How grim was mid 1970's London?

[TwigtheWonderkid]

Newc]5BNij said:

St.Stephens Crescent, W2 in 1974...



Bit of filler, coat of Dulux:

I'm guessing that one of those, if it's an entire house and not flats, would set you back a good £12m today!

[Cheib]

vixen1700 said:

I don't remember it being that run-down to be honest.

Stratford Centre (the old one not Westfield) was quite nice, far nicer than it is now in fact. We used to ride our bikes round there when we were kids. Longest rides we did around 1977 were to the Woolwich Ferry when we were ten.

The new flats that we lived in were built in 1971 but by the time we moved to a house in 1980 they'd become pretty horrible graffiti ridden st-holes. Glad we got away from there.

Know what you mean though, it does look grim on the telly.

I just remember it being a good colourful time, apart from the power-cuts which were a bit of a bummer.

I didn’t live in Stratford (lived further out on the Central Line) but I used to work as a Saturday lad in the Dixons in Stratford....not sure I would say it’s nicer than what is there now but there weren’t many shopping centres around then like it.

I’d say it wasn’t until the late 80’s or early 90’s that areas that were previously pretty dodgy started getting fashionable. Lots of what I suppose you’d call Zone 2 and Zone 3 was pretty rough as I remember it....I have no idea on the stats but my feeling is that unless you were daft about where you went the streets were pretty safe....you wouldn’t have walked around Stoke Newington or New Cross in a suit late at night but I would say crime was more localised then, I think Central London in terms of mugging or violent crime is more dangerous now to the average individual.

[P5BNij]

Stone me - in 1983 I was paying my uncle £15 a week in rent for his flat in Hammersmith...!

[Krupp88]

Thanks to everyone who has replied.

I was born in 1980 so this is a time completely unknown to me.

Its seems that for the most part nostalgia has jumped the '70's, optimism and vibrancy in the immediate post war period and the 60's and then it all gets a bit crap until the 80's (a massive over simplification I admit).

I have been really enjoying 'The Sweeney' and have been getting my fill of 'On the Buses' so a bit of a 70's convert during this lockdown.

Edited by Krupp88 on Monday 6th April 17:12

[vixen1700]

Cheib said:

I’d say it wasn’t until the late 80’s or early 90’s that areas that were previously pretty dodgy started getting fashionable. Lots of what I suppose you’d call Zone 2 and Zone 3 was pretty rough as I remember it....I have no idea on the stats but my feeling is that unless you were daft about where you went the streets were pretty safe....you wouldn’t have walked around Stoke Newington or New Cross in a suit late at night but I would say crime was more localised then, I think Central London in terms of mugging or violent crime is more dangerous now to the average individual.

We'd go and see bands all over London in the early-80s with the exception of the Bridgehouse in Canning Town. That place that was terrifying to us.

[Eric Mc]

Krupp88 said:

Thanks to everyone who has replied.

I was born in 1980 so this is a time completely unknown to me.

Its seems that for the most part nostalgia has jumped the '70's, optimism and vibrancy in the immediate post war period and the 60's and then it all gets a bit crap until the 80's (a massive over simplification I admit).

I have been really enjoying 'The Sweeney' and have been getting my fill of 'On the Buses' so a bit of a 70's convert during this lockdown.

The 1970s was a mixed decade.

Good music.

Awful fashion.

National self flagellation.

Edited by Krupp88 on Monday 6th April 17:12

The 1970s was a mixed decade.

Good music.

Awful fashion.

National self flagellation.

Edited by Eric Mc on Monday 6th April 17:32

[anonymous-user]

Krupp88 said:

Thanks to everyone who has replied.

I was born in 1980 so this is a time completely unknown to me.

Its seems that for the most part nostalgia has jumped the '70's, optimism and vibrancy in the immediate post war period and the 60's and then it all gets a bit crap until the 80's (a massive over simplification I admit).

I have been really enjoying 'The Sweeney' and have been getting my fill of 'On the Buses' so a bit of a 70's convert during this lockdown.

Edited by Krupp88 on Monday 6th April 17:12

Lots of families moved out in the 70's as part of what was called the "London Overspill relocation"

[Krupp88]

My wife was exclaiming at the poor taste in mens hair styles in one of the episodes, my theory was that it was fashionable to have long hair in the 60's so they stuck with it in the 70's and as hair lines receded you ended up with these odd styles.

