Great! we've got the 'Shard'! That's a great compensation for losing our great capitol city to third world peasants. Can you imagine the recent riots occurring before mass immigration from primitive countries?
We used to have a civilized, orderly country. Respect for each other, pride in our Nation (and we do have a great history to be proud of) a hard work ethic and disdain for accepting charity and benefits, and a richly deserved reputation for fair play. All gone. I could weep for England.
I'm only 21, but I wish I had lived in these days...I feel estranged to these modern times, no stability, economy down, no prospects for young people, back then there were real values - family, patriotism , no multicultural menace around the big cities....
London's a crowded over priced toilet compared to this time. I have lived through it all and thankfully now live thousands of miles away from the dump. I have my memories of a lovely city to keep me going.
@uspattys London is not a dump. It is still recovering from the 50's 60's and 70's buildings you morons built. Your generation destroyed so many historic buildings. Thats why many parts are how they are now. Your generation has a lot to answer for. You make me sick.
Ah... when the working classes did as they were told and left the middle classes to move about in peace and when Bankers could get on with making money. Plus ca change...
Pity they didn't do the research Big Ben "time piece" London Bridge " Tower Bridge" I was 4 at this time. I agree with most comments I live in a low class 2 up 2 down outside toilet no bathroom just tin bath. But we never locked our doors muggings were never heard of crime was not petty. Police were repected and helped by the public. If you had a copper come to your door about you your father gave you a back hander not side with you and tell the copper to f**k off that word was never heard.
people are being stupid. you cannot conclude that london has gotten so much worse from watching this video. this film was made at a time when travelling the world wasn't really an affordable option for most people. the commentator is american so this was probably just a way of letting people 'experience' london when they otherwise would never get a chance to. this just highlights the good bits and makes london look perfect.
I doubt it was really as nice as it is shown here, the only thing I really like about it is that there are no people complaning about how it used to be nicer 61 years ago. It is really a lot nicer now, for one our culture is a lot more diverse that it was then since almost everyone in england was wight back then (or atleast most of the people in this video) But I do like the style of this era, the music is a whole lot better.
But I guess it's a matter of oppinion, and I would rather live now.
"These things will never die as long as there are ENGLISHMEN to carry these traditions on".....problem is there are few Emglishmen left in London and there are 8 million "Londoners"...:(
@bobestes Thats a lie. London is the financial capital of the world and is booming! London is on the up :) It now has the tallest building in Europe. The Shard..
Anyone who says those times were not better either wasn't born then so has no idea or they were locked up a secure place! Either way they ddont have a clue. It was a far, far better place for a shedful of reasons but the first half dozen: 1. Far better education 2. Far better respect for the law and order 3. Far better family units and happier and hardly any truancy 4. Far better health for all and no real obesity 5. No foreigners to abuse the health and benefits system 6. No European Union!
@lifeworthliving2010 actually this was London at the height of socialism - or rather social democracy. Done away with by Thatcher and her successors, and in retrospect a golden age for ordinary people.
@lifeworthliving2010 You need a course in political history. If you want to trace the real beginnings of large debt accumulation in the post-war British economy look to the government of Heath in 1970. Look also to Thatcher's legacy which was whitewashed when in fact it left massive debt and nothing to show for it. And the debt bubble left by Blairism? Clearly the result of a party foolishly following that sort of idiotic tradition.
@lifeworthliving2010 No actually, the Labour Party was elected to office in 1945. This is England just after the creation of the NHS and other social and economic policy to make life worth living for everybody; not socialism but social democracy. The Conservative Party took office in 1951 with a minority vote and as usual did absolutely nothing worthwhile for 5 years. What you're watching is England under post-war Labour.
Not only is your opinion worthless, it's without any insight.
@spiccybaby I was referring to the total absence of litter and other human anti-social messy activities that are common place today. Well aware of the air pollution created by fossil fuels ie smog.
I don't quite understand some of the comments here about London being overrun by nonwhites and all that. Sounds more than a bit racist to me. Britain colonized a lot of countries and benefitted from the work of the ancestors of the very nonwhites some of you complain about "taking over" London now. Looks like the Empire Strikes Back now!
gramule, this is 20 yrs before i was born, but I guess the fact you could walk past No 10 Downing Street says it all really! Now you would be arrested, DNA taken stamped and processed. My folks say not everything was better in those days, but much was, life was less hectic and jobs were easy to get, social mobility was higher than today, more apprenticeships etc, if you come from a working class background today, its perhaps more difficult to work your way up the hard way. Just my observation.
