London Late 1940's in Colour... Georges Delerue (V.rare footage)

[TheLucky71ful]

I don't know why but I have this interest about past history. Maybe I was reincarnated from a past era. I can almost envision myself walking down the street alongside the locals even though I was born and raised in Africa, strange isn't it? But then again imagine me as a black woman walking down the streets I bet those people in this clip would have thought, crackly who is this person? I would love to time travel and spend half an afternoon with them.

[toadds]

Beautiful video and the perfect music to accompany it. I keep watching this over and over again.

[thebannedgreenman]

That was London before it was been reduced to its 'status' as a black and asian colony with its few remaining indigenous natives working as captive tax-slaves to subsidise international 'welfare tourists' and their imported 'culture' such as the African knife crime epidemi that in 2012 brings terror to its inhabitants.and does so much to 'enrich the vibrant multicultural' sinkhole.

[mickeyh1961]

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.

[33serenade]

sometimes I wish I was a teen during the 1040's

[405liner]

Thanks for taking us on a trip to another England, long past. Nice music too.

[kevinturvy]

fascinating windows into the everyday lives of people 60 years ago, i wonder if any of the people in these clips ever saw this. or better still could be recognised by family members

[ridgway44]

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.

[eturfrey]

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.

[syneatnrc]

im surprised i haven't seen a fucking 'mercdriver' comment on here yet ahahaha

[elainebmack]

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!

[YesIamEccentric]

Everything looks so dirty.... Well, I suppose we just beat the most evil regime in history so I suppose the cleaniness of buildings didnt really count....

[elainebmack]

@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.

[elainebmack]

The backs of the rowhouses look just like those in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

[YesIamEccentric]

@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....

[elainebmack]

@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...

[chanctonbury63]

@elainebmack The only time I have been to Philadelphia it was a misty Winters day around 10 years ago and some of the damp old cobbled street vistas, old houses, old street lamps and stuff looked like something straight out of Dickens. I was dumbstruck. I didnt exdpect that!

[elainebmack]

@chanctonbury63 . Yes. Winter in Philadelphia does have a Dickensian quality to it. Thanks for your comment.

[elainebmack]

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.

[Gummage06]

This is surly time travel!

[jettscream]

In the early 70,s, Billy Fury lived close by , the slide let you look into lords cricket ground, opposite, its height was great, can't build things as high today, I was inspired by the play eqpt and now i design public play areas, used to catch a bus back to chalk farm or walk back through the park. It seemed that camden town, regents park and hampsted melted into one, marina ices at the end for a cone, if we were lucky,some shops were open on a sunday which was rare then!

[KidCanza]

0:32 that could be today

[Ramox3]

no pakis?

[LokiV]

Were did all the cars go? :) wonderful video thanks for uploading it.

[decomanify]

it would be interesting to make a copy of this film in 2010 to see how its changed and post it on the web.

[koolyman]

that is so cool. It's like time traveling and being there for real

[duncr]

Amazing footage a real gem :o)

[JAMamation]

it is pretty amazing to be able to look into the past like this.

[amarone1956]

Beautiful!

[tel2404]

Great vid, thanks for the upload :)

[giovannadicarlo]

@477936 -i lived in the basement flat next to what is now TINO'S restaurant,but it was also a chinese restaurant and before that a hungarian bakers-my mother worked there I think it was called Zoviks? We were No.32. My dad is still tere.

I'm on face book-giovanna di carlo.

[TheHeathwayPatrol]

Thank you.

[TheWhitehall]

How London has changed. The greatest change of course, is that of the population!

[cheyennebritbrat]

goin through all that for england, and the england that was once great is now a doss house for imigrants

[brooklynlulu]

very moving video, and the music was perfect. I am from NYC but have a lot of family in England and I love seeing old family photos, it just touches me so much. Thumbs up.

[tmprogram]

depressing.....

[giovannadicarlo]

fantastic footage!!

I come from St John's Wood-livied in Allitsen Rd-Avenue Hse. Went to Barrow Hill and Robinsfield.

I remember the Dairy,no one seems to remember the cows grazing opposite Robinsfield school on the site of one of the council estates tho!!

I have old Ordanance Survey maps of the area-1893,94 and 1913.

I had to watch this footage several times to take it all in!!-Wonderful!!!!

[YesLorenzo]

@giovannadicarlo I don't remember the cows.

I remember the milk machine in front of the dairy though.

[urbanecondetroit]

Good job! I have included this video on my channel for the benefit of my Urban Economics students at Wayne State University. -- John Sase

[baconsplace]

brilliant Thankyou

Real London ... how ordinary people experienced it

[Bevoin1970]

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!

[VinylLad]

Fascinating footage of post-war London! This was shot only a few years before my dad was born in Crewe.

LOL The first few seconds look like an outtake from a Steptoe and Son episode.

[kuilpie]

Thank you for uploading this. Very interesting.

[burleyque]

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!

[jamesdamanj9]

ur vids r great!

[DEROUGET]

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

[Miniver765]

Hauntingly beautiful and evocative images of a London now gone for good. Thank you so much for sharing this treasure.

[sammipink]

love these old memories thanks for downloading

[beamenders69]

Brillaint!!!

[jordimax65]

simply amazing! thank you!

[waughfan]

Wonderful images. Thank you for posting this.

[hawkmoon03111951]

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.

[scudder99]

Wonderful. Thanks. Any more to post?

