What a lovely, wistful video. I am an American who loves your country, and seeing these clips gives me a glimpse of what life was like back then. I have to remember that these people survived the Blitz, so a quiet life must have been a sort of relief for them. The lack of cars gives this a timeless look too. All those older people are surely gone, and the little kids in their 60's or 70's by now. Life is so fleeting. Thanks for sharing these wonderful images with those near and far.
By the time I remember it, the St. John's Wood Dairy had become part of Express Dairies. I used to like feeding sugar cubes to the horses, there was one called Ada with a white spot on her forehead, she was my favourite.
Having just watched "The Great North Road, 1939" and been linked to this, the transformation of less than a decade is staggering. How neat, clean, prosperous and tidy everything looks in GNR1939, and how melancholy and knackered it is here. It took us so long to recover from that bloody war. I remember some of the decayed remnants of war still present when I was a child in the 60s. And what the Luftwaffe didn't destroy, the GLC did its damndest to finish off anyway
The same in Manchester: the City Council made a balls of almost everything it 'developed' after the war. Some 'slum clearance' sites have had to be rebuilt several times since the '60s and '70s system-building disasters.
Yes, I noticed Stevenage was a lovely village in the 1939 film and now it is a hideous new town. But I do understand that there was a need to get rid of the East End slums and the New towns were seen as the answer in the 60's.
Notice they avoided filming any bomb damage. I remember huge bomb sites still existing in the early 60s. Great swathes of broken remains of houses. One house I remember had the whole side missing but you could still see the bedroom furniture sitting there. Even a pink bedspread on the bed. I asked my parents what had happened & why the people had not come back for their things. They said the stairs were probably destroyed by the bomb.
George Orwell lived in this part of London in those days. Interesting to sense the scenes he was seeing walking around taking a break from writing animal farm which he produced whilst there with 1984 developing in the back of his mind.he also produced the lion and the unicorn at that time.
This puts me in such a mood it is hard to describe. It is so reflective, sad, haunting, dreamy, happy, eerie....it is so neat to see the 1940's in such vivid color. The music, oh that music just gets to me, puts me in a different world.. Coolitababy you pick the best songs to go with your videos! Knowing a lot of the people in this are long gone by now, and the children are in their 60's and 70's. The older lady opening the door gets to me for some reason. Thanks for sharing this!
Absolutely amazing. It's a tragedy how St Johns Wood's early 19th century buildings were flattened even AFTER the war to be replaced by some of the most boring and materialistic housing imaginable.
+Sylvie Ah yes---those post-war Labourite social Leveller's. Uniformity in all things. Like those monolithic blocks of flats in Soviet cities. Looking more like detention centres.
Elaine Ayton, I am an Ayton too ! I take the name of my Mother - Elizabeth Ayton, born in the 20's , deceased some 20 years and coming from Barnsbury Terrace, Islington ; apparently related, in some v distant way, to J Ayton, undertakers Caledonian Rd. Are we connected in any way?
I’m from London and in a weird way it struck me how much the same it looks here. The biggest difference is now all those streets would be full of parked cars. But the buildings and streets still look just the same other than that. My grandparents were teenagers at this time, it’s amazing to be able to get a glimpse of the London they were living in then.
My mum, born 1920, just up the road in Kensal Green, would have seen it like this. She died young in 1980. I always look out in these old films of London in the vain hope of seeing her. . . Sweet film. Thanks for posting
@Mick Burns I think it's likely more people were like that in the old days, as they lived in a culturally homogenous society where everyone knew what was and was not socially acceptable, and with nothing worth stealing there was less fear of crime.
@Mick Burns The huge relief of not worrying about bombings and losing more loved ones was over, but, the greyness of shortages and rationing, lasted at least till 1954.
Very appropriate background music setting a rather sad scene as poor broken Britain struggled to pull its socks up after the end of the war. I was about 5 when this film was shot and living in quiet old Harrow on the Hill. United Dairies delivered milk by horse and cart. A lamp-lighter would manually turn on the street lamps which were gas powered. This film is truly evocative and has a twinge of melancholy about it. So real.
I wonder where that little girl in the red coat at 1' 25" is now? She looks about four years old so she would probably be in her early seventies. It would be marvellous if she could be found.
Rick Langley just like me, i was thinking about those people from 40s who are still alive. i wish i have the opportunity to find one of them and talk to them about the past
@@indiekiddrugpatrol3117 - Self-interest, had they not done so, highly unlikely they, or any of their descendants, would have avoided summary 'termination.'