I would have LOVED to live in London at that time. It was a very desirable place to live. Much much cleaner than it is today, nicer people, more going on, great movie and music scenes and fashion, seriously London ROCKED back then. It was THE place to be in the 60's!! Many people wanted to live London back then because of all the excitement. Now, no chance in hell. BRING THE GOOD OLD LONDON BACK!!!!
Its hard to believe but , somewhere, whilst this was being shot, I was a boy of ten living in Barnes S W 13, just over Hammersmith Bridge and going to school in East Sheen. Ah. Memories.Thank you for posting this and thank you to the photographer.
India, Western Europe, Canada, and USA are now governed by really annoying politically correct punks... and radical islam's exploiting all such democracies...
@magiclard Neither...That's Speakers Corner at Hyde Park. You got all types preaching something or other there, usually about religion and politics, the evils of booze whatever. Just bring along a box to stand on and you too can have a piece of the action :)
@aeronuk1 we all have a right to express our opinions as i have done. i am afraid that i find the comments offensive, and cannot understand or comprehend them either, harking back to a mythical 'golden age', that never, never was. i hope this helps on your journey of self discovery.
@aeronuk1 all i know is that i hear messages about britain in the fifties. dreary, drab, intolerent, grey, down at heel, poor, rigid class structure where 'you knew your place', no chance of moving out of your situation (if your dad was a miner, chances are you would be a miner), crap food, crap laws. this compares with today; vibrant, tolerent, opportunitie abound for all, pluralistic, open. i hope that this helps you on your journey of self discovery.
@gramule yes but there was far less crime, real communities, more respect for eachother, jobs for life, they might not have had the material befefits and wealth that we have today but i think they were probably more happy and content overall with the more simplistic and certain lives than todays materialistic chaotic fast changing way of life.
@gramule Oh gosh I do so agree with you. This is a nostalgic but very idealised view of London in 1951. And the same people baying here for a return to this mythical 'golden age' are the very people with no matters or grace.
@aeronuk1 I don't like London that much now. It's changed so dramatically it's unbelieveable. But back then I don't think ANYONE would have said "I can't stand London" maybe "I don't like noise and traffic" or "I don't like massive places" but London was a million times better back then! It was a much more desirable place to live!
yeah so many millions of comments about what London is like now and I concur and that is why I moved out to the country I a, just fed up with a shit government who just want votes and just think of themselves and that covers it please comment if u agree wiv me OK
all the usual tourist rubbish. But it is nice to see London when it was still a largely English city., The English have been ethnically cleansed out ot London. Partly through their own laziness and mostly through politicians treachery.
why I can't give thumbs up you tube?
gordan1104 1 month ago
What the hell happened to my country.
indydaisy1 1 month ago
"So long as there are Englishmen ..."???
But these were the Welsh Guards.
OrodesIII 4 months ago
Great! we've got the 'Shard'! That's a great compensation for losing our great capitol city to third world peasants. Can you imagine the recent riots occurring before mass immigration from primitive countries?
We used to have a civilized, orderly country. Respect for each other, pride in our Nation (and we do have a great history to be proud of) a hard work ethic and disdain for accepting charity and benefits, and a richly deserved reputation for fair play. All gone. I could weep for England.
harbottle99 5 months ago
LOL WTF?!?! London was so boring they had to talk about mailboxes?!
InforcedHellCrusader 5 months ago
I'm only 21, but I wish I had lived in these days...I feel estranged to these modern times, no stability, economy down, no prospects for young people, back then there were real values - family, patriotism , no multicultural menace around the big cities....
Well, we've evolved, but to worse, no doubt...
