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Panoramic View of the Morecambe Sea Front (1901)

Morecambe
1 Jan 1901
Silent
2m

Crystal-clear views of town, sands, sea, tourists and locals at the Lancashire resort.

With their summer afternoon clarity, Mitchell and Kenyon's images of Morecambe remain gorgeously fresh. The respectable pleasures of the white-collar resort are communicated by static shots (men, women and children on the promenade) and others filmed from a horse-drawn tram: onlookers are encouraged to wave, while excited boys race the carriage. The seaside shimmers in the background.

The film ends on a wave across the street and a view of the poster advertising the winter gardens show at which this film, commissioned and exhibited by the flamboyant showman AD Thomas, was first screened. It subsequently travelled at least as far as Yorkshire (there's evidence of it being screened in Bradford).

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From the collection

On the Move

Britain in the early 20th century was a society in a hurry - and transport was changing fast.

The era of mass transportation launched by the Victorians gathered pace in the Edwardian age. Mitchell & Kenyon’s films feature countless trains, buses and trams, as well as horse-drawn coaches and bicycles, though cars are still a rarity.

People where the duo’s stock-in-trade, but transport could also take a leading role. Films feature boats, ferries and ocean liners, but much more common - and frequently magical - are those which take us on a journey by train or, especially, by tram, gliding through space and time into the heart of the towns and cities of our ancestors.