Well done, the makers of this short film, and likewise their choice of music accompaniment (who composed it, I wonder, and what is it called?) which provides a reminder of the post-war broken-down Britain - altho’ we were recovering slowly thanks to now distant Marshall Aid but were still on rationing and good coal was expensive for home fires. I bet many of those homes shown had many a sad story to tell of once-happy families some even prosperous to be able to afford such pleasant abodes, that had lost dear ones either in the services in distant battles or on the Home Front in bombing raids on London. Let their names be ever remembered, they died that others might live this day. Grateful thanks for making this doc. available for viewing, wish it were longer....
michael berry yes it might well be - because only a few years before there had been a war, depression immediately before, & WW1 before that. So although there was mass conflict there appeared to be good Will amongst those in struggle.😀
I too found it a very moving piece of film. The people were wonderful. They suffered so much and still were able to get on with their lives after the war and build up the cities again.
One of the children in the playground might have been me! I was brought up in St. John's Wood we used to play in the cemetery which is next to the playground. We lived in a block flats that is just outside the picture of that road. I recognised almost everywhere in the film except the row of very poor houses, they might have been in Alitsen Road. No sign of the bombing, but all those big houses show in St. John's Wood Park were empty and derelict.
'Rare' footage indeed--and unbeleivably--in Colour! This was a bleak and depressing period, early post war. I remember it too well, with colossal war destruction on view for many years, and worse rationing than in the war it's self. Not a popular subject / period, to use expensive and hard to get colour film on. Thank God someone did---priceless!
@jesuscora I was struck by that 'shy old lady' she looked lovely....I find myself wondering who she was, when she died, where she is buried.....I wonder if any of here descendants are still alive? It certainly does make you think of how brief our tenure is on this life!
I always thought life must of been better back then, watching clips in black and white you dont get a feel for how it was back then so you build a picture in your head but actually seeing clips in colour you realise not a lot has changed really, the things we moan about im sure that generation moaned about aswell
Big Moose What I remember most is the huge pits in the ground between buildings which marked where WWII bombs had taken out whole streets. Some whole areas were flattened, like in East London where the docks were. Nature softened them, though. After a few years the sites began to green over with the sort of plants that colonise bricks and rubble... even small trees grew up. Some of those trees got to be twenty years old before resources were available to redevelop the post-war bomb sites.
I was born in 1946 and recall the regular thick pea soup fogs in London.Once,in the early 1950's, I was on a bus with my mum, and the fog came down so thick the driver refused to go any further.Eventually the conductor agreed to walk in front of the bus and act as a guide. We carried on at walking pace and the driver could just about see the conductor who was only a few yards in front.Eventually we arrived home hours late.My dad had been worried about us but there was nothing he could do.It was impossible to see more than a few yards as the fog was so thick.They introduced a clean air act shortly after,which helped no end.Every house had a coal fire which caused the smog as it was called." Smokeless" coal was introduced to cut down the smog and eventually steam trains were replaced by diesels.
In the days when London was a community of family and friends. The woman either hung over the back fence or on the front step chatting. My mother certainly did.
Piognant music to largely lost parts of London.Melina Place,and Elm Tree Rd (superficially) look largely unchanged. Only one house,No 25 remains in St John's Wood Park,now largely covered by a few posh houses,blocks of flats and council estates.
@YesIamEccentric I did note how dark all the building wereAlso, coal was still being used to heat homes, hence dust, dirt, and the famous "pea soup" smog that London was so famous for.
@Simon Frampton Brought up in industrial Birmingham during and after the war, I will always smell those pea super's, and the strange dull yellowish, low sky above, and a strange muffled sound of the hum of traffic and factories, pressing down on your ears.
Absolutely brilliant, I love stuff like this even though Im not from around here or even this time period. I simply find films like these fascinating and as a bonus its in colour too. Marvellous!
Thank you so much,an evocative & quite haunting view of an era only 60 years past,& yet it seems it could be 300 years-ace combination of footage & music too!
My grandparents grew up in St. John's Wood and my mother was born there. This is what it would have looked like just before they left. I can't wait to show it to my Grandma!
Fascinating to see St. John's Wood in the 40@s. I went to school there in the 60's. Was a different world by then. Even more so now. So lovely to have empty streets.
I'm fascinated by the apparent stables in the middle of a big city. Another thing: The little kids in the playground were to become the swinging Londoners of the 60's!
Absolutely beautiful, I wish that I could go and meet these beautiful and gorgeous people, very honest and hard working people and such a beautiful London... London is always in my 💝💖💝heart. London Is🍦🍧🍦The Best City And My Great BRITAIN 💖 Is The Best Country In The World. 🌍 God Bless My United Kingdom.
No vile street furniture, cctv, controlled parking meters, fried chicken shops, multi-coloured lines on the roads etc. Life was harder then in some ways but in others, much better. Real Londonders could to buy a house in the area they grew up in and worked in. Fat fucking chance of that now.
