British Film Institute, Film heritage organization in South Bank, London, England
The British Film Institute is a charitable organization in South Bank, London, combining several cinema spaces and a public media library under one roof. The premises occupy multiple levels along the Thames and also house storage facilities where film reels and television recordings spanning more than a century are kept.
The government founded the institution in 1933 to safeguard moving images as cultural property and open them to the public. Over the following decades the collection expanded and eventually a permanent site was opened on the south bank of the Thames.
The name reflects a time when moving pictures were considered objects of study and preservation. Today the organization projects rare prints alongside mainstream releases in its screening rooms, making work available that would otherwise remain locked away.
The complex sits on the riverfront between Waterloo Bridge and Hungerford Bridge, a short walk from Waterloo station. Inside the building, signage guides visitors through the open areas, and it is possible to move freely between floors.
The archive holds the oldest surviving recording from England, showing the site of a London brewery in 1895. Those few seconds of moving image belong to the earliest evidence of film history anywhere.
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