These nearly 3000 items from the BBC Archive have been made freely available for personal, educational, and research use, licensed under the terms of the RemArc licence.
The material is searchable, can be browsed by ‘Theme’ or ‘Decade’, and filtered by media type.
You can download individual items from the collection, or use the search and filtering to produce your own downloadable collections.
Notes on downloading:
- Downloading video items will include both the video files and a ‘poster image’ for each video
- Downloading audio items will include both the audio files and a ‘poster image’ for each audio item, if available
- Downloading image items will just include the images
- All downloads will include a CSV file containing the metadata for the selected media items
Search Results
2977 results found
The Queen
The Queen and Princess Margaret went to a special Royal Charity Performance of the film 'Gigi' in 1959, in aid of the Family Welfare Association. When the Queen arrived at the new Columbia Theatre, she was greeted by the Manager.
2 MB
1960s, events, video
London Bus
A road safety campaign launched in the streets of East London in 1959 after accidents in the London Police area rose to over 6,500.
6 MB
1950s, people, video
Rocket Launch
The 1959 launching of the American space rocket, Pioneer Four. Dr Von Braun, the German rocket expert, may have been tense as the hours to zero narrowed to minutes at Cape Canaveral.
6 MB
1960s, events, video
Pub
London's Elephant & Castle was in the first stages of a very expensive face-lift in 1959. About £12,000,000 was be spent to transform the district with tall, imposing blocks of flats and offices.
14 MB
1950s, people, video
New School
In 1959, A new school was built at Downham on the Kent border near Bromley. It's built on the 'house' system, and named after Sir James Malory the author. Each house bears the name of one of the knights in his book.
4 MB
1950s, childhood, video
Factory Workers
After nearly 2 weeks, strikers at Fords Works at Dagenham went back to work in March 1959. The strike began over the employment of a non- union man.
3 MB
1950s, people, video
Swimming Pool
Children of Southgate junior school are building their own swimming pool. It's quite a big job and they've called in fathers to help. From 1959
6 MB
1950s, people, video
Fashion
Women's' Fashions from 1959
11 MB
1950s, people, video
Whipsnade Zoo
At Whipsnade Zoo in 1959, Dixie the elephant was being got ready for the first trip out this year. She's gave rides at Whipsnade for 27 years.
6 MB
1950s, animals, video
Bicycle Race
The Croydon to Brighton bicycle race in 1959, organised by Norwood Paragon. B.Willoughby won and was presented with the Brighton Trophy.
5 MB
1950s, sport, video
Horse Racing
The 1959 Lincolnshire Handicap was been won by the favourite, Marshal Pil.
13 MB
1950s, sport, video
Racing Cars
In 1959, people could hire racing cars for drives around the track. Experts are on hand with tips and tricks of the trade.
11 MB
1950s, sport, video