I’m not British neither know much about the country but wtf is whit the cctv cameras everywhere when I was in London on vacation I felt like I was being spied on the whole time.
@@baxterenrife sad, dark benighted times. but we scraped through by the skin of our teeth but now it's all better. police officers have to wear stab-proof vests ( although knife crime is lower than it was in the 60s, we are told) and terror attacks are "part and parcel" of having a terrorist-sympathiser mayor
@@tonyclifton265 Yes, and the Police don't forget, according to The London Mayor, need to be much more diverse yet at the same time, as he reminds us, they are systematically racist. Presumably for trying to stop the savage hordes from disemboweling each other on our streets?
Yes very haunting - a lost world . A wonderful choice of music. The fact that it is in colour draws you in . It's a pitty the film is not run at the correct speed.
@pinknightstand How odd......that lady opening her door haunts me too.....I find myself wondering who she was, when she died....there's something of 'Eleanor Rigby' about her.....she looks so sweet though...God rest her
@icollins69 sadly you're England no longer exists and many parts now look more like Pakistan or Africa :(. Lo do lament the passing of England as it once was .
2:46 of delightful nostalgic colour film. So good, I want more! There must be 100's of hours of colour film taken at the time - where has it all gone? Much, I suppose has disappeared for ever as the owners have left us and their possessions have been disposed of, but much must still exist, where is it? Few postings of a similar nature have been made since this one. If you've got some or know of some, please put it up here on RUclips so we can all benefit from such beautiful, nostalgic images!
Colour film was not just hard to find and expensive then, but BEFORE the war too. Most colour film, especially of London, during the War, was taken by American servicemen, who had brought it over with them, not to mention the right Cameras.
@elainebmack Well, a lot of Philidelphia was built in Colonial times, so the likelyhood is that the bricks were made in London too and taken across the Atlantic....
@YesIamEccentric . You know, you are at least partly right about that. I read that bricks and slabs of marble were used as ballast when ships were sent to the colonies back in the day, and later used as building materials. That's why so many of the older Eastern cities have marble steps. Philadelphia later produced its own bricks from material from the shores of the Schuykill River. I once took a walking tour of the East End in London, and it looked exactly like Philly. Interesting...
Amazing find. Just shows we are not looking through 'rose coloured spectacles' this is proof things were better in many ways. I recognize many places even today.
Iam not saying everything was better years ago, but people seem to look happier,, the politicians over the last 40years have a lot to answer for, there is no community spirit
It looks better because we're feeling nostalgic..and I'm only 47yrs old. But it also must of been a very depressing and lonely time for those in the film, and thousands more like them. Many had to endure family losses from the war, and many were left alone. I'd guess they couldn't wait to become part of a more modern and exciting world from the 60's but alas some never lived long enough to experience it.
Fabulous video, thanks for uploading it. It is so evocative and the music really suits the mood. My goodness, St. John's Wood has changed a bit since then. All those working class people have been replaced by millionaires.
Gill, I did attend Barrow Hill School. I believe my last year there was 1972. Did you attend the same school? I have watched the video over and over again, and it really brings it all back to me. Some things looked the same as while I was growing up, but other things had already been torn down. I'm so glad this video was posted! I get feelings of sadness and happiness all at the same time!
@@lucaschapman2188 you do realise that the Germans where making rockets and jet engines in World war two , basically 25 years before the space race. Google and Check out the book called ( Alternative 3 ) it was first published by penguin book's as nonfiction then moved to fiction then reprinted as world affairs. The tin foil hat brigades love it , you would probably believe it even though you don't believe in the moon landings , it's actually about missions to MARS. In the 60s 🖒
There’s just a total lack of thanks for a nation that could easily pulled up the drawbridge, moored the worlds largest navy along the coast and, left the continent to sort its self out. Apparently Hitler wanted a negotiated peace with UK, didn’t want to invade.
Thank you Thank you,an outstanding film. It isn't like the films,its real life I loved it.Wouldn't it be great to step back into those times ,I think I would get on very well. Keep them coming.
Great video. This was not a happy time. Having buried our dead from 2 world wars. We now faced decades of decline and humiliation, some of it brought on by ourselves. Britain was bancrupt and exhausted. She was losing her Empire and would be paying huge War Debts to the USA for decades to come. The cities were filthy, grimy and smog ridden places. Not only that we also had the car crash of 1960s and 70s industrial relations to look forward to.
