Liverpool to Blackpool Britain's First Photo Album

In the Victorian era, Britain changed as never before.

It was the time of great inventors, great engineers,

but above all, great businessmen, entrepreneurs.

One of the best examples was the pioneer photographer Francis Frith.

It was in the 1860s that Francis Frith

embarked upon a monumental mission

using the newly-invented photographic camera.

He wanted to document every city, every town and village in the land.

I'm tracing the footsteps of this remarkable man

and his team of photographers.

Using their pictures as my guide,

I'll travel the length and breadth of the country

finding out what has altered and what has stayed the same

and along the way I'll be taking my own photos

to try and capture the mood of the place as it is now.

That's great.

Welcome to Britain's First Photo Album.

Between 1860 and his death in 1898,

Francis Frith's company produced and sold photos of a Britain

that was undergoing a rapid industrial and social upheaval.

His customers were people

who couldn't afford the expensive camera equipment,

but were keen to have brilliant new images of these advancing times.

In the northwest of England,

these momentous changes particularly affected the port of Liverpool.

Frith came to Liverpool in the middle of the 19th century

at the start of his career

and I feel a bit of fellow feeling,

because I came here about, well, more than 100 years later,

at the start of my journalistic career.

So today, using Frith's photos as my guide,

my travels will take me first to Liverpool,

then east to the cotton-milling town of Bolton

and finally to the home of the seaside resort, Blackpool.

I'll visit one of the very first shopping centres in the country.

It's a forerunner of the modern shopping mall in many ways.

It set the foundations where people could shop in pleasant surroundings.

I'll find out what the Victorians got up to at the seaside.

Are you certain that this is not frightening?

And I'll be judging a competition with a group of photographers

who trace their routes back to Frith himself.

But it's Liverpool One, the very centre of the city,

where I've come to find out more about today's first photograph.

It was taken in 1887 and tells us a lot about the trade

which made Liverpool rich.

The River Mersey, with its easy access to the sea,

gave Liverpool a chance to become a great city.

Ships would come in here and leave to ports all over the world.

One of the most important goods traded here was cotton.

The raw cotton would be unloaded here

and then shipped off to the thousands and thousands of mills

across the north of England.

The people in the Frith photo were a vital element,

but why did they matter so much?

These are the middle men,

responsible for working out the price of the cotton when it lands

and making sure the people who buy the cotton get the price they want.

This is Liverpool Cotton Exchange at the height of its powers.

The photo was taken in Exchange Flags Square,

which at the time was the Liverpool equivalent

of the trading floor of the London Stock Exchange.

I'm meeting Liverpool University history professors

Robert Lee and John Belchem at the very place

'where the Frith photo was taken.'

It's hardly the thriving centre it used to be.

-So who are we seeing here?

-Well, we're looking at a collection

ranging from some merchant princes

down to humble clerks, with brokers

and traders all mixed in, everybody who was engaged

in Liverpool's heyday as being the great maritime mercantile city.

-But most we think are cotton traders?

-Cotton is predominant,

but the great thing about Liverpool and why Liverpool was so prosperous

was that it was a general cargo port. It handled everything.

Whether it was raw materials, foodstuffs,

people, manufactured commodities -

all these things are traded through Liverpool.

They would be trading outside, wouldn't they?

It seems that the merchants here, despite being so far north,

did conduct most of their business in the open air, on the flags,

rather than in the newsrooms and the counting houses in the exchange.

Why are they assembled in this way?

They've come because they were told

this event was taking place.

It's an opportunity, collectively,

to demonstrate the importance

of the merchant community

before the camera and the wider public.

That's tells you what it's like, Liverpool in its heyday.

Indeed. It really emphasises the centrality of Liverpool

as one of the world's leading commercial centres.

But for Frith and the photographer who took this,

there's a business element. He wants to sell the picture.

Absolutely. It's an opportunity, really,

to make sure everyone who attends orders a photograph.

So all these people in the picture, even at the back, would want a copy.

-Oh, absolutely.

-So it's clever.

We've got to remember that Frith made his money, originally, in Liverpool.

