How grim was mid 1970's London?

[nikaiyo2]

Wildcat45 said:

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?

Wow, it had the best theme ever

Stand back superman, iceman, Spider-Man

I remember getting bus from my nanas house to the Metro then going to Tynemouth, I remember the station looking like it still had bomb damage lol It was proper rundown, maybe I remember it wrong.
I made a similar a journey 2 or 3 years ago and was amazed at the transformation.

[TPSA7514]

P5BNij]Ione worth a look is the six part series 'Out' said:

This is currently being repeated on one of the smaller tv channels

[Tango13]

Pothole said:

Than. Better than.

Remember GinettaGirl G15 and TwoMany2CVs? They both received permanent bans for being gobste argumentative s.

Try to remember that before hitting 'Submit' in future.

[DickyC]

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!

Scenes of urban and industrial decay were often shot on the derelict parts of the old British Empire Exhibition site in Wembley. They didn't have to go far. The studio where The Professionals was filmed was on the same estate.

[J4CKO]

Wacky Racer said:

J4CKO said:

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

You should have grown up in Manchester in the 50's.

Run down terraced houses, red rec bomb sites, smog, crowded trolley buses, no mobile phones or internet, 2 channels on b/w telly which shut down at 11pm.


But we were happy.

I think I caught the end of bits of really grim areas, before any kind of rejuvenation, used to go to my grandparents in East Manchester, where they lived was nice enough but some of the bits on the way seemed pretty run down, saw it get better over the years, not perfect but a lot better.

[Speed1283]

Great thread OP and the photos being posted. Love seeing photos of cities 'then and now' particularly London, although I do find the changing skyline of New York pretty interesting too (I'm sad I know).

[smileymikey]

Tango13 said:

Pothole said:

Than. Better than.

Remember GinettaGirl G15 and TwoMany2CVs? They both received permanent bans for being gobste argumentative s.

Try to remember that before hitting 'Submit' in future.

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. He started targeting me a few years back and I sent him on his way with significant butt hurt. Only time I've ever had a proper issue with anyone on Pistonheads

[AC43]

Eric Mc said:

I first visited London in 1977 and was struck by how dirty and grimy it looked. The main problem was the state of the fine buildings - most of which were covered in 150 years worth of soot and dirt and the after effects of World War 2. From the early 1980s onwards, there was a huge amount of cleaning up on and most of these great buildings now look a lot better than they did 40 years ago.

I visited in the 70's from a pretty grimy ex-industrial Scottish town in Fife and preferred London :-)

Since then there's been a vast amount of renovation and rebuilding in London and so many of the magnificent buildings looking magnificent again. Plus all the regeneration of brownfield areas like Kings X.

These days when I go to Edinburgh I'm struck by how many beautiful & grand old facades look a bit grimy compeared to the scrubbed-up central London look.

It all comes down to money, I suppose.

[Tango13]

Apologies for the slight thread diversion, to get the thread back on track...

https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/

[irocfan]

Tango13 said:

Pothole said:

Than. Better than.

Remember GinettaGirl G15 and TwoMany2CVs? They both received permanent bans for being gobste argumentative s.

Try to remember that before hitting 'Submit' in future.

My aren't you a bundle of joy.



Back on topic - Docklands was used as a Vietnam stand-in for some of Full Metal Jacket

[anonymous-user]

irocfan said:

Back on topic - Docklands was used as a Vietnam stand-in for some of Full Metal Jacket

Was that Beckton dumps?

[J4CKO]

Dog Star said:

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.

I worked for GMP which was the basis for the Police in Life on Mars, I used to do a bit of work for the bloke who was the Police adviser to the shows producers.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/showb...

I was there from 1993 to 2006, the places changed and I caught the tail end of the careers of a few Gene Hunts, I did see a DCI in a Camel Coat in the wild.

[Wildcat45]

nikaiyo2 said:

Wow, it had the best theme ever

Stand back superman, iceman, Spider-Man

I remember getting bus from my nanas house to the Metro then going to Tynemouth, I remember the station looking like it still had bomb damage lol It was proper rundown, maybe I remember it wrong.
I made a similar a journey 2 or 3 years ago and was amazed at the transformation.

It very nearly got knocked down in the 1980s. Much of the remaining glass canopies still had wartime black out paint on them. From that to Princess Anne opening it in 2012.