Come ON, now---the 1960's, brought us bright new colours, in every new material made, from clothing, to kitchen plasticware, New paints, DIY materials, people patched up their old rundown Georgian tenements, and things looked far brighter than the drearly tenyears from '45 to '55. New fashions music --EVERYTHING. IT GAVE THE NATION A MASSIVE BOOST, AND MADE US KING OF THE HILL, AROUND THE WORLD. IT MAY NOT HAVE ALL BEEN GREAT IN HINDSIGHT. BUT IT'S WHAT WE NEEDED AT THE TIME..
No there was much less crime in those days and not that it was unreported. If there had been rapes etc we would have heard about it. People used to talk to their neighbours and not ist in solitude watching T.V. Young boys built model aeroplanes ( I did) we used glue and paint and nobody ever dreamed of sniffing the stuff to get high.
Same-old story before I was born, people died buried in graveyards, buildings went down, buildings went up, came with the usual problems of life unknown today - maybe.
I grew up in St John's Wood in the 1960's, and I recognise a lot of the clips, although many of the buildings were gone by the time I was born. I was especially interested to see the clip of the Barrow Hill Estate under construction, as I grew up there! The St John's Wood Church Grounds (known locally as 'The Burial Grounds') looked exactly the same as how I remember it from my childhood. Today, the play area is very different. Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful, nostalgic film!
A much more innocent age and in many ways a better Britain, people then were closer and considerate and had a sense of looking out for one another, Sadly the Britain of then has long since gone and in my opinion certainly not for the better. There is so much about Britain today that bad and getting worse, this footage shows us a Britain thats not perfect but far more desirable than what Britain has become today.
{there was much less crime in those days} --- And yet in the 1930s in a West London suburb my old grand father felt the need to have a truncheon, several in fact, under his bed. I've still got one of them today as a reminder that not everything was perhaps as rosy as we feel it was back then.
![London 1945 in color, Post World War II [60fps,Remastered] w/sound design added](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/WPNZZSXqJjQ/mqdefault.jpg)
![ARGENTINA vs. BOLIVIA [6-0] | RESUMEN | ELIMINATORIAS SUDAMERICANAS | FECHA 10](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/C3wPtKNbAOA/mqdefault.jpg)
What a lovely, wistful video. I am an American who loves your country, and seeing these clips gives me a glimpse of what life was like back then. I have to remember that these people survived the Blitz, so a quiet life must have been a sort of relief for them. The lack of cars gives this a timeless look too. All those older people are surely gone, and the little kids in their 60's or 70's by now. Life is so fleeting. Thanks for sharing these wonderful images with those near and far.
What a lovely friendly comment. thank YOU.
Hauntingly beautiful and evocative images of a London now gone for good. Thank you so much for sharing this treasure.
By the time I remember it, the St. John's Wood Dairy had become part of Express Dairies. I used to like feeding sugar cubes to the horses, there was one called Ada with a white spot on her forehead, she was my favourite.
was she the one with no teeth?
You could afford to give sugar cubes away.? Wait till you farther comes home ??
Having just watched "The Great North Road, 1939" and been linked to this, the transformation of less than a decade is staggering. How neat, clean, prosperous and tidy everything looks in GNR1939, and how melancholy and knackered it is here. It took us so long to recover from that bloody war. I remember some of the decayed remnants of war still present when I was a child in the 60s. And what the Luftwaffe didn't destroy, the GLC did its damndest to finish off anyway
The same in Manchester: the City Council made a balls of almost everything it 'developed' after the war. Some 'slum clearance' sites have had to be rebuilt several times since the '60s and '70s system-building disasters.
Yes, I noticed Stevenage was a lovely village in the 1939 film and now it is a hideous new town. But I do understand that there was a need to get rid of the East End slums and the New towns were seen as the answer in the 60's.
Notice they avoided filming any bomb damage. I remember huge bomb sites still existing in the early 60s. Great swathes of broken remains of houses. One house I remember had the whole side missing but you could still see the bedroom furniture sitting there. Even a pink bedspread on the bed. I asked my parents what had happened & why the people had not come back for their things. They said the stairs were probably destroyed by the bomb.
Longest decade ever tbh
Thanks for taking us on a trip to another England, long past. Nice music too.
Lovely film. My Dad would have been about ten years old when this was filmed. A nice snapshot of that time.
@@internezzo why comment that?
George Orwell lived in this part of London in those days.
Interesting to sense the scenes he was seeing walking around taking a break from writing animal farm which he produced whilst there with 1984 developing in the back of his mind.he also produced the lion and the unicorn at that time.
The music is very haunting.
This puts me in such a mood it is hard to describe. It is so reflective, sad, haunting, dreamy, happy, eerie....it is so neat to see the 1940's in such vivid color. The music, oh that music just gets to me, puts me in a different world.. Coolitababy you pick the best songs to go with your videos! Knowing a lot of the people in this are long gone by now, and the children are in their 60's and 70's. The older lady opening the door gets to me for some reason. Thanks for sharing this!