It was in Liverpool

that the two sides of Francis Frith's character came together.

His skill as a businessman, his genius as a photographer.

Here in Liverpool, he founded the Liverpool Photographic Society.

I'm going to meet some of the direct descendants of that society.

The members of the South Liverpool Photographic Society

enjoy all sorts of technical wizardry that Frith didn't have.

But what do they think of his work?

When you see these Frith photographs

do they give you a sense of fellow feeling?

Great admiration for these men.

The cameras they carried were huge, the size of the finished print.

So in a way Frith is still your hero, isn't he?

What I get from Frith's work is the fact that it's a social document.

And it's a means of looking at the past today.

I think we have to appreciate that today

we have infinitely more possibilities than he had.

We can catch anything - a vehicle going past.

He had to wait for the scene to be empty of everything

other than what he wanted in it. So he had to take a lot more time.

Well, time is a luxury the Society doesn't have this morning,

and I'm setting them a challenge.

120 years after Frith snapped the cotton traders,

I want to see how modern Liverpool photographers

choose to record their city.

It's time to beat the clock.

All of you go outside in this very small area

and take a picture, right?

That shouldn't be too difficult, but there is one problem -

you've got to do it within 15 minutes

and I will then judge who wins the competition.

-Now?

-15 minutes, yeah. Off we go.

Now, to be honest, I'm not really qualified

to judge other photographers' work,

but with such a wealth of inspiration here in Liverpool,

I think I can wing it.

After all, I have Frith as my reference.

The Railway Hotel, Frith took that.

St George's Hall. Yes, Frith was there first.

The famous dock. All caught the Victorian photographer's eye.

But are they attractive to our photographers

who, let's face it, are in a bit of a hurry?

'Well, the results of the competition are quite revealing.'

There's architecture old and new,

and there's a good dollop of Liverpool culture -

shops and shoppers. Time for me to pick a winner.

Right, this is the special moment when I announce the winner.

And the winner is...

-Irene!

-Oh!

-Yeah.

I think it's a terrific picture.

It's in the rain, and we have been in the rain this morning.

-And that will always remind me of Liverpool. Well done.

-Thank you.

Well done.

'Now there's a chance to turn the tables on my Liverpool friends.'

I want to get them to pose for my photograph

and to do so in the same square

in which their venerable predecessor made his mark.

Right, here we go. Right.

-Hip, hip-hip...

-ALL: Hooray!

What I've enjoyed is seeing a vivid demonstration

of the way that photography still has its place

in what was recently the European City of Culture.

Remember, Frith founded the first Liverpool Photographic Society,

so that's relevant. And they're happy.

Behind them is the balcony that Frith took his photograph,

so we're sort of, I don't know, we're in the spirit of Frith.

Now I'm heading inland in search of my second Frith photo.

From Liverpool I'm following the same route as the cotton did,

heading to one of the great spinning towns of the 19th century.

The mills have long since closed,

but when you visit Bolton it still has the feel of its heyday

as a 19th-century cotton town.

And one of the buildings which the Victorians were so proud of

still stands today - the Market Hall.

When this market opened in 1855,

it was a brand-new sort of structure in glass and iron.

The best example was the Crystal Palace at the Great Exhibition

which opened just a few years before this did.

But you can imagine when this came to Bolton, that was quite something.

The Frith photograph captures the scene in 1895,

40 years after the Market Hall opened.

It's easy to see why the people of Bolton were so proud.

At the point where the photo was taken,

I'm meeting historian Bob Snape.

It's about this spot. This is the vantage point of it. As we can see,

we can see the vantage point that Frith had.

When this opened in 1855, what would the lighting have been?

Gas-lit. There were 900 gas jets

in the hall.

That would have been very exciting as well.

It meant the Market Hall could be open in the dark,

in later afternoons in winter.

It would be quite an exciting and innovative place to come.

So to come here when it opened,

for lots of people, would have been a terrific sensation.

-Quite something.

-Absolutely, yeah.

Market halls were one of the big innovations of 19th-century Britain.

