''Blackfriars Bridge'' (AKA: ''Traffic on Blackfriars Bridge'') is an 1896 British short

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

silent

actuality film Actuality film is a non-fiction film genre that uses footage of real events, places, and things (essentially B-roll), a predecessor to documentary film. Unlike documentaries, actuality films are not structured into a larger narrative or coheren ...

, directed by

Robert W. Paul Robert William Paul (3 October 1869 – 28 March 1943) was an English pioneer of film and scientific instrument maker. He made narrative films as early as April 1895, which were shown first in Edison Kinetoscope knockoffs. In 1896 he showe ...

, featuring top-hatted pedestrians and horse-drawn carriages passing over

Blackfriars Bridge Blackfriars Bridge is a road and foot traffic bridge over the River Thames in London, between Waterloo Bridge and Blackfriars Railway Bridge, carrying the A201 road. The north end is in the City of London near the Inns of Court and Temple C ...

, London. The film was, according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "taken from the southern end looking northwards over the Thames by R.W. Paul in July 1896," and, "screened as part of his

Alhambra Theatre The Alhambra Theatre was a popular theatre and music hall located on the east side of Leicester Square, in the West End of London. It was built as the Royal Panopticon of Science and Arts, opening on 18 March 1854. It was closed after two yea ...

programme shortly afterwards, certainly no later than 31 August"

References

External links

* * 1896 films 1896 short films British black-and-white films British silent short films British short documentary films 1890s short documentary films Films directed by Robert W. Paul {{1890s-UK-film-stub