Absolutely amazing. It's a tragedy how St Johns Wood's early 19th century buildings were flattened even AFTER the war to be replaced by some of the most boring and materialistic housing imaginable.
+Sylvie Ah yes---those post-war Labourite social Leveller's. Uniformity in all things. Like those monolithic blocks of flats in Soviet cities. Looking more like detention centres.
@@MrDaiseymay 'Detention' was more or less the idea: it was "keep 'em down!" planning: keep 'em away from us!
@@None-zc5vg The idea was to quickly produce desperately needed housing. A lot of homes were destroyed. Huge numbers.
@@MrDaiseymay
You are confused. And stop reading the Daily Mail.
This was my era as a child loved my childhood I am now 81
Elaine Ayton, I am an Ayton too ! I take the name of my Mother - Elizabeth Ayton, born in the 20's , deceased some 20 years and coming from Barnsbury Terrace, Islington ; apparently related, in some v distant way, to J Ayton, undertakers Caledonian Rd.
Are we connected in any way?
@@Elconbriosoyes I need £ 5000 please send it to me !!
wow! grew up on and lived on the barrow hill estate briefly shown here!
I was there last week at Lords to watch England v India. Always replay La Peau Douce in my head when walking via that roundabout..
I’m from London and in a weird way it struck me how much the same it looks here. The biggest difference is now all those streets would be full of parked cars. But the buildings and streets still look just the same other than that. My grandparents were teenagers at this time, it’s amazing to be able to get a glimpse of the London they were living in then.
It’s strange to think that my great grandparents are bobbing about somewhere while this is being filmed
My mum, born 1920, just up the road in Kensal Green, would have seen it like this. She died young in 1980. I always look out in these old films of London in the vain hope of seeing her. . . Sweet film. Thanks for posting
The elder lady at :56 has the most amiable, welcoming facial expression I think I've ever seen on a person.
Yes, I agree. I often return to this film just to see her. The music adds to her expression and the general atmosphere of the film.
@Mick Burns I think it's likely more people were like that in the old days, as they lived in a culturally homogenous society where everyone knew what was and was not socially acceptable, and with nothing worth stealing there was less fear of crime.
@Mick Burns The huge relief of not worrying about bombings and losing more loved ones was over, but, the greyness of shortages and rationing, lasted at least till 1954.
She’s immortal now thanks to the internet - I’d loved to have had a cup of tea with her..
Very appropriate background music setting a rather sad scene as poor broken Britain struggled to pull its socks up after the end of the war. I was about 5 when this film was shot and living in quiet old Harrow on the Hill. United Dairies delivered milk by horse and cart. A lamp-lighter would manually turn on the street lamps which were gas powered. This film is truly evocative and has a twinge of melancholy about it. So real.
Beautiful video and the perfect music to accompany it. I keep watching this over and over again.
I wonder where that little girl in the red coat at 1' 25" is now? She looks about four years old so she would probably be in her early seventies. It would be marvellous if she could be found.
Rick Langley just like me, i was thinking about those people from 40s who are still alive. i wish i have the opportunity to find one of them and talk to them about the past
+Arman Hafezi Well you'd be lonely mate---there weren't many foreigner's then.
There always were people from different races in London and other port cities.
@@MrDaiseymay apart from all the foreigners that helped us in the war
@@indiekiddrugpatrol3117 - Self-interest, had they not done so, highly unlikely they, or any of their descendants, would have avoided summary 'termination.'
Well done, the makers of this short film, and likewise their choice of music accompaniment (who composed it, I wonder, and what is it called?) which provides a reminder of the post-war broken-down Britain - altho’ we were recovering slowly thanks to now distant Marshall Aid but were
still on rationing and good coal was expensive for home fires. I bet many of those homes shown had many a sad story to tell of once-happy families some even prosperous to be able to afford such pleasant abodes, that had lost dear ones either in the services in distant battles or
on the Home Front in bombing raids on London. Let their names be ever remembered, they died that others might live this day.
Grateful thanks for making this doc. available for viewing, wish it were longer....
Thankyou so much for uploading. A time when there seemed to be more care and consideration , or maybe like looking back it just seems so!
michael berry yes it might well be - because only a few years before there had been a war, depression immediately before, & WW1 before that. So although there was mass conflict there appeared to be good Will amongst those in struggle.😀
Yes - every one of those run down houses is now a multi-million pound fortress for the international super rich.
"International gangsters; killers; plunderers.
I too found it a very moving piece of film. The people were wonderful. They suffered so much and still were able to get on with their lives after the war and build up the cities again.