No longer would people accept the filthy market squares

of the Middle Ages.

Most customers were city dwellers

and they wanted clean, well-stocked centres

where you could shop out of the rain.

When we're looking at these shops and what would have been here,

we'd have had produce - these are sort of market stalls -

but what else would we have had?

A lot of butcher stalls, fishmongers, fruit stalls.

And on the gallery was livestock,

so up here you could buy pigeons, rabbits and pets.

It's a forerunner of the modern shopping mall in many ways.

It set the foundations for this idea of an enclosed space

where people could shop at a leisurely pace

in nice, pleasant surroundings.

In the booming northwest, Bolton was not alone.

Blackburn, Accrington, Halifax and Bury

were all keen on the new style of market halls.

The Bolton Museum has preserved an extraordinarily detailed plan

of their splendid Victorian market.

It does look terrific, doesn't it?

What's exciting about the building? What makes it different?

I think if you consider what Bolton

was like at the time, the 1850s,

there weren't many large buildings

apart from the cotton mills.

Civic buildings were quite small.

The town hall hadn't been built. It dominated the town centre.

The famous town hall.

That's not until 20 years later.

So this is the largest thing,

this is a piece of civic pride,

this is about, "Bolton is on the map, we are rich, up and coming.

"And here is a place where you can shop."

Newspaper reports compare it favourably

with the one in Liverpool that had been built recently.

-Ah, yes.

-Ours is bigger and better and posher.

Yes, of course, because you're from Bolton.

Be proud of it.

Places like Bolton were the first.

They had to find a new way to live in crowded conditions.

How do you feed yourself, organise yourself?

A building like this represents that story.

It's a really powerful thing and well worth remembering today.

I think Bolton's Market Hall,

functional as well as good to look at,

is a great example contemporary architects could follow.

It beats most modern shopping malls

and I'm going to show my appreciation by taking its photo.

This is my attempt at an architectural shot. Tricky.

We've got to try to get the modern bit of it

with the old bits and the glass.

This is my attempt.

Here it is - the old fusing with the new.

And the skill of the restoration

is that you can't spot the join.

I thought the lines, those straight lines,

these modern lines and the glass with the people behind

gives you the modern idea,

but the older idea on the top

with those arches. That's Victorian ironwork

with the old Victorian glass behind.

So I think that's the mixture that I wanted

and it's come out rather well.

I'm telling the story of Britain's First Photo Album,

tracing the footsteps of Francis Frith and his team,

using the photographs they took

and revealing just how our country has changed.

Having moved inland from the port of Liverpool

to see how the Victorians transformed Bolton,

I'm heading back to the coast to look at two more Frith photos.

30 miles north of Liverpool is one of the most famous

and lively seaside resorts in the world - Blackpool.

Ah, Blackpool!

I used to come here every autumn for a week for more than 20 years,

but it wasn't for holiday.

It was for me one of the hardest working weeks of the year.

I was here for the party conferences.

Today, though, I'm thinking about holidays.

Frith and his team were lucky to come to Blackpool

as the town was booming.

It was the very end of the 19th century

and the most famous landmark on the coastline had just been built.

It is, of course, the Blackpool Tower,

and there it is, standing tall in my next Frith photo.

I'm meeting archivist Tony Sharkey

to find the spot

where the Frith cameraman took one of the first of millions of pictures

people have taken of this tower.

This looks as if the position is right, isn't it?

The position is more or less right, I would say.

They were very skilful photographers

and they do make it look like a very grand building on this 1890s image.

This photograph was taken only a couple of years after the tower

was opened to the public.

And the cost of the tower

was upwards of £250,000,

which seems very little in today's money,

but was a considerable investment and a considerable risk at the time.

So how much in today's money would that have been?

In today's money, that would be upwards of £40 million.

So it was an extraordinarily ambitious project.

The tower was late-Victorian Britain's attempt

to emulate the brand-new Eiffel Tower in Paris.

It was largely the vision of one man, John Bickerstaffe,

Blackpool Mayor, local hotelier and all-round entrepreneur.

