Victorian Britain on Film offers audiences a unique window into a bygone era when a thrilling new invention, the motion picture camera, first captures a nation on film. Most of these films have been transformed by colourising them for the first time. They offer a rare portrait of a powerful and prosperous nation on the cusp of great change.
Director: Alison Grist
Watch the video by Best Documentary
Video “Victorian Britain in Colour | Rare 1890s Footage Restored” was uploaded on 09/23/2025 to Youtube Channel Best Documentary






































hat makers must have been billionaires
Little Tich actually lived less than a mile from Charles Darwin's house, in Downe!
Never thought I'd say this but here goes… SPOT THE BLACK MAN
Love from NC USA. Love this stuff! My grandmother is front Kent ❣️
I love this! NO A.I.! Thank you!
There are no Arabs or Muslims to be seen
The footage was wonderful but all the interrupting waffle, awful. Spoils the immersion in the film.
I am 76 now, but When I was 16, I knew an old man called Mr boast. He told me, that he was a guard at Queen Victoria's funeral in 1901. He was one of the guards that was at the corner of her coffin, guarding it.
This was very interesting to watch
Queen Victoria would be turning in her grave!! State of our country!
24:43 my nickname is Titch as im 4”11
When we consider the poor and there are always poor people in every country and under all socioeconomic systems, we need to put this into context. In 1890 the masses were better off than a generation earlier and that generation was better off than a generation before that and so on and so forth for hundreds of years baring the odd natural disaster on the way. We also need to consider that although there was a large gap in relative living standards between the rich and the poor they still have plenty of problems in common. Many of the poor of today would have problems living as a rich person did then. There may have been a more obvious class system but life was fairly crap for everyone as compared to today. Britain was doing just fine and life was improving at a steady pace by the turn of the century and by the start of WW1 the future was looking fairly rosy. If not for WW1 and 2 this country could have been almost Heaven on Earth by around the 1950s as could have most of the rest of Europe.
My point is that the assumption that the rise in working class standards of living had anything to do with the rise of powerful trade unions, the advent of universal suffrage and the Labour movement as represented by British The Labour Party is just that, an ASSUMPTION, based on very little evidence if any. Given the advent of all kinds of new technologies over the last 130 years and given the wealth and power of this country back then we can only guess where we all could have been by now regardless of any political or demographic changes at all. It is perfectly possible and there is plenty of evidence to suggest that without these the gap between rich and poor in the UK would be noticeably smaller than it is today. Contrary to popular misconception caused mainly by our deliberately disingenuous state education system during the latter half of the 18th century there was far more social mobility in the UK than there is today. It is now nearly impossible for even a middle class child to become generationally rich, but it has become absolutely impossible for a working class person to do so unless they win the national lottery or become a PL footballer. Yet the 19th century has plenty of examples of precisely this. This was not so uncommon even 60 years ago.
Why? Tax on Labour in particular and taxes in general plus the basic costs of living are far too high and far too much socialism is the main reason for both of these. These are what keep the poor relatively poor and perfectly stifle social mobility.
Britain in 1897 wasn't built on slavery it was built on freedom. Africans sold slaves and used slaves and was angry at the British who stopped it. The Caribbeans wealth was limited to a few rich people and didn't filter down to the working man who lived in abject squalor.
VERY strange about the bubblegum reference given this > Bubble gum was invented in 1928 by Walter Diemer, who worked for a chewing gum company. The first bubble gum was pink because it was the only color dye available at the time. YET THIS IS 1890's FOOTAGE!
The Albion disaster happened in 1898.
They aren't experts.
They are Activists against the British.
ANTI BRITISH enjoy the Freedom's British Gave Them.
Blood spilled was from Dictators and Blood Thirsty Islamic Empire.
My grandmother, my fathers mother was 11 yrs old then. She lived until 1980 died at age 97. Still writing poetry of the nature around our large Victorian home in the country. She told me so many things about her life and what she witnessed, I miss her dearly still. I am 71 now.
Good film content would have been better without the WOKE presenters
We are the greatest people to ever grace the planet. We built the world and today a narrative is being pushed that we didn’t even build our own country. It’s utterly ridiculous, those pushing this narrative can’t begin to imagine what’s coming for them. Also it’s a shame about the foreign narrator’s who can’t hide their disdain for our nation and way of life.
brilliant footage sadly unwatchable due to the racist commentary from the random pres
Yeah, well, we won't be returning to the Britain of the Victorian era..A time when people knew what built Britain. im only going say another two words….unfettered migration….. 😔😔
I just wanna see the footage, I don’t need all the talking
48:35 what a beautiful sight. Patriotic children who have been taught to embrace their nation and be proud of it. Maybe they should do that today