One of the children in the playground might have been me! I was brought up in St. John's Wood we used to play in the cemetery which is next to the playground. We lived in a block flats that is just outside the picture of that road. I recognised almost everywhere in the film except the row of very poor houses, they might have been in Alitsen Road. No sign of the bombing, but all those big houses show in St. John's Wood Park were empty and derelict.
The big houses in St.John's Wood Park were demolished. The poor houses are where the flats are behind _Drunch,_ built in 1958.
'Rare' footage indeed--and unbeleivably--in Colour! This was a bleak and depressing period, early post war. I remember it too well, with colossal war destruction on view for many years, and worse rationing than in the war it's self. Not a popular subject / period, to use expensive and hard to get colour film on. Thank God someone did---priceless!
interesting comment thanks
@jesuscora I was struck by that 'shy old lady' she looked lovely....I find myself wondering who she was, when she died, where she is buried.....I wonder if any of here descendants are still alive? It certainly does make you think of how brief our tenure is on this life!
I always thought life must of been better back then, watching clips in black and white you dont get a feel for how it was back then so you build a picture in your head but actually seeing clips in colour you realise not a lot has changed really, the things we moan about im sure that generation moaned about aswell
I was born in 1946, so these street scenes look very familiar to me.
Big Moose What I remember most is the huge pits in the ground between buildings which marked where WWII bombs had taken out whole streets.
Some whole areas were flattened, like in East London where the docks were. Nature softened them, though. After a few years the sites began to green over with the sort of plants that colonise bricks and rubble... even small trees grew up. Some of those trees got to be twenty years old before resources were available to redevelop the post-war bomb sites.
I was born in 1946 and recall the regular thick pea soup fogs in London.Once,in the early 1950's, I was on a bus with my mum, and the fog came down so thick the driver refused to go any further.Eventually the conductor agreed to walk in front of the bus and act as a guide. We carried on at walking pace and the driver could just about see the conductor who was only a few yards in front.Eventually we arrived home hours late.My dad had been worried about us but there was nothing he could do.It was impossible to see more than a few yards as the fog was so thick.They introduced a clean air act shortly after,which helped no end.Every house had a coal fire which caused the smog as it was called." Smokeless" coal was introduced to cut down the smog and eventually steam trains were replaced by diesels.
It looks so much nicer, cleaner and certainly safer.....
Well done for this great video.👍
In the days when London was a community of family and friends. The woman either hung over the back fence or on the front step chatting. My mother certainly did.
Piognant music to largely lost parts of London.Melina Place,and Elm Tree Rd (superficially) look largely unchanged. Only one house,No 25 remains in St John's Wood Park,now largely covered by a few posh houses,blocks of flats and council estates.
@YesIamEccentric I did note how dark all the building wereAlso, coal was still being used to heat homes, hence dust, dirt, and the famous "pea soup" smog that London was so famous for.
@Simon Frampton Brought up in industrial Birmingham during and after the war, I will always smell those pea super's, and the strange dull yellowish, low sky above, and a strange muffled sound of the hum of traffic and factories, pressing down on your ears.
There was a coal powered power station on the canal yards from Lords. It poured out filth. It is now just a substation park.
A fascinating and thought provoking film.Makes you think of your own mortality
Absolutely brilliant, I love stuff like this even though Im not from around here or even this time period. I simply find films like these fascinating and as a bonus its in colour too.
Marvellous!
They moved quick in the 40's. Probably down to lack of takeaway joints.
I Love the Old London!
Thank you so much,an evocative & quite haunting view of an era only 60 years past,& yet it seems it could be 300 years-ace combination of footage & music too!
My grandparents grew up in St. John's Wood and my mother was born there. This is what it would have looked like just before they left. I can't wait to show it to my Grandma!
Fascinating to see St. John's Wood in the 40@s. I went to school there in the 60's. Was a different world by then. Even more so now. So lovely to have empty streets.
Right at the very end, an extremely rare glimpse at the soot-blackened roof of the old St John's Wood Metropolitan station, closed in 1939.
I'm fascinated by the apparent stables in the middle of a big city. Another thing: The little kids in the playground were to become the swinging Londoners of the 60's!
Absolutely beautiful, I wish that I could go and meet these beautiful and gorgeous people, very honest and hard working people and such a beautiful London...
London is always in my 💝💖💝heart.
London Is🍦🍧🍦The Best City And My Great BRITAIN 💖 Is The Best Country In The World. 🌍
God Bless My United Kingdom.
it is pretty amazing to be able to look into the past like this.
No vile street furniture, cctv, controlled parking meters, fried chicken shops, multi-coloured lines on the roads etc. Life was harder then in some ways but in others, much better. Real Londonders could to buy a house in the area they grew up in and worked in. Fat fucking chance of that now.