He believed a striking new landmark would give Blackpool a boost.

So where did the money come from?

Well, the money effectively is generated from the cotton wealth

of the area of northwest Lancashire

And as the mass market started to visit Blackpool

in the latter decades of the 19th century,

entrepreneurs like Sir John Bickerstaffe

were providing Blackpool with the emblems

that would make Blackpool unmissable and unforgettable.

So it's based upon the cotton industry?

It's often been said in the past that Blackpool Tower

was built on bales of cotton

and of course, figuratively, that is actually true.

We're talking of tens of thousands of factory workers

who want to take a break, they want to have fun.

You're talking MILLIONS of factory workers.

There were other resorts in the market, and Blackpool was trying

to do things bigger and better than anybody else.

Blackpool did those attractions at a level

that neighbouring resorts didn't reach.

Where Blackpool led, other resorts soon followed

and Frith and his team were there with their cameras.

The seaside tower was coming into its own, and within eight years,

both Norfolk and Yorkshire had erected their own versions.

The greatest rival to Blackpool's tower

came from just down the coast near Liverpool

where the Merseyside resort of New Brighton

was determined to top it.

At 570 feet, it was just slightly taller,

but Blackpool has enjoyed the last laugh

because all the rival towers have long since disappeared.

Now there's a new programme

of restoration and improvement under way.

The grand Victorian structure is being given a makeover.

I'm keen to see how much has been preserved of the past

and how the new owners have brought it up to date.

-How often do you come up here?

-We come once a month.

-Really?

-Yeah, once a month.

Because what people don't realise is that we are standing on

the most iconic seaside building in the world.

In the world, this building is iconic seaside.

-Have you been up here before?

-I have, in 1967. A long time ago.

-What do you think?

-Really nice. I'm not a fan of the whole

-standing over the glass thing.

-Don't do that, no.

I'd never been on the glass platform before, and I braved it.

-And I was fine.

-You braved it?

-I did. It was good.

What is it that interests you? What do you like about the tower?

Well, I've never been up.

I'm 78. It's the first time I've ever been up the tower.

I think it's very good.

So all these years, should you have come before,

-now that you've been here?

-Probably.

Can you imagine Blackpool without the tower?

No. It wouldn't be Blackpool.

In the 120 years since Frith took his photo,

the tower has woven itself into the fabric of Blackpool life.

It represents everything the town stands for.

I'm tempted to take a picture like the Frith picture,

but that picture, the old picture,

is so much better than what I could do.

I'm going to go off further down and choose another subject.

Blackpool is full of contradictions.

It's an efficient marketing operation.

It's also just irrepressible fun

and that mood runs through it like Blackpool rock.

I think you can get that in this picture of the North Pier.

It's got "amusements" written on it, so it's going to be amusing.

It's got, "Georgia's Diner - you've tried the rest, now try the best."

It's got, I don't know,

just the sense of you'll enjoy yourself here.

The North Pier at Blackpool, my version.

So that's my picture postcard.

Wish you were here!

I've got these two characters slightly blurred,

I hope in the Frith manner.

I'm not sure it's very convincing, but the word that matters here,

the key word in any picture involving Blackpool, I think,

is "amusements".

People have been amused here for more than 100 years

and I'm sure in more than 100 years' time,

they'll still be amused in Blackpool,

so that's my attempt at capturing

the colour and the likeness and the daftness, I suppose, of Blackpool.

Now to my last Frith photo of the day and for this,

I don't have to travel very far.

It was taken in 1896

when another new Blackpool attraction had just arrived.

It was simply called the Big Wheel,

one of the earliest Ferris wheel attractions in Britain.

On board, visitors could soar to a height of more than 200 feet.

But unlike the Blackpool Tower, it wasn't a great success.

By 1930, it had been removed and was so quickly forgotten

that I'm having the devil of a job trying to find out where it stood.

Some passers-by do their best to help.

-Where is this?

-It's round the back. It's not there now.

-Do you remember this?

-We don't. We're not that old.

-Our mother would have done.

-Your mother?

