VINTAGE footage of life in Glasgow in the early 1900s has sparked interest from internet users across the globe.

Movie reels from the vaults of the British Film Institute have gained a massive online audience thanks to YouTube.

Archive films of Kelvingrove Park, Jamaica Street, Queen's Park and the John Brown shipyard in Clydebank are part of a 180-strong UK collection available for free on the video sharing website.

Thousands of ex-pats from the US, Canada, and China have logged on to view the black and white and technicolour clips.

One film of Jamaica Street, in 1901, shows a busy thoroughfare, full of horses, carts and trams. Hundreds of workers can be seen marching towards the heart of the city centre as part of a parade.

Viewers can access footage of the boating pond in Queen's Park and crowds gathering for a performance at the band stand at Kelvingrove Park in a pair of films shot in 1926.

Images from the John Brown shipyard on the Clyde, taken in the same year, have also been posted.

Simon McCallum, BFI curator, said: "We have been totally astonished by how many hits some of them are getting - past the 250,000 mark.

"People are really pleased to see this material."

The BFI has the largest archive of its type in the world.

Other clips available on the institute's new YouTube channel include early test footage of movie legend Audrey Hepburn, a suffragette riot in Trafalgar Square in 1913 and images of Edinburgh Zoo in 1926.