Royal Train
Detective work reveals... this very early film was shot at Southampton Royal Pier Station. But who's the VIP on board?
Who's on board? For many years this was a largely unidentified film. Having survived as a mere 25-foot fragment of cellulose nitrate film, and not having been found mentioned in the film catalogues of the day, it was a difficult one to collate, date or locate. But there's several clues to go on...
The footage apparently arrived at the BFI as part of a small collection associated with film pioneer RW Paul - so it was presumably shot by Paul's company. A train arrives at a station, clearly in a port town: there are harbour scenes in the background while visible 'LS' insignia suggest the London and South Western Railway. These two pieces information combined mean that we're almost certainly at Southampton Royal Pier Station. The train's met by a line of police and a large crowd: someone important is on board. Indeed, train markings identify this as Queen Victoria's own conveyance: forelock-tugging train companies often designated 'royal carriages' for her. The remaining question is: on this occasion, is it the Queen herself inside or another top Royal?
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The Grand Tour
The Victorian age witnessed a transport revolution, but even at the end of Victoria's reign, overseas travel was still beyond the reach of many. Films, though, could transport their audiences to distant lands.
Filmmakers followed the indispensable Baedeker guides (the Lonely Planet of its day), presenting their own vicarious 'Grand Tour': from Vienna to Venice, from Niagara to the Nile. And with most people seldom venturing far from their homes, images of Britain's own varied landscape carried a taste of the exotic. One spectacular innovation - the 'phantom ride', filmed from a moving vehicle - gave audiences the sensation of the journey itself.
77 videos in this collection
1
2
Panorama of the Paris Exhibition No. 3
3
Conway Castle - panoramic view of Conway on the L.& N.W. Railway
4
A Sea Cave near Lisbon
5
Pope Leo XIII Being Seated Bestowing Blessing
6
Fisherman and Boat at Port Said
7
Women Fetching Water from the Nile
8
Stonehenge - Panorama of the Ancient Druidical Remains
9
Panorama of Niagara Falls
10
Cinematographic View of the Royal Albert Bridge (1901)
11
Phantom Ride - Chamonix
12
Patrick Street, Cork
13
Boys Bathing - Venice
14
Opening of the Kiel Canal
15
Cunard Mail Steamer Lucania Leaving For America (1901)
16
Panorama around the Eiffel Tower
17
Tram Journey through Southampton
18
Railway Ride over the Tay Bridge
19
A Steamship Passes By
20
Panorama of Calcutta, India, From the River Ganges.
21
Railway Traffic
22
Beautiful Panorama of Railway Ride from St. Germans to Millbay (1901)
23
Rocky Shore
24
Churned Waters
25
The Mount Pilatus Railway
26
Gang Making Railway - South Africa
27
Queensbury Tunnel
28
Royal Train
29
Tetherball, Or Do-do
30
Up the River
31
Railway Traffic on the L.N.W.R.
32
Ox Wagon
33
Greasy Pole Game aboard Ship
34
Comic Scene on Board Ship
35
Panorama - Windsor Castle
36
Pleasure Steamers on a River
37
The 'Bluff', Durban
38
Ships Coming to Anchor, South Africa
39
Pope Leo XIII Leaving Carriage and Being Ushered Into Garden
40
Adderley Street, Cape Town
41
Ship at Sea
42
Bangor Yacht Race
43
Buxton Skyline (1901)
44
A Ride on the Peak Tramway
45
Sports on Board Ship
46
Panoramic View of the Morecambe Sea Front (1901)
47
Street
48
Ride on a Tram Car through Belfast (1901)
49
Mailboat Munster Arriving at Holyhead from Dublin
50
Hirse Buses - Oxford St Marble Arch 1
51
Liverpool As Seen from the Front of an Electric Car from the Pierhead to the Circus (1901)
52
Pope Leo XIII in Carriage
53
Over the Tay Bridge on an Express Train (1901)
54
Daniels No. 7
55
View from an Engine Front - Barnstaple
56
Phantom Ride on the Furness Railway (1901)
57
Pope Leo XIII Carried through the Vatican Loggia on His Way to the Sistine Chapel
58
Pope Leo XIII Walking At Twilight Through Some Favourite Haunt In the Gardens
59
Thames River Scenery - Panorama of the Crowded River
60
Rochdale Tram Ride (1905)
61
Scene on Mr. N. Smit's Ostrich Farm, Impanzi, Natal, South Africa
62
S.S. Saxonia in Liverpool (1901)
63
Ship Departing from Port (c.1901)
64
Shipping on the Thames
65
Train Tunnel
66
The Vatican Guards, Rome
67
Waves Breaking on a Pier
68
Washing the Sweep
69
Trip to North Wales on the St Elvies (1902)
70
Dignitaries Coming down Gang Plank
71
Clyde Regatta
72
Through Miller's Dale (Near Buxton, Derbyshire) Midland Railway
73
Railway Track Viewed from Train
74
Wall Collection
75
Menai Bridge - The Irish Day Mail from Euston Entering the Tubular Bridge over the Menai Straits
76
Boat Passengers Embarking
77