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aint_no_life_nowhere

(21,925 posts)
Fri Jan 31, 2014, 06:39 PM Jan 2014

I find this film of London, England from 1903 utterly fascinating

Later on in the film you can see the enormous traffic build-up of horse drawn vehicles in downtown London mostly consisting of Hansom cabs (cabriolets of two wheels drawn by one horse with the driver high up in the back - right out of the pages of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes) and double deck horse drawn buses. I saw one early motorcar in the entire clip.

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I find this film of London, England from 1903 utterly fascinating (Original Post) aint_no_life_nowhere Jan 2014 OP
It never occurred to me there would be advertising on the side of a horse drawn bus. tanyev Jan 2014 #1
Thanks for posting this. I love stuff like that. Captain Stern Jan 2014 #2
I've seen that one too - it's amazing aint_no_life_nowhere Jan 2014 #6
Amazing Shankapotomus Jan 2014 #3
They all died... Callmecrazy Jan 2014 #5
Traffic was bad even then! greatauntoftriplets Jan 2014 #4
Interesting adverts too. Graybeard Jan 2014 #7
I'm especially interested tavernier Jan 2014 #8
Watch your step... MrScorpio Jan 2014 #9

tanyev

(42,584 posts)
1. It never occurred to me there would be advertising on the side of a horse drawn bus.
Fri Jan 31, 2014, 06:54 PM
Jan 2014

But of course there was.

aint_no_life_nowhere

(21,925 posts)
6. I've seen that one too - it's amazing
Fri Jan 31, 2014, 07:30 PM
Jan 2014

I saw a different youtube posting of the same film and I first noted that there seemed to be quite a few more cars in it than the London one, that strangely all looked like the same convertible model. But the explanation prefacing this download to youtube makes clear that it was one car circling the field of view over and over, in an effort to make San Francisco seem more prosperous.

Shankapotomus

(4,840 posts)
3. Amazing
Fri Jan 31, 2014, 07:09 PM
Jan 2014

It's like video archeology.

Makes you want to know who were those people? What story did each of them live? And what happened to them?

Graybeard

(6,996 posts)
7. Interesting adverts too.
Fri Jan 31, 2014, 07:44 PM
Jan 2014

Some of the brand names advertised are still on our shelves today:

KODAK
Pear's Soap
Nestle's
Bovril
Lipton's Teas
Quaker Oats
Grape-Nuts

A fun clip.
.

tavernier

(12,394 posts)
8. I'm especially interested
Fri Jan 31, 2014, 07:49 PM
Jan 2014

since I'll be back there in just a few weeks and I've ridden/walked those same streets myself. Odd that all the foot traffic is male pedestrians, and they all dodge in and out and between the horse and buggies. I guess the women in long skirts were confined to the sidewalks. ?

Yes, all dead, as someone commented; brings home the realization of how truly short our journey is on this earth.

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