Leisurely Pedestrians, Open Topped Buses and Hansom Cabs with Trotting Horses (1889)

Original title

Hyde Park Corner

Directed by

William Friese-Greene

Genre

documentary film, silent film

Country

United Kingdom

Runtime

1 min

Rating

4.4 of 10 from 26 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This is a very short silent documentary film from 1889. It shows a street scene at Hyde Park Corner in London with pedestrians, buses, and horse-drawn cabs. Only a few frames of the original film are known to survive.

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What happens

Leisurely Pedestrians, Open Topped Buses and Hansom Cabs with Trotting Horses (also known as Hyde Park Corner) is an 1889 British short silent actuality film, shot by inventor and film pioneer William Friese-Greene. The film depicts life at Hyde Park Corner in London. Hyde Park Corner is claimed to be the first film set in London, as well as the first to be filmed on celluloid, although Louis Le Prince successfully shot on glass plate before 18 August 1887, and on paper negative in October 1888. It may nonetheless be the first moving picture film on celluloid and the first shot in London. It was shown mainly to several photographic journalists who saw it during their lifetime—including Thomas Bedding, J. Hay Taylor and Theodore Brown. It is now considered a lost film with only 6 possible frames surviving today. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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