[icollins69]

I miss England so much, i've not been home for nearly 60 years now. Very haunting images of the England I knew, no doubt it has changed beyond all recognition now but nevertheless this is the England that I will go to the grave with. We didnt have much but we made the most of it in those days. Thanks for sharing :-)

[hitchhiker38]

@icollins69 Hello icollins, I hope you dont mind me saying, but your comment struck me.

To think that in the year 2009 there are still people around whos last image of england was like the video I just saw. In a certain way I wish i had your mind, instead of having the image of britain i see today

[Hendrikdevuile]

@icollins69 You appear to live in Ireland which is not that far away, Admittedly, I have never been to Ireland, but I did come back on a short visit to London from Spain recently to see the changes over the last thirty odd years in my boyhood stomping grounds.(Lewisham and Sydenham). It's a worthwhile experience if you can travel.

[eturfrey]

@icollins69 Afraid it is not the same London we knew. i was born and had my childhood and the majority of my teenage years there before moving away after meeting the young lady who was to become my wife. That is now 40 years ago and in that time it and the people living there has all changed. Where i came from in the east end there is hardly an east end family left. Things change we know but it is still sad to see.

[chanctonbury63]

@icollins69 If you are from Kazakhstan, live in Ireland, and are 28 years old you must be on your second life?

[talara18]

@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 .

[johnster1964]

@icollins69 Get on a plane ! Yes things have changed and it's more crowded, but it is a much cleaner place now. One thing that alsways strikes me from old photos etc is how filthy with black soot the place was. Look at St Paul's Cathedral now, for example, it has been cleaned and is looking stunning. Same for Trafalgar Sq etc. You might be positively surprised!!

[harbottle99]

@johnster1964 Cleaner!! I preferred the soot to the filthy litter of takeaways that litter the streets today, to say nothing of paan spittings that stain the pavements and walls of buildings, chewing gum everywhere and hideous graffitti on walls of buildings. Also it was a safer place too......muggings were unheard of in those days, we were a civilized nation..

[FoFo1955]

Hi Gill - this is Audrey! What a beautiful video - very moving - thank you for finding it!

[staypress]

excellent footage of the wood it looks so serene I bet that woman opening her door would get mugged now and burgled or both by some piece of ---- from the nearby estate

[andykent72]

coolitababay, amazing footage, id love to see more of this, i wasnt born until the 70's but great to see how things were back then.

[truebritgal]

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!

[coolitababy]

'I grew up in St John's Wood in the 1960's'

So did I...I also remember the play area looking just like this in the 60s. Same roundabout etc...anyway, glad you liked the clip and that you actually found it.

[477936]

Thanks for the clip i really enjoyed it, though it made me quite sad, i grew up in the wood in the 50s & 60s, i left Barrow Hill in 1963, my uncle had a shop in the High St .

[giovannadicarlo]

@477936 -what was the shop called and where was it?

I lived there for 26yrs-Allitsen Rd-top end.And I went to Barrow Hill as well as Quintin Kinaston too.

[gill7lee]

I also grew up in st Johns Wood in the 60's, loved seeing the old roundabout in the Burial and the slide that you could almost touch the trees when you got to the top. Did you go to Barrow Hill school?

[truebritgal]

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!

[giovannadicarlo]

@truebritgal -OMG-I started there the yr after!!-I too keep watching it over and over again-it haunts me!!-I'm trying so hard to recollect the streets but it moves so fast!

where did you live?

[pinknightstand]

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!

[coolitababy]

Thank you, PN.

[Kenn1965]

PN, I couldn't have said it any better myself. This does make me a bit teary-eyed.

[jesuscora]

@pinknightstand Yes, the shy old lady and then the old lady opening the door do get to us because we know they are gone now. It is just a short moment of their lives captured there. They would have never guessed that millions of people from all over the world would be able see their images on a machine in the future. This shows the transitoriness of our lives and the "magic" of technology. Sigh!

[harbottle99]

@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!

[harbottle99]

@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

[Rexcetera]

Just 60 years ago, but it seems much older. Very lovely.

[willoughby33]

Beautiful. Sad. Fascinating. Haunting.

[chan7dan6]

Where was it again? lol Nah, cool footage, 5 star :o)

[daveben62]

i only live up the road, great stuff

[airscrew1]

Fantastic footage! I just found this after it was linked from the Brit Movie forum. 5 stars wish I could give you more.

[stevecityrocker]

quietly thrilling

[sirjohnfrench]

Does anybody no what the name of the music is.

[coolitababy]

Yes...it's called La Peau Douce, from the film of that name.

[sirjohnfrench]

My many thanks to you coolitababy.Thanks for sharing this video.

[sirjohnfrench]

A lovely piece of history.A time gone but not forgoten.Images and music fit like a hand in a glove.

[stev1963hit]

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!

[tequilaal]

this is absolutely beautiful here how one art form compliments the the other... not only the content of the film...but the actual color and texture of the print combined with George's beautiful and tender score...make for a very moving experience...this is delicious thank you coolitbaby.. oh,any chance for a little more info for us on how you managed to come across this interesting clip?...or do you wish to perpetuate the mystery...cheers from montreal

[coolitababy]

Thank you. I really appreciate your comment.

[CathayHouse41]

A tip of the hat for bringing the past into focus through youtube and choosing such fine music to accompany this piece.

[TOMTHEBOMBER]

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.

[ferfsake]

well done im real sad now .. why im not there.

silly init

[hoffmann9471]

This is a very very good video with fascinating film material of the 40s. These pictures are the truth and not only the glittering movie pictures of rich and royal London at that time.

Brillant !!!!

100**************

Onkle Pete

[radprog]

An absolutely fascinating bit of old film.

Thanks for sharing. Best wishes, Bob.