[TCEvo]

catweasle said:

irocfan said:

Back on topic - Docklands was used as a Vietnam stand-in for some of Full Metal Jacket

Was that Beckton dumps?

Gasworks - all long gone, gave rise to the Beckton Alp & associated dry ski slope though.

OT but most (if not all) of FMJ was filmed in the UK - 'Marine' barracks were in Cambs.

[Trevor450]

nikaiyo2 said:

Wildcat45 said:

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?

Wow, it had the best theme ever

Stand back superman, iceman, Spider-Man

I remember getting bus from my nanas house to the Metro then going to Tynemouth, I remember the station looking like it still had bomb damage lol It was proper rundown, maybe I remember it wrong.
I made a similar a journey 2 or 3 years ago and was amazed at the transformation.

I had forgotten that. My dad used to take us all to Spanish City up the road and then we always used to go for a curry at an upstairs curry house on front street. Abiding memory was him pulling out of one of the oblique spaces straight into a no parking post. 😂

[anonymous-user]

TCEvo said:

catweasle said:

irocfan said:

Back on topic - Docklands was used as a Vietnam stand-in for some of Full Metal Jacket

Was that Beckton dumps?

Gasworks - all long gone, gave rise to the Beckton Alp & associated dry ski slope though.

OT but most (if not all) of FMJ was filmed in the UK - 'Marine' barracks were in Cambs.

I remember the glue factory there as well as the allotments we nicked veg from.

[P5BNij]

DickyC said:

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!

Scenes of urban and industrial decay were often shot on the derelict parts of the old British Empire Exhibition site in Wembley. They didn't have to go far. The studio where The Professionals was filmed was on the same estate.

Part of the opening titles for the first series were shot next to the railway at Greenford in '77, it's the bit where they all rock up in a RR Silver Shadow with Cowley at the wheel. When the second series was shown at the tail end of '78 it had the more familiar titles with Pete Brayham (Sweeney stuntman and occasional on screen villain) driving the Mk1 Consul through the plate glass, this version was also added to the early VHS and DVD releases but the latest much improved boxset release of series one has the original titles back in place...

[Thankyou4calling]

Robbo 27 said:

Central London was fine, no issues. There were areas where you wouldnt go to if you were white being Tottenham and Brixton there were other areas that you wouldnt go to at all unless you lived there, Shadwell, Poplar, Mile End and loads of others.

There were less drugs than nowadays, more thefts, more fights, more glassings, no lezzies, more hookers on corners, many more widows, not many divorced people, loads of children playing in the streets, food choice was poor, restaurant food was not good at all compared to now, pubs had closing times, people drank fast for a couple of hours, more bribery, a lot of people on the fiddle, nobody ran for fun, you playted football if you were poor and cricket of you were posh.

There were always abandonned factories for film sets and houses being demolished, as there is now.

Edited by Robbo 27 on Monday 6th April 15:48

Not a bad summary. London was a much edgier place then. Interestingly I’d say that it was more violent then than now .

One of the notable things about the sweeney was how the cops had small time crims as informers. Don’t know if that happens now.

How aggressive the police were. Definitely not now.

How easy it was to drive round. Not now.

And we’re there more guns?

[The Don of Croy]

Wildcat45 said:

...as the Mrs always looking the bleeding same...

Very good. Great song, too.

I get nostalgic watching Minder as it’s the period when I started work, living away from home, but looking at Tel’s crap flat, stingy furniture, poor kitchen it’s a stark reminder of what’s changed. And London has done the same.

As kids (1970’s) dad would drive us up to Heathrow from Sevenoaks several times a year, via Beckenham, Crystal Palace, Brixton, Lambeth, and out through west London (no M25). Or off to Scotland. By car. So we saw a lot of grimy old tenements, empty sites, grey facades.

When I went back as a rep in the 1980’s it was changing rapidly, and I got to see Docklands as it went skywards. And the Sarsons vinegar brewery just south of Tower Bridge.

But pretty much everywhere has been transformed in the last 30 years imho.

[Dog Star]

J4CKO said:

I worked for GMP which was the basis for the Police in Life on Mars, I used to do a bit of work for the bloke who was the Police adviser to the shows producers.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/showb...

I was there from 1993 to 2006, the places changed and I caught the tail end of the careers of a few Gene Hunts, I did see a DCI in a Camel Coat in the wild.

Happy days!