glimpses and surprising rediscoveries: snapshots of black Britain in the decades before the great postwar migrations.

There was a substantial black presence in Britain long before the Empire Windrush arrived from Jamaica in June 1948. Some of the earliest moving images of black Britons survive in the extraordinary Mitchell and Kenyon collection from the dawn of the 20th century. WWI newsreels offered occasional glimpses of black soldiers from Britain - or more likely the Empire. In WWII the contribution of black servicemen and women was more prominently acknowledged in newsreels and documentaries. Between the wars, black performers began to make a splash, from music hall entertainers Scott & Whaley to Britain's first black screen star, US-born actor, singer and activist Paul Robeson. Stars like these had an easier time than many, but still faced unthinking stereotypes and prejudice. But they forged a path for others to follow. The films in this selection span some five decades, serving as a vital record of a much longer history of black people and culture in Britain than is often remembered.