Slivatar 5 months ago
5:10 '45 solid miles of piers and whores?'
holodexxx 6 months ago
@holodexxx wharves!! you moron!
harbottle99 5 months ago
@harbottle99 that it? Wow, yes, of course I thought they genuinely had said whores, thanks for clearing that up. lolz
holodexxx 5 months ago
No burkas?
anglesea2 6 months ago
Now known as the Islamic Republic of Londonistan ?
merlinbus 7 months ago
Young people getting stabbed is a regular occurrence in the capital. But hey, lets pretend it doesn't happen. London is a multicultural dump.
bobestes 7 months ago
London's a crowded over priced toilet compared to this time. I have lived through it all and thankfully now live thousands of miles away from the dump. I have my memories of a lovely city to keep me going.
uspattys 8 months ago
@uspattys London is not a dump. It is still recovering from the 50's 60's and 70's buildings you morons built. Your generation destroyed so many historic buildings. Thats why many parts are how they are now. Your generation has a lot to answer for. You make me sick.
joshieboi005 8 months ago
Ah... when the working classes did as they were told and left the middle classes to move about in peace and when Bankers could get on with making money. Plus ca change...
Simonc1952 8 months ago
There was no socialism, it's the first ever capitalist nation
stig781 9 months ago
Pity they didn't do the research Big Ben "time piece" London Bridge " Tower Bridge" I was 4 at this time. I agree with most comments I live in a low class 2 up 2 down outside toilet no bathroom just tin bath. But we never locked our doors muggings were never heard of crime was not petty. Police were repected and helped by the public. If you had a copper come to your door about you your father gave you a back hander not side with you and tell the copper to f**k off that word was never heard.
DenisHuaHin 10 months ago
people are being stupid. you cannot conclude that london has gotten so much worse from watching this video. this film was made at a time when travelling the world wasn't really an affordable option for most people. the commentator is american so this was probably just a way of letting people 'experience' london when they otherwise would never get a chance to. this just highlights the good bits and makes london look perfect.
j0ames 10 months ago
I doubt it was really as nice as it is shown here, the only thing I really like about it is that there are no people complaning about how it used to be nicer 61 years ago. It is really a lot nicer now, for one our culture is a lot more diverse that it was then since almost everyone in england was wight back then (or atleast most of the people in this video) But I do like the style of this era, the music is a whole lot better.
But I guess it's a matter of oppinion, and I would rather live now.
FaceyFaceFaceTV 11 months ago
Comment removed
FaceyFaceFaceTV 11 months ago
"These things will never die as long as there are ENGLISHMEN to carry these traditions on".....problem is there are few Emglishmen left in London and there are 8 million "Londoners"...:(
Isleofskye 11 months ago
Shame the country now resembles a third world,multicultural, bankrupt, slum.
bobestes 11 months ago
@bobestes Youre worng the UK is still one of the most powerfull countrys in the world. And is infulentual all around the world.
joshieboi005 8 months ago
@joshieboi005 ...No we are trillions in debt. An expensive wasteland to dump foreign waters on.
bobestes 8 months ago
@bobestes Thats a lie. London is the financial capital of the world and is booming! London is on the up :) It now has the tallest building in Europe. The Shard..
joshieboi005 8 months ago
Oh how London and the UK in general have fallen, how beautiful it looked here and how shit it looks now
VigisKane 11 months ago 3
Anyone who says those times were not better either wasn't born then so has no idea or they were locked up a secure place! Either way they ddont have a clue. It was a far, far better place for a shedful of reasons but the first half dozen: 1. Far better education 2. Far better respect for the law and order 3. Far better family units and happier and hardly any truancy 4. Far better health for all and no real obesity 5. No foreigners to abuse the health and benefits system 6. No European Union!
freddyfrog1000 1 year ago
Comment removed
boffinme80 1 month ago
Times change people, just got to deal with it. This was 50 years ago and only a few years after the war wars dont forget, totally different times
Pauluk33 1 year ago
so this was London before socialism
lifeworthliving2010 1 year ago 20
@lifeworthliving2010 Actually it was 6 years into a landslide Labour government, and one that was very socialist. That's why you're enjoing the film.
nakedmambo 10 months ago 2
@lifeworthliving2010 No this was London when we DID have socialism, you ignoramus.
spilsby88 10 months ago
@lifeworthliving2010 actually this was London at the height of socialism - or rather social democracy. Done away with by Thatcher and her successors, and in retrospect a golden age for ordinary people.
grebo54 4 months ago
@grebo54 or a golden age bubble that now has taken its toll with huge debts.
