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Before Rightmove, there was the Cosmorama
Published on 11th August 2026 by Ian Mansfield in History
A London estate agent was offering prospective buyers an early form of “virtual property tour” more than 160 years before online listings and digital walk-throughs became commonplace.
Researchers have discovered that Brooks and Green, a high-end estate agency based in Old Bond Street, used an immersive visual technology known as a cosmorama during the 1840s and 1850s to promote sales of luxury homes and country estates to potential buyers.
The technique, which could be described as a Victorian precursor to today’s online property previews, allowed customers to view specially commissioned images of properties through convex lenses that enlarged the pictures and created an illusion of depth. Combined with carefully controlled lighting, the displays gave viewers an immersive experience decades before photography became a standard part of property marketing.
The findings form part of a wider study into the history of the cosmorama across Europe and its role in the development of immersive entertainment.
Professor John Plunkett, an expert in 19th-century visual media at the University of Exeter and lead author of the study, said the technology had previously been regarded largely as nothing more than a form of entertainment.
“For half a century, the cosmorama was one of the most common forms of visual show across Europe and the Americas,” he said. “What we’ve discovered through this latest research project, however, is that its use extended beyond simple entertainment. The appeal of cosmoramas was that they sold an experience of virtual travel. This was utilised by estate agents seeking to sell luxury properties and country estates.”
By examining newspaper advertisements and articles, researchers catalogued more than 650 documented cosmoramas in Portugal, Spain and the UK, alongside many others exhibited across North and South America and Australia.
Professor Plunkett also traced the spread of cosmorama galleries across Britain and Ireland, where they appeared in bazaars, travelling shows and dedicated exhibition spaces.
During the research, he uncovered newspaper advertisements showing that Brooks and Hedger – later renamed Brooks and Green – had begun offering cosmoramic views of properties from the late 1830s. The firm’s advertisements continued until at least 1859 and claimed to include “several hundred views of different estates” presented from an “aerial perspective”, showing both the house and its surrounding grounds.