How grim was mid 1970's London?
Discussion
Admittedly its not a great source but I have been working my way through the episodes of 'The Sweeney' and noticed that the parts of London used for the filming look terribly run down and dirty with more litter and graffiti than now.
Obviously the locations would have been chosen for the gritty style of the show but it got me thinking how bad was it really?
Looks like there were plenty of bomb sites still around at that time as well.
Obviously the locations would have been chosen for the gritty style of the show but it got me thinking how bad was it really?
Looks like there were plenty of bomb sites still around at that time as well.
Edited by Krupp88 on Monday 6th April 15:14
Krupp88 said:
Admittedly its not a great source but I have been working my way through the episodes of 'The Sweeney' and noticed that the parts of London used for the filming look terribly run down and dirty with more litter and graffiti than now.
Obviously the locations would have been chosen for the gritty style of the show but it got me thinking how bad was it really?
Looks like there were plenty of bomb sites still around at that time as well.
I recently read Steve Jone's autobiography and he talks about how run down it was when he was a kid. Loads of bomb sites & gap sites. Very run down.Obviously the locations would have been chosen for the gritty style of the show but it got me thinking how bad was it really?
Looks like there were plenty of bomb sites still around at that time as well.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01GR49BXO/ref=dp-kind...
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.
Krupp88 said:
Admittedly its not a great source but I have been working my way through the episodes of 'The Sweeney' and noticed that the parts of London used for the filming look terribly run down and dirty with more litter and graffiti than now.
Obviously the locations would have been chosen for the gritty style of the show but it got me thinking how bad was it really?
Looks like there were plenty of bomb sites still around at that time as well.
It’s easy to forget how London was pre thatcher.Obviously the locations would have been chosen for the gritty style of the show but it got me thinking how bad was it really?
Looks like there were plenty of bomb sites still around at that time as well.
Edited by Krupp88 on Monday 6th April 15:14
I don’t remember it personally, but when I was at uni we had a lecture from a really old town planner (studied Civil Engineering) who had been part of a group working on what to do with all the un used housing in London, they were worried what to when all the people had left.
AC43 said:
Krupp88 said:
Admittedly its not a great source but I have been working my way through the episodes of 'The Sweeney' and noticed that the parts of London used for the filming look terribly run down and dirty with more litter and graffiti than now.
Obviously the locations would have been chosen for the gritty style of the show but it got me thinking how bad was it really?
Looks like there were plenty of bomb sites still around at that time as well.
I recently read Steve Jone's autobiography and he talks about how run down it was when he was a kid. Loads of bomb sites & gap sites. Very run down.Obviously the locations would have been chosen for the gritty style of the show but it got me thinking how bad was it really?
Looks like there were plenty of bomb sites still around at that time as well.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01GR49BXO/ref=dp-kind...
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.
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
nikaiyo2 said:
Krupp88 said:
Admittedly its not a great source but I have been working my way through the episodes of 'The Sweeney' and noticed that the parts of London used for the filming look terribly run down and dirty with more litter and graffiti than now.
Obviously the locations would have been chosen for the gritty style of the show but it got me thinking how bad was it really?
Looks like there were plenty of bomb sites still around at that time as well.
It’s easy to forget how London was pre thatcher.Obviously the locations would have been chosen for the gritty style of the show but it got me thinking how bad was it really?
Looks like there were plenty of bomb sites still around at that time as well.
Edited by Krupp88 on Monday 6th April 15:14
I don’t remember it personally, but when I was at uni we had a lecture from a really old town planner (studied Civil Engineering) who had been part of a group working on what to do with all the un used housing in London, they were worried what to when all the people had left.
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 s
t-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.
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 s
t-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.
AC43 said:
Loads of bomb sites & gap sites. Very run down.
Yep, at least in the 80's while I was growing up. The telephone company couldn't dig a hole without finding an unexploded WW2 bomb. It seemed like we had to evacuate the school a couple of times / year. On a side note, they filmed a few episodes 'minder' pretty close to my old high school. We used to be able to watch them from the playing fields. nikaiyo2 said:
Krupp88 said:
Admittedly its not a great source but I have been working my way through the episodes of 'The Sweeney' and noticed that the parts of London used for the filming look terribly run down and dirty with more litter and graffiti than now.
Obviously the locations would have been chosen for the gritty style of the show but it got me thinking how bad was it really?
Looks like there were plenty of bomb sites still around at that time as well.
It’s easy to forget how London was pre thatcher.Obviously the locations would have been chosen for the gritty style of the show but it got me thinking how bad was it really?
Looks like there were plenty of bomb sites still around at that time as well.
Edited by Krupp88 on Monday 6th April 15:14
I don’t remember it personally, but when I was at uni we had a lecture from a really old town planner (studied Civil Engineering) who had been part of a group working on what to do with all the un used housing in London, they were worried what to when all the people had left.
There was a massive of flight of people out of London in the 70's and 80's. That then reversed and the money came pouring back in. I arrived in the late 80's as Docklands was going up and from that point on the transformation had been amazing.
Docklands was one of Hessletine's babies and it had a remarkable effect.
I remember London in the 70s with derelict sites - many places like a mouth with missing teeth. Grey/drab, hateful place - truth be told I'm not a big fan now but it is better than it was! For that, as another has posted, you'd have to thank the Sainted Maggie (ironically enough given how left it seems to be).
Krupp88 said:
Admittedly its not a great source but I have been working my way through the episodes of 'The Sweeney' and noticed that the parts of London used for the filming look terribly run down and dirty with more litter and graffiti than now.
Obviously the locations would have been chosen for the gritty style of the show but it got me thinking how bad was it really?
Looks like there were plenty of bomb sites still around at that time as well.
For the most part the film crew didn't venture very far from their HQ at Colet Court in Hammersmith, they were on a fairly tight schedule (ten days per episode with the odd overun) so didn't want to waste time travelling around more than necessary. This meant that the same run down areas were used several times, although they did go out to the suburbs and the docklands occasionally for certain story lines.Obviously the locations would have been chosen for the gritty style of the show but it got me thinking how bad was it really?
Looks like there were plenty of bomb sites still around at that time as well.
Edited by Krupp88 on Monday 6th April 15:14
The opening title sequence was shot directly opposite Colet Court in the wasteground off Colet Gardens in 1974, it was the site of a school which was demolished in '69 and has since been built on, it was also used in the classic 'blag' episode 'Faces' from series 2, shot in '75...
Incidentally Tony Allen who played Regan's driver 'Bill' (above) died on 31st March.
I used to live in Hammersmith and worked at Willesden and Old Oak Common in the early '80s, much of it was still quite run down looking even then. Everything looked grey and brown back then!
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 remember going to see bands at the Autonomy Centre set up by Crass in Wapping around 1981.
Wow! That place was run down. Remember coming out the tube station and thinking how desolate it was, climbing over and under wire fences to get to the old abandoned building it was in.
Wapping really changed!
Wow! That place was run down.
Remember coming out the tube station and thinking how desolate it was, climbing over and under wire fences to get to the old abandoned building it was in. Wapping really changed!
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