lifeworthliving2010 3 months ago
@lifeworthliving2010 You need a course in political history. If you want to trace the real beginnings of large debt accumulation in the post-war British economy look to the government of Heath in 1970. Look also to Thatcher's legacy which was whitewashed when in fact it left massive debt and nothing to show for it. And the debt bubble left by Blairism? Clearly the result of a party foolishly following that sort of idiotic tradition.
nakedmambo 3 months ago
@lifeworthliving2010 No actually, the Labour Party was elected to office in 1945. This is England just after the creation of the NHS and other social and economic policy to make life worth living for everybody; not socialism but social democracy. The Conservative Party took office in 1951 with a minority vote and as usual did absolutely nothing worthwhile for 5 years. What you're watching is England under post-war Labour.
Not only is your opinion worthless, it's without any insight.
nakedmambo 3 months ago
Clean...Orderly....Respectful....Englands` proud capital as it "Once" was.....
TheWhitehall 1 year ago 3
@TheWhitehall Clean? Clean?? When King Coal ruled? I remember different.
spiccybaby 1 year ago
@spiccybaby I was referring to the total absence of litter and other human anti-social messy activities that are common place today. Well aware of the air pollution created by fossil fuels ie smog.
TheWhitehall 1 year ago
how true
Doreens 1 year ago
Anyone saying this time period wasn't better is just kidding themselves.
zamusicza 1 year ago
Comment removed
perfume1965 1 year ago
I don't quite understand some of the comments here about London being overrun by nonwhites and all that. Sounds more than a bit racist to me. Britain colonized a lot of countries and benefitted from the work of the ancestors of the very nonwhites some of you complain about "taking over" London now. Looks like the Empire Strikes Back now!
elainebmack 1 year ago
@elainebmack
Blacks have RUINED the pleasant, civilised, polite, toleranmt London that I grew up in during The 1960's.
Black Families=75% Single-Parent Families and 70% on Welfare and where they are just "10%" of the populace they commit 80% of street crime.
Isleofskye 1 year ago
gramule, this is 20 yrs before i was born, but I guess the fact you could walk past No 10 Downing Street says it all really! Now you would be arrested, DNA taken stamped and processed. My folks say not everything was better in those days, but much was, life was less hectic and jobs were easy to get, social mobility was higher than today, more apprenticeships etc, if you come from a working class background today, its perhaps more difficult to work your way up the hard way. Just my observation.
SuperSmitters 1 year ago
I would have LOVED to live in London at that time. It was a very desirable place to live. Much much cleaner than it is today, nicer people, more going on, great movie and music scenes and fashion, seriously London ROCKED back then. It was THE place to be in the 60's!! Many people wanted to live London back then because of all the excitement. Now, no chance in hell. BRING THE GOOD OLD LONDON BACK!!!!
boffinme80 1 year ago
Its hard to believe but , somewhere, whilst this was being shot, I was a boy of ten living in Barnes S W 13, just over Hammersmith Bridge and going to school in East Sheen. Ah. Memories.Thank you for posting this and thank you to the photographer.
charade97 1 year ago
What happen to this England? Now they want to build a mega mosque in London now.
esh325 1 year ago
India, Western Europe, Canada, and USA are now governed by really annoying politically correct punks... and radical islam's exploiting all such democracies...
EsotericDesi 1 year ago
Who are the public meeting men at 457.Fascist or Communist? <ust be one of the two looking at tyhje animated men uin the crowd.
magiclard 1 year ago
@magiclard Neither...That's Speakers Corner at Hyde Park. You got all types preaching something or other there, usually about religion and politics, the evils of booze whatever. Just bring along a box to stand on and you too can have a piece of the action :)
JollyRodders 1 year ago
@JollyRodders My dream's to visit UK one day and go to Hyde Park... :)
EsotericDesi 1 year ago
some rather unfortunate comments being made here
gramule 1 year ago
Comment removed
aeronuk1 1 year ago
@aeronuk1 we all have a right to express our opinions as i have done. i am afraid that i find the comments offensive, and cannot understand or comprehend them either, harking back to a mythical 'golden age', that never, never was. i hope this helps on your journey of self discovery.
