Rare Film Shows 1904 London Life
Sat next to me as the projector starts up is the man who found this piece of cinematic history, Professor Ian Christie.
The historian stumbled on the footage, 104 years after it was filmed, while doing a routine search in the Australian National Film Archive.
He was not expecting to find anything of merit.
"You go along to an archive and you say: 'Show me your rubbish, show me the stuff you've never identified'," he tells me as the film plays on the screen in front of us.
"Often it is just rubbish, or it's parts, bits and pieces of things that you can't really make sense of. It's very rare to find something no one has really identified before.
"Maybe once or twice in a lifetime."
The 12-minute silent documentary, called Living London, was made by American film pioneer Charles Urban.
In it we see famous landmarks like Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace surrounded by horse-drawn carts and buses.
But what is more interesting are the scenes of people going about their everyday lives - children playing in a park, fish traders at Billingsgate market and shoe-shiners in the West End showing us how we used to live.
"It's a fantastic panorama of life in London at the beginning of the last century," adds Ian.
"It's really full of interest. It's not just setting up the camera, it's going for a picture that tells a story."
It is thought the film was shipped to Australia and shown in cinemas to promote the mother country.
"I think it shows us how exciting London was, especially for people who live far away," Ian tells me.
"London was one of the most exciting cities anywhere. And just to be able to see it was almost as good as going there for many people."
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The historian stumbled on the footage, 104 years after it was filmed, while doing a routine search in the Australian National Film Archive.
He was not expecting to find anything of merit.
"You go along to an archive and you say: 'Show me your rubbish, show me the stuff you've never identified'," he tells me as the film plays on the screen in front of us.
"Often it is just rubbish, or it's parts, bits and pieces of things that you can't really make sense of. It's very rare to find something no one has really identified before.
"Maybe once or twice in a lifetime."
The 12-minute silent documentary, called Living London, was made by American film pioneer Charles Urban.
In it we see famous landmarks like Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace surrounded by horse-drawn carts and buses.
But what is more interesting are the scenes of people going about their everyday lives - children playing in a park, fish traders at Billingsgate market and shoe-shiners in the West End showing us how we used to live.
"It's a fantastic panorama of life in London at the beginning of the last century," adds Ian.
"It's really full of interest. It's not just setting up the camera, it's going for a picture that tells a story."
It is thought the film was shipped to Australia and shown in cinemas to promote the mother country.
"I think it shows us how exciting London was, especially for people who live far away," Ian tells me.
"London was one of the most exciting cities anywhere. And just to be able to see it was almost as good as going there for many people."