-Yes.

-What can we see?

-You can't see anything.

-Can we see the wall?

'Blackpool's Big Wheel'

'was overshadowed by the big tower.

'Attempts were made to attract punters

'by serving tea inside the carriages.

'For a while, you could even book a carriage for a game of ping-pong,

'but despite all these efforts,

'those same carriages were finally sold off as garden sheds.'

-That's confusing, isn't it?

-It is confusing.

It was somewhere in the middle, the Big Wheel.

-We can't get the exact location. So much has changed.

-Exactly, yeah.

I think we'll have to settle for this. What do you think?

We're roughly in the area, aren't we?

This is definitely the area round here, but like I say...

Oh, well, historical research can't always be pursued right to the end.

Let's face it, the Big Wheel's biggest mistake

was to be built in the wrong place.

Thrill-seeking tourists were soon heading

to the southern end of Blackpool

where a new site was flourishing.

It still does today.

I'm going with mixed feelings to the Pleasure Beach

which boasts one of the world's best collections of roller-coasters.

It's not exactly one of my natural habitats.

Luckily, park director David Cam has promised to look after me.

So what was the original... the first ride?

This is the oldest surviving ride.

It was built in 1904. It was designed by Hiram Maxim.

-Yeah.

-It was called the Original Captive Flying Machines.

It was built as part of

his fund-raising effort

to be one of the first to fly an aeroplane.

The idea, really, is to say,

"You will never have been on an aeroplane,

"but you can go on one here."

-Exactly.

-What was the important thing about the Pleasure Beach?

What were they trying to sell in the old days?

The mission statement, which we had from 1896,

was to create an American-style amusement park,

designed to make adults feel like children again

and involve gaiety of an innocent nature,

so it was to be a family attraction through and through,

and that's what we still do.

-But some of these rides are meant to frighten?

-Oh, yes.

Families can be frightened together.

It's not just for teenagers.

There are thrill rides, gentle rides kiddie rides and train rides.

-What's this?

-This is the Big One. This is the Big One.

It was built as the tallest, fastest roller-coaster in the world.

It goes at 85 miles an hour. It's the steepest drop.

I want to choose something that isn't like that,

something nice and gentle, maybe something historic.

SCREAMING

Right, OK, so we're going to get in.

Yeah.

-Now...

-Make yourself comfortable.

Are you certain, David, that this is not frightening?

I don't want any messing around

or going through water or me suddenly upside down.

It's thrilling if you don't like heights.

It's not a roller-coaster.

When you look back to the Victorian era,

do you feel a fellow feeling with the people who started this place?

-Absolutely.

-Yeah.

-Absolutely.

That's why the rides which were built so many years ago,

like the Flying Machines, the Grand National, the Big Dipper,

are still so popular these days.

People wanted to let their hair down then.

They loved to be thrilled, excited,

to leave their lives behind on hold for a day.

-Their ordinary lives?

-Forget their mortgages, forget the car payments,

forget their worries and come and let your hair down. It's great fun.

We relate to it in the same way,

even though our lives are a bit faster now.

-Kids are still kids.

-Exactly.

When Frith's company came to Blackpool

to photograph the Big Wheel,

the Pleasure Beach was just about to open

and I've chosen to take my last photo here.

The attraction covers Blackpool's history

from the time of the Frith photograph to the present day.

I'm going to place David in front of the original Big Dipper,

the first roller-coaster to be given that name.

Stay there. I will instruct you from here.

It's pride in what you've got and a big smile, OK?

That's great.

David represents the essence of Blackpool business.

He's worked here for almost all his adult life

and he combines a shrewd business sense with a sense of fun.

That's pure Blackpool.

He looks proud, he looks pleased. He is.

If you want to find out more about Britain's First Photo Album,

go to -

Join me next time as I travel to Scotland

where it's full steam ahead across Loch Katrine.

I'll be at Stirling Castle,

wrestling with the camera technology of Frith's day

and I'll make a meal of classic Scottish oatcakes.

Well done. You've done that before, haven't you?

Ta-da!

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