London was the final stop in a marathon journey around Britain filmed as a series of cinema travelogues. Pioneering filmmaker Claude Friese-Greene brought these picture-postcard scenes to life with a specially-devised colour film process.
Courtesy of the BFI National Archive.
Old London Street Scenes (1903)
Traffic congestion in Edwardian London.
Made over 100 years ago, this footage shows a number of scenes shot around central London, taking in locations such as Hyde Park Corner, Parliament Square and Charing Cross Station. We see crowds of people disembarking from a pleasure steamer at Victoria Embankment, pedestrians dodging horse-drawn carriages in Pall Mall and heavy traffic trotting down the Strand.
There are plenty of famous landmarks to spot here, including Big Ben, the National Gallery and the Bank of England, and it is fascinating to see the similarities between the customs of then and now - the dense traffic (mainly horse-drawn, with the occasional motor car) is highly reminiscent of today's London rush hour, while advertising on public transport is clearly no new phenomenon - in one scene, an advert for Nestlé's Milk seems to be plastered on every other vehicle.
Credit: BFI
1967 - London Street Scenes (added sound w/ colour remaster)
Old film of London, England in the summer of 1967. Added in sound for ambiance and worked on colour scheme. Thanks to British Pathe
Look at Life - Taxi! Taxi!! 1960
An excellent "Look at life" video clip from The Rank Organisation dated March 1960 looking at the London Taxi cab and learning "The Knowledge". The radio taxi firm was Radio Taxis(Southern) LTD. better know to its drivers as Mountview being the telephone exchange number MOUntview 3232.
