Hyde Park Bicycling Scene
About Hyde Park Bicycling Scene
Cyclists and pony-traps move along a straight road in Hyde Park. People stroll on the verge. Many of the riders are women in skirts. The pace is slow, like a Sunday outing. The camera does not turn.
Cast & crew
More about Hyde Park Bicycling Scene
Robert W. Paul produced this actuality for his Animatograph Works. The BFI print is 35mm, black and white, silent, and 31 feet. Screenonline once filed it as Cyclists and Pony-Traps and dated it 1900. The same note now places the shoot in Hyde Park about four years earlier.
Themes
Background
By the mid-1890s skirt guards and frame changes let women ride in ordinary dress. Earlier machines had pushed riders toward bloomers, which observers treated as a political costume.
Look
Paul's camera holds one view of the road while cyclists and traps pass.
Music
Stephen Horne wrote music for the BFI DVD of Paul's collected films, which includes this scene.
Preservation
The BFI holds a 35mm print of 31 feet.
Notes
- The BFI labels a complete showing of the film at 19 seconds.
- Women riders wear skirts rather than the bloomers that earlier bicycle designs had required.
- Michael Brooke's Screenonline note treats the leisurely pace and the lined pavement as signs of a Sunday outing.
- The film is on the BFI DVD R.W. Paul: The Collected Films 1895–1908, with music by Stephen Horne and optional commentary by Ian Christie.
Scenes
- Women in long skirts pedal past the strollers while pony-traps share the same straight road.
Also available
- BFI DVD: R.W. Paul: The Collected Films 1895–1908