Have to say that I was shocked to read that John Thaw was only 32 when the Sweeney started, I'm 8 years older than that and still don't look as old as he did then.

[TCEvo]

Krupp88 said:

I hope that those buildings in that picture survived, although run down and dirty at the time, fundamentally sound buildings must have been bulldozed in their thousands.

They do, or at least the bulk of the bit in the background. It's (the former) Whitechapel Bell Foundry, Plumbers Row off Whitechapel Road. The bit where the chap's sitting's changed - the road (Fieldgate St) has been widened and the buildings replaced w/ a block of flats.

[vixen1700]

Stratford Centre in 1980, how I remember it.

Got a West Ham rosette from a seller there on Cup Final day five years earlier.

Plus my first single in 1978 from HMV Shop just to the left. Oh Bondage Up Yours!

[Pothole]

alabbasi said:

It's like any big city, lots of industry, lots of lead in the atmosphere. There was only 2 zones on the tube and buses. Inner and outer. It was better then NYC back then and it's better today.

Than. Better than.

[Wildcat45]

Not just London. I live where the 1980s kids TV show Supergran was filmed. (Tynemouth) It's always been regarded as a nice place, but when you watch reruns it really looks shabby and unkempt, unlike today.

Staying with filming locations, shows from The Sweeney through to The Bill often used a certain style of pre-war flats with walkways in the front of the buildings. I guess it was easier to film the cops turning up at a villain's drum, the Mrs in curlers answering the door and the subsequent foot chase? As well as the Mrs always looking the bleeding same, the flats did too. Was this the same block used in different shows?

[Europa1]

Krupp88 said:

Thanks to everyone who has replied.

I was born in 1980 so this is a time completely unknown to me.

Its seems that for the most part nostalgia has jumped the '70's, optimism and vibrancy in the immediate post war period and the 60's and then it all gets a bit crap until the 80's (a massive over simplification I admit).

I have been really enjoying 'The Sweeney' and have been getting my fill of 'On the Buses' so a bit of a 70's convert during this lockdown.

Edited by Krupp88 on Monday 6th April 17:12

OP, a couple of other posters have mentioned it in passing. If you're enjoying seeing London in the 1970s, watch The Professionals as well.

[Krupp88]

Europa1 said:

OP, a couple of other posters have mentioned it in passing. If you're enjoying seeing London in the 1970s, watch The Professionals as well.

Thanks - will check it out!

[Pothole]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

Newc]5BNij said:

St.Stephens Crescent, W2 in 1974...



Bit of filler, coat of Dulux:

I'm guessing that one of those, if it's an entire house and not flats, would set you back a good £12m today!

One bed flat in that end terrace - £825 faahsand nicker

[vixen1700]

Krupp88 said:

Europa1 said:

OP, a couple of other posters have mentioned it in passing. If you're enjoying seeing London in the 1970s, watch The Professionals as well.

Thanks - will check it out!

Here's a thread you may well like too:

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[Wacky Racer]

Krupp88 said:

Thanks to everyone who has replied.

I was born in 1980 so this is a time completely unknown to me.

Its seems that for the most part nostalgia has jumped the '70's, optimism and vibrancy in the immediate post war period and the 60's and then it all gets a bit crap until the 80's (a massive over simplification I admit).

I have been really enjoying 'The Sweeney' and have been getting my fill of 'On the Buses' so a bit of a 70's convert during this lockdown.

[rossub]

One thing I’ve noticed though - nearly all of photos are in the winter with grey skies.

The UK has a very hard job of not looking grim in Winter.

If there were leaves on the trees and blue skies, it wouldn’t look anywhere near as bad.

[Eric Mc]

Wacky Racer said:

"I 'ate you Butler"

[Dog Star]

J4CKO said:

I remember Manchester from back then and a lot of it was pretty ropey, even as a young kid I noticed it.

Several years ago I was reading an interview with one of the writers of "Life on Mars" - that had been filmed in Manchester and various other towns in the area using a lot of locations that were familiar to me. He said that in the couple of years since they had shot the series that it had changed so much that it would have been impossible to shoot it again.