I’m not British neither know much about the country but wtf is whit the cctv cameras everywhere when I was in London on vacation I felt like I was being spied on the whole time.
but what about the stimulating and exciting diversity now? mosques and halal butchers - how did we survive without them before?
@@tonyclifton265 I know - right? How did we ever get by without those vibrant, and culturally important gang shootings, stabbings and acid attacks?
@@baxterenrife sad, dark benighted times. but we scraped through by the skin of our teeth but now it's all better. police officers have to wear stab-proof vests ( although knife crime is lower than it was in the 60s, we are told) and terror attacks are "part and parcel" of having a terrorist-sympathiser mayor
@@tonyclifton265 Yes, and the Police don't forget, according to The London Mayor, need to be much more diverse yet at the same time, as he reminds us, they are systematically racist.
Presumably for trying to stop the savage hordes from disemboweling each other on our streets?
Yes very haunting - a lost world . A wonderful choice of music. The fact that it is in colour draws you in . It's a pitty the film is not run at the correct speed.
@pinknightstand How odd......that lady opening her door haunts me too.....I find myself wondering who she was, when she died....there's something of 'Eleanor Rigby' about her.....she looks so sweet though...God rest her
Wonderful. Thanks. Any more to post?
Wow lovely to see London before the invasion
A lovely piece of history.A time gone but not forgoten.Images and music fit like a hand in a glove.
Lost London. I first watched this video in 2009 and I keep coming back for more.
My many thanks to you coolitababy.Thanks for sharing this video.
Wow. Seeing that in color is so amazing.
Completely.
Imagine the love a couple would have built during this time....amazing.
Certainly interesting and probably shot at 18 frames a second in 16mm, hence the speeded up look as playback would be equivalent to 24 fps.
Best watched at 0.75x.
@icollins69 sadly you're England no longer exists and many parts now look more like Pakistan or Africa :(. Lo do lament the passing of England as it once was .
Amazing historical footage. The “original dairy farm” tiled sign is beautiful... I wonder if it still exists?
Me too. There is something so very touching about it.
incredible film
2:46 of delightful nostalgic colour film. So good, I want more! There must be 100's of hours of colour film taken at the time - where has it all gone? Much, I suppose has disappeared for ever as the owners have left us and their possessions have been disposed of, but much must still exist, where is it? Few postings of a similar nature have been made since this one. If you've got some or know of some, please put it up here on RUclips so we can all benefit from such beautiful, nostalgic images!
Colour film was not just hard to find and expensive then, but BEFORE the war too. Most colour film, especially of London, during the War, was taken by American servicemen, who had brought it over with them, not to mention the right Cameras.
@elainebmack Well, a lot of Philidelphia was built in Colonial times, so the likelyhood is that the bricks were made in London too and taken across the Atlantic....
@YesIamEccentric . You know, you are at least partly right about that. I read that bricks and slabs of marble were used as ballast when ships were sent to the colonies back in the day, and later used as building materials. That's why so many of the older Eastern cities have marble steps. Philadelphia later produced its own bricks from material from the shores of the Schuykill River. I once took a walking tour of the East End in London, and it looked exactly like Philly. Interesting...
Amazing find. Just shows we are not looking through 'rose coloured spectacles' this is proof things were better in many ways. I recognize many places even today.
Just 60 years ago, but it seems much older. Very lovely.
Thanks very much. I will try and find a copy of it.
Amazing footage a real gem :o)
Iam not saying everything was better years ago, but people seem to look happier,, the politicians over the last 40years have a lot to answer for, there is no community spirit
All over england not just London anymore no community all over the UK segregation and racism and divisions are growing in the UK .
It looks better because we're feeling nostalgic..and I'm only 47yrs old. But it also must of been a very depressing and lonely time for those in the film, and thousands more like them. Many had to endure family losses from the war, and many were left alone. I'd guess they couldn't wait to become part of a more modern and exciting world from the 60's but alas some never lived long enough to experience it.
Fabulous video, thanks for uploading it. It is so evocative and the music really suits the mood. My goodness, St. John's Wood has changed a bit since then. All those working class people have been replaced by millionaires.
@chanctonbury63 . Yes. Winter in Philadelphia does have a Dickensian quality to it. Thanks for your comment.
Very moving piece of film here, And I not quite sure why.
Gill, I did attend Barrow Hill School. I believe my last year there was 1972. Did you attend the same school? I have watched the video over and over again, and it really brings it all back to me. Some things looked the same as while I was growing up, but other things had already been torn down. I'm so glad this video was posted! I get feelings of sadness and happiness all at the same time!
If this is 1950 my grandad would have been 32 then....I'm going to his 95th in march !!
Lee Kirby he still alive?
Twenty years later man went into space and the moon.
