Free
Free
Explore archive films
See shorts and features, showing the best from the BFI, national and regional archives - including 120 years of Britain on film
Britain on Film map
Watch thousands of beautifully preserved films, capturing our lives and our stories over 120 years. Search by location to find films about places that mean the world to you.
What we're watching
Clown and Police
Trick film19002 minsSilent
A Victorian vaudeville routine is given the big screen treatment with camera tricks galore.
Bank Holiday Crowds at Resorts
News19612 minsSilent Location: Southend-on-Sea
Sailors and their sweethearts, jive dancing teens, grandpa in a pac-a-mac - a carefree day for many on August Bank Holiday Monday in Sheringham, Cromer, Southend and Felixstowe.
Weymouth
Amateur film19564 minsSilent Location: Weymouth
A family holiday to the popular summer retreat on the coast of Dorset.
Train Station
Non-Fiction18991 minsSilent Location: Cockermouth
Driver and Station Master exchange a staff as this LNWR 'local' stops for passengers
Bognor 1954
Amateur film19547 minsSilent Location: Bognor Regis
Amateur film of a family trip to Bognor, including shots of the beach and the pier.
Grandma's Reading Glass
Trick film19001 minsSilent
A boy examines things through his Grandmother’s magnifying glass, and early film takes a huge step forward.
Panorama of Niagara Falls
Non-Fiction19010 minsSilent
The wonder of Niagara captured in an early film
Going Self-sufficient
Current affairs19804 mins Location: Somerset
The Buxtons decide to live the good life in Somerset.
How It Feels to Be Run Over
Trick film19001 minsSilent
A terrifying first-person brush with death at the hands of a dangerous driver
Panorama of the Paris Exhibition No. 3
Non-Fiction19001 minsSilent
An unusual view of Paris, shot from a boat travelling down the Seine. You can even see the Eiffel tower - almost!
Pont Pill Monument
Current affairs19775 mins Location: Fowey
Divers have raised a large monument stone from the riverbed at Pont Pill Creek in Cornwall.
The Magic Extinguisher
Trick film19012 minsSilent
You'll never guess quite what this chap can hide under his cone...
Workforce of Scott & Co. Shipyard, Greenock (1901)
Non-Fiction19012 minsSilent Location: Greenock
Unruly shipworkers defy direction from Mitchell and Kenyon's showmen partners.
Conway Castle - panoramic view of Conway on the L.& N.W. Railway
Non-Fiction18982 minsSilent Location: Conwy Castle
Conwy's bridge, castle and station glide past, as if in a dream, in this beautiful phantom train ride film (no ghosts but apparently no train either) from 1898.
Billy Fury at the ABC Plymouth
Current affairs19623 mins Location: Plymouth
Billy Fury is interviewed before his concert at the ABC in Plymouth.
Great Central Railway
Non-Fiction19625 mins Location: Chesterfield
Doctor Beeching sounds the death knell for the Great Central main line.
Battle of Spion Kop: Ambulance Corps Crossing the Tugela River (1)
Non-Fiction19001 minsSilent
Stunning cinematic record of a key British defeat in the Boer War
Cheese Rolling
News19601 minsSilent Location: Cooper's Hill
Injuries abound as the annual cheese rolling at Cooper's Hill near Brockworth claims its usual victims.
NHS on Film
Film has the power to change lives – and even save them. No surprise, then, that moving images have played an important role in one of the world’s greatest public health services.
Towards a Better Life - Community Health
26 mins
A GP in rural Somerset and one in Kentish Town, London, reflect on “what is a General Practitioner in the 1980s?”
New Way of Caring
Documentary197321 mins
An in-house training film designed to explain the NHS' 1973 reorganisation to its staff.
District Nurse
Government sponsored film195227 mins Location: Wadhurst
Never a dull moment for a rural district nurse in the early days of the NHS.
Something to Offer
Documentary196922 mins
An interesting documentary on psychiatric provision, set at a Plymouth day hospital and originally produced for nursing recruitment.
C.A.L.M.
Public Information Filler19971 mins
A powerful public information filler promoting CALM – a charity dedicated to preventing male suicide.
Blood Donor : Glenda and Ernie
Public Information Filler19813 mins
Glenda Jackson makes a song and a dance about giving blood – in a wise-cracking double act with Ernie Wise.
Featured collections
Victorian Film
Queen Victoria's long reign famously saw extraordinary advances: in industry, transport, science, culture... But one vital innovation is too often missed: the moving image, the last great invention of the age. Yet film forever changed the way we see the world. And even before the French Lumière brothers presented their first demonstrations in London in 1895, British filmmakers were beginning to make their mark. Now, for the first time, we are making publically available all of the BFI's collections of British films made in the first six years of the medium - from 1895 to 1901.
LGBT Britain
This colourful and challenging collection explores screen representations of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender lives over the past century.
The Victorian Street
Some of the most fascinating of early films are those which are content to watch the Victorian world go by. Numerous filmmakers parked their cameras on street corners, outside workplaces or churches, or into sports venues to capture moments of everyday life.