How grim was mid 1970's London?
Discussion
TCX said:
Back when there was 'prospects'
https://youtu.be/OmK0fE5WgOM
At 1.11 in that video there is the briefest of glimpses of the Mercury Communications Earth Station (things that you might call 'satellite dishes') I went there for a day to install air con units to one of the cabins (we didn't get far, the site wasn't ready) in 1987. I remember being astounded by the desolation of it all. There were a few new blocks of apartments and townhouses going up, very modern architecture and I thought 'who on earth would want to live here'. I guess some people probably still think that. https://youtu.be/OmK0fE5WgOM
The Earth Station is gone now, but trying to find it when Google Maps when satellite view came out and googling old pictures I found the location over the east of the current Canada Sq area but can't find it now.
Has such a large area changed so much in 25/30 years anywhere else?
Cliffe60 said:
I remember the Houndsditch warehouse. My Dad worked nearby . We used to go up on a Saturday and I got a bike from there as well as all our camping gear.
Before that, we used to go to Gammages which was similar.
You had to have a Trade Buyer's card to get into the Houndsditch Warehouse (at least you did when I were a lad - 1960's) - a prized possession in the days of Retail Price Maintenance when it was near impossible to get a discount on anything.Before that, we used to go to Gammages which was similar.
I don't suppose anyone frequented or remembers the Market Cafe in a side street among the warehouses between the Houndsditch and Middlesex Street ( aka Petticoat Lane). Run by Lou, Tommy and Pip it was always buzzing with the Traders and Warehouse Owners/Workers. I used to have my lunch there every day as a callow youth in my first job in the City (using my LV's, remember them?). They looked after me very well, and I used to love listening to the good natured (typical Jewish) banter.
And talking of Gamages, further along High Holborn there was also Ellisdons, beloved of us schoolboys for their stink bombs, fake poo, jokes, novelties and magic tricks as advertised on the back pages of most comics and magazines.
Another fondly remembered store in High Holborn was Headquarter and General Supplies which advertised and sold all manner of interesting stuff - Russian radios, transistor tape recorders, etc - real novelties at the time!
MadCaptainJack said:
Bankside Power Station (now known as Tate Modern) in full smokebelch.
Next time I'm on our Battersea job I'll try and get some photos of the surroundings between shunt moves, for some before and after comparisons.
Speed1283 said:
mfmman said:
The T shaped building centre frame is (was) Bucklersbury House, gone now and the new HQ of Bloomberg in it's place
Interesting, looking at Google maps it doesn't look like much of the 'office' type buildings are still there. Deacons and BiBi's used to be there. Both venues bring back happy memories.
Andy 308GTB said:
Speed1283 said:
mfmman said:
The T shaped building centre frame is (was) Bucklersbury House, gone now and the new HQ of Bloomberg in it's place
Interesting, looking at Google maps it doesn't look like much of the 'office' type buildings are still there. Deacons and BiBi's used to be there. Both venues bring back happy memories.
Great thread this. I used to work in High Holborn in a shop called "Berrys of Holborn" sold and maintained a lot of electronics to most of the Legal Chambers in the area.
Used to park my Motor bike in Fullwood place, always wondered what the larges exhausts and strange door led to...Kingsway Telephone Exchange I found out many years later.
Used to park my Motor bike in Fullwood place, always wondered what the larges exhausts and strange door led to...Kingsway Telephone Exchange I found out many years later.
NDA said:
Did we think it was grim at the time?
Yes and no - no, partly in the philosophical sense of "do scampi realise the sea is wet?". But also in that there wasn't that much to compare it with! To pluck a place out of the air at random, I am sure Sheffield was pretty grim as well, even in an era of full employment and secure full time jobs. Berlin was still divided, Ireland, Spain and Portugal poorer than Turkey is now, etc.
Yes in the sense that we knew there were nicer places a train ride away - the "stockbroker belt" - or closer even . . . in West London St Peter's Square in Hammersmith, Holland Park (bits of!), Chiswick Mall. But they were exceptions.
witteringon said:
Cliffe60 said:
And talking of Gamages, further along High Holborn there was also Ellisdons, beloved of us schoolboys for their stink bombs, fake poo, jokes, novelties and magic tricks as advertised on the back pages of most comics and magazines.
Another fondly remembered store in High Holborn was Headquarter and General Supplies which advertised and sold all manner of interesting stuff - Russian radios, transistor tape recorders, etc - real novelties at the time!
Bloody Hell, I'm suddenly a schoolboy again! Another fondly remembered store in High Holborn was Headquarter and General Supplies which advertised and sold all manner of interesting stuff - Russian radios, transistor tape recorders, etc - real novelties at the time!
CarlBarth said:
... always wondered what the larges exhausts and strange door led to...Kingsway Telephone Exchange I found out many years later.
There was a place like that behind a pair of unlabelled doors off High Holborn. Inside a middle aged woman sat in a kind of cinema ticket booth vetting visitors. The 'foyer' was a very small place with only her box and a lift door. That lift went down only. It's not secret any more though.
P5BNij said:
Last night the Talking Pictures channel showed the 1971 film 'All Coppers Are' with Martin Potter (remember him?), Nicky Henson, Ian Hendry and Julia Foster, most of which was shot around the Battersea / Clapham area, the scenes around Stewart's Lane and Battersea Power station oozed '70s 'grim'
Cheers for the heads-up on this, now set to record on Wednesday at 21.05. 
Lived in Whitechapel and Bow 84-87, drank in Blind Beggar and my favourite just down road was Artichoke run by a guy with two sons ginger hair, and my favourite personality Keith who looked like Frank Carson!
Remember working a Walthamstow 1987 and everyone went to pub next to tube station at 10am for morning pint several at lunch and again at 3pm, all pissed by home time at 4!
Flower seller at Walthamstow station was really fit
Remember working a Walthamstow 1987 and everyone went to pub next to tube station at 10am for morning pint several at lunch and again at 3pm, all pissed by home time at 4!
Flower seller at Walthamstow station was really fit
motco said:
CarlBarth said:
... always wondered what the larges exhausts and strange door led to...Kingsway Telephone Exchange I found out many years later.
There was a place like that behind a pair of unlabelled doors off High Holborn. Inside a middle aged woman sat in a kind of cinema ticket booth vetting visitors. The 'foyer' was a very small place with only her box and a lift door. That lift went down only. It's not secret any more though.vaud said:
motco said:
CarlBarth said:
... always wondered what the larges exhausts and strange door led to...Kingsway Telephone Exchange I found out many years later.
There was a place like that behind a pair of unlabelled doors off High Holborn. Inside a middle aged woman sat in a kind of cinema ticket booth vetting visitors. The 'foyer' was a very small place with only her box and a lift door. That lift went down only. It's not secret any more though.My old man told me once that London's "Roman" wall was actually built in the 70s.
He's not given to BS so I'll try to remember to quiz him about it next time I see him.
I expect what he meant was that he remembers seeing it being patched up when Tower Bridge tube station was being remodelled. On the other hand I've always thought it surprising that all that flint and brick wasn't plundered for building materials in the 2000 years since the Romans left.
He's not given to BS so I'll try to remember to quiz him about it next time I see him.
I expect what he meant was that he remembers seeing it being patched up when Tower Bridge tube station was being remodelled. On the other hand I've always thought it surprising that all that flint and brick wasn't plundered for building materials in the 2000 years since the Romans left.
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