A lot of people would disagree (including me) But you believe in the moon landing if you like👍🏻
@@lucaschapman2188 what it is real
What is real is I am a realist.I respect other people's beliefs but personally don't believe the Americans landed on the moon.
@@lucaschapman2188 ok I respect your opinion as well but I think that they did
@@lucaschapman2188 you do realise that the Germans where making rockets and jet engines in World war two , basically 25 years before the space race.
Google and Check out the book called ( Alternative 3 ) it was first published by penguin book's as nonfiction then moved to fiction then reprinted as world affairs.
The tin foil hat brigades love it ,
you would probably believe it even though you don't believe in the moon landings , it's actually about missions to MARS. In the 60s 🖒
une belle vidéo♥♥♥🎶
London looking tired and weary after the battle to keep Europe free. And now look what is happening. I hope it wasn't all in vain.
Big Barty sadly, with respect, I think it was.
As usual, It didn't take long for the first dogwhistle
There’s just a total lack of thanks for a nation that could easily pulled up the drawbridge, moored the worlds largest navy along the coast and, left the continent to sort its self out. Apparently Hitler wanted a negotiated peace with UK, didn’t want to invade.
@@grahamkearnon7853 We lost everything because of it. Look at the country today.
Thank you Thank you,an outstanding film.
It isn't like the films,its real life I loved it.Wouldn't it be great to step back into those times ,I think I would get on very well.
Keep them coming.
that is so cool. It's like time traveling and being there for real
This is great - thanks
sad to think what London has become
Were you even alive in the 40's?
no why should I have been
You said sad to see what London has become
and?
MegaGary1960 If you weren't alive in the 40's how could you know things were superior back then? Are you daft?!
amazing
How London has changed. The greatest change of course, is that of the population!
No longer rare thanks to RUclips.
God this is haunting, for so many reasons.
Great video. This was not a happy time. Having buried our dead from 2 world wars. We now faced decades of decline and humiliation, some of it brought on by ourselves. Britain was bancrupt and exhausted. She was losing her Empire and would be paying huge War Debts to the USA for decades to come. The cities were filthy, grimy and smog ridden places. Not only that we also had the car crash of 1960s and 70s industrial relations to look forward to.
chanctonbury63 yes - very true. Today we could add political corruption onto everything you mentioned.
Come ON, now---the 1960's, brought us bright new colours, in every new material made, from clothing, to kitchen plasticware, New paints, DIY materials, people patched up their old rundown Georgian tenements, and things looked far brighter than the drearly tenyears from '45 to '55. New fashions music --EVERYTHING. IT GAVE THE NATION A MASSIVE BOOST, AND MADE US KING OF THE HILL, AROUND THE WORLD. IT MAY NOT HAVE ALL BEEN GREAT IN HINDSIGHT. BUT IT'S WHAT WE NEEDED AT THE TIME..
Damaged by the Luftwaffe; destroyed by redevelopment.
No there was much less crime in those days and not that it was unreported. If there had been rapes etc we would have heard about it. People used to talk to their neighbours and not ist in solitude watching T.V. Young boys built model aeroplanes ( I did) we used glue and paint and nobody ever dreamed of sniffing the stuff to get high.
No rubbish,endless signage or graffiti poor but neat and tidy.
ur vids r great!
Good job! I have included this video on my channel for the benefit of my Urban Economics students at Wayne State University. -- John Sase
Same-old story before I was born, people died buried in graveyards, buildings went down, buildings went up, came with the usual problems of life unknown today - maybe.
Does anyone know what the title of this music is or what film it is from? Thanks.
I was 5 years old.............
The backs of the rowhouses look just like those in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
''Our Happy Land''💔
I grew up in St John's Wood in the 1960's, and I recognise a lot of the clips, although many of the buildings were gone by the time I was born. I was especially interested to see the clip of the Barrow Hill Estate under construction, as I grew up there! The St John's Wood Church Grounds (known locally as 'The Burial Grounds') looked exactly the same as how I remember it from my childhood. Today, the play area is very different. Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful, nostalgic film!
paul mccartney bought a house around here (st johns wood) in the mid 1960s.
Cavendish Avenue. He still owns it.
A much more innocent age and in many ways a better Britain, people then were closer and considerate and had a sense of looking out for one another, Sadly the Britain of then has long since gone and in my opinion certainly not for the better. There is so much about Britain today that bad and getting worse, this footage shows us a Britain thats not perfect but far more desirable than what Britain has become today.
{there was much less crime in those days} --- And yet in the 1930s in a West London suburb my old grand father felt the need to have a truncheon, several in fact, under his bed. I've still got one of them today as a reminder that not everything was perhaps as rosy as we feel it was back then.