gramule 1 year ago
Comment removed
aeronuk1 1 year ago
@aeronuk1 all i know is that i hear messages about britain in the fifties. dreary, drab, intolerent, grey, down at heel, poor, rigid class structure where 'you knew your place', no chance of moving out of your situation (if your dad was a miner, chances are you would be a miner), crap food, crap laws. this compares with today; vibrant, tolerent, opportunitie abound for all, pluralistic, open. i hope that this helps you on your journey of self discovery.
gramule 1 year ago
@gramule yes but there was far less crime, real communities, more respect for eachother, jobs for life, they might not have had the material befefits and wealth that we have today but i think they were probably more happy and content overall with the more simplistic and certain lives than todays materialistic chaotic fast changing way of life.
aeronuk1 1 year ago
@gramule Oh gosh I do so agree with you. This is a nostalgic but very idealised view of London in 1951. And the same people baying here for a return to this mythical 'golden age' are the very people with no matters or grace.
20callenderslady 1 year ago
@20callenderslady what would you know about grace you moron you would rather live in this dump as it is today a banana republic without any bananas
ltd359 1 year ago
Some very unpleasant comments here among the good ones. Bulldogbrawn, if you're going to invoke Britannia, at least learn to spell it!
penpontman 1 year ago
very good film, I agree with peoples comments, it was a magnificent city. I dont know about the future judging from how it is today..what a shame
domleonsis 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
thats the london i know and love
BROADTRAIN1979 1 year ago
thats the london i know and love.
BROADTRAIN1979 1 year ago
Being a Mancunian, I can't stand London, but back in the 50's? Looks like a wonderful place.
YonManc 1 year ago
@YonManc why can't you stand London...thats rather odd.
aeronuk1 1 year ago
@aeronuk1 I don't like London that much now. It's changed so dramatically it's unbelieveable. But back then I don't think ANYONE would have said "I can't stand London" maybe "I don't like noise and traffic" or "I don't like massive places" but London was a million times better back then! It was a much more desirable place to live!
boffinme80 1 year ago
ah how great was this city before it was called londonstan
antonyengland25 2 years ago
yeah so many millions of comments about what London is like now and I concur and that is why I moved out to the country I a, just fed up with a shit government who just want votes and just think of themselves and that covers it please comment if u agree wiv me OK
staypress 2 years ago 2
We just got fed up with the bloody awful weather and moved to Florida.
4205lr 2 years ago 3
im moving to liverpool - its well better!
lokiop345 2 years ago 2
all the usual tourist rubbish. But it is nice to see London when it was still a largely English city., The English have been ethnically cleansed out ot London. Partly through their own laziness and mostly through politicians treachery.
poussecafe3 2 years ago 5
OMG,..I use to work in those newspaper buildings during the 1980`s.
Britain is now becoming an overcrowded third world country,...betrayed by the politcal elite on so many issues.
whu58 2 years ago 4
A very good film indeed.
gilesosborne2 2 years ago 3
if time is a drug then big ben is surely a huge needle injecting it into the sky
Hexachloraphine 2 years ago
haha those blokes push in front of that woman to get in the phone box
alihastie 2 years ago 4
That was great. I love London. Being 28 as I am, I never got to see it like this. But I wish I could have.
AJRichardson1981 2 years ago 2
St Pauls looks amazing with absolutely nothing around it, cant see the bloody thing now unless you're about 3 feet from it, lol.
sniffero 2 years ago 4
Comment removed
Fleshious 2 years ago
now we are a shitehole.....governed by morons and the pc brigade...
stemajad 2 years ago 27
@stemajad London once again is on the up actually
joshieboi005 8 months ago
The real london
gatheringleaves 3 years ago 7
i miss London
bearcub410 3 years ago 3
me too bearcub !!! Made me homesick
expatbrit1 2 years ago 3
Thanks Enoch!
Eponae 3 years ago 4
thanks enoch, nice to see some white faces,
bulldogbrawn 3 years ago 2
rule brittania
bulldogbrawn 3 years ago 4
Does England really exist anymore?
fnchrstphr 3 years ago 3
Yes thats why were not all fat and low iq
tomjune1983 3 years ago 2
No!
twoslices 3 years ago 2
Great film!! :)
beowulfsword08 3 years ago 2
wow excellent
satan0207 3 years ago 2
Excellent video!
EnochPowell2008 3 years ago 2
Brilliant video!!
JohnsonofLondon 3 years ago 2