Blackfriars Bridge

Blackfriars Br
1896
Silent
1m

Top-hatted pedestrians and horse-drawn traffic pass over Blackfriars Bridge in London

This 'actuality' film of Blackfriars Bridge in London was taken by pioneer Victorian R.W. Paul in July 1896, with his camera positioned at the southern end looking northwards over the Thames. It was screened as part of his Alhambra Theatre programme shortly afterwards - certainly no later than 31 August, as it's included in a printed programme of that date (as Traffic on Blackfriars Bridge). Two or three of the pedestrians seem aware of the camera's presence.

Robert Paul: Giant of Early Film

The most prolific filmmaker of the pioneer period of British film

The multi-talented Robert Paul (1869-1943) was the first British filmmaker to project film for a paying audience, in 1896. A contemporary of the Lumiere brothers, Paul had been producing film, in partnership with Birt Acres, for his own brand of Kinetoscope viewer since April 1895. Shortly after, he began producing for his Theatrograph and Animatographe machines, enjoying a long run at the Alhambra in Leicester Square. As an engineer, Paul made a number of significant innovations - such as an intermittent mechanism for efficiently projecting film. But he also made key innovations in film language, such as the first two-shot fiction film, Come Along Do! (1898). To cap it all, he was a shrewd businessman, with an instinctive grasp of audience tastes.