A historic Leeds building, which has undergone a multi-million-pound refurbishment played a starring role in one of the very oldest pieces of film in the world.
One Sovereign Quay on Leeds Bridge was the subject of French inventor Louis Le Prince's pioneering film of industrial Leeds in 1888. He successfully captured motion outside his home in Roundhay and is renowned as the father of cinematography.
The grainy black-and-white film, showing people and carriages crossing Leeds Bridge, has achieved legendary status as the first moving picture sequence using a single lens camera and a strip of paper. However, his achievements were not widely recognised because shortly before a scheduled public performance of his technology, he went missing with no clues as to his whereabouts.
