Tower Bridge Road Market (1931)

[rankingtrevor]

I love how say pre 1970s (in general) and particularly in the pre WW2 decades all children wore formal attire even whilst playing. A seven year old in a full suit and a flatcap. Children were dressed like mini-adults. Must have had a generational effect on these 'baby boomers' and 'veterans' in comparison with 'Generation Y' and 'Generation X'

[rankingtrevor]

Hats everywhere. Men, Women and Children. One is surprised the horses are not clad in hats!

Stetsons, Fedoras, Bowlers, Trilbys, Hombergs etc = for the middle-upper class gentry.

Flat Caps, Berets and Newsboy Caps = for the working classes

[itsinmynamechap]

I guess the cameras were quite apparent to everyone on the street due to their size ect.

[Errmvlog]

You can really tell cameras were a rarity back then from the way everyone just looks at it in amazement.

[maccagrabme]

Not a lot of change from 1900 in terms of affluence.

[Poland1st]

All of them staring in the camera... as if they knew they're gonna get uploaded on Youtubes...

[Twiggle33333]

...globalisation.... accept it or deal with it... because i dont think people will give up planes and the internetz just yet

[earth123ism]

very true back then everyone had a hat

[fatbox100]

Lots & lots of..........Hats

Wonderful piece of archive footage.

[pommyauss]

very good thanks

[superfulham]

what is the man at the end doing titled 'man who lowers the death rate in bermondsey'

[spareaxe]

didn't anybody have jobs back then, other than roaming around the hood.

[MrGezamo]

Wow, no thugs mugging the weak, no teenage girls being brats and making themselves look like fools, nobody wearing their trousers or tracksuits half way up so you can see their pants, no hoodies, no religious fanatics rioting, or any students.

Almost everyone was smart back then, polite too, if not, the good old police would sort them out, instead of the stupid punishment enforced today, they got the job done. A better age.

[Asapoo]

@MrGezamo couple years later, boom WW2 .

[MrGezamo]

@Asapoo Heh yeah, im glad that isnt is around now though.

[JollyRodders]

@MrGezamo "Wow, no thugs mugging the weak, no teenage girls being brats">>> Try reading "Gangs of London" by Brian McDonald. Gangs, thugs, muggers...and girl gangs are nothing new. Also search for Arthur Harding East End Underworld. It makes for interesting reading of pre WW1 life on the streets. Gangs attacking gangs that were under police protection...The public complaining that sentencing was too soft..!!?? The arrival of immigrants from Eastern Europe...There's nothing new under the sun.

[04reeveselliott]

are u sure this is london? wheres the blacks?

[wellohmeeeeeee]

Looks to me by the fashions - to be shot around 1924/5

[grovevilla]

my whole family where costers its on their bithcertificates! flower stalls in tatchbrook street,victoria, hard life, but they all lived to a ripe old age...

[ANGLOSAXONHELLFIRE]

My father was the landlord of The Horseshoe between 1964-1985.

[grahampl]

@ANGLOSAXONHELLFIRE We used to do our Guying outside your old man's boozer..We made 30 bob one Saturday. That was a fortune to us back in the 60's.

Penny For The Guy, Mister?

[langbridge]

So poignant to think that almost all of the young boys in this would have seen the horrors of the battlefields in WWII.

[spoonraker1]

What a wonderful peice of history.  Thank you for sharing this.

[zephyrindruin]

Fantastic old footage and amazingly clear. I was born and brought up in Bermondsey and 'Southwark Park Road Market' was always known locally as 'The Blue', because 'Blue Anchor Lane' leads into it.

[Nemie125]

I know this area well and what strikes me more than anything is how clean it is in these films!! It almost looks like a film set it's so clean! These are amazing glimpses of a lost world.

[hofnerman1]

Great Stuff. I just cant get enough of "the shadows gone before". Love it! Thank you.

[DivineFellowship]

May it remain that way. Vermont is the land of my dreams.

[JeannettieP]

Sure is crazy that the world was black and white back then.

[isaveu]

What a lovely bit of history , thankyou for this .

[chippauly]

Lovely to see this, my old dad ( Charlie Pauly) was about 7 years old living in Pages Walk and going to Webb St school when this was made he would have loved to see this, may even be in it somewhere. My gran Mary Groger had one of the barrows on tower bridge rd selling apples. I still go into Manzies for me pie, mash n liquor when Im passing.

[ciceroold]

I am very gratefull for all these wonderfull views of a borough and district I grew up in Bermondsey, I have shopped in Tower Bridge road in the 1950-60s who remembers Bobby Silver the bespoke tailor and Philps the large mens outfitter at the corner of the Brick and Tower Bridge road I can remember their display window at christmas was amazing lighting up another wise dull corner.

[pojoelsie]

Divinefellowship: What you say is true. I have recently moved into a new area and we walk round more rather than drive. People are getting to know us because they see us on foot, walking our dog, walking to local shops. We are beginning to get recognised and people are starting to smile and say hello. Its all good.

[DivineFellowship]

People still walked, saw each other, knew each other. The car mistake had not taken hold yet.

[Botany101]

come to Vermont you'll think things haven't changed in a hundred and fifty years

[englishrose1488]

God damn what happened to our country now london looks like africa

[rosieh101]

@englishrose1488 - what do you mean 'London looks like Africa?' And which bit of Africa does it look like? Egypt? Mali? Botswana? Or do they all look the same to you? Or are you comments a scarcely veiled excuse to demonstrate your racist attitudes?

[englishrose1488]

beautifully spoken and delivered from your leafy drive. You forgot one thing to add to your ignorant, idealised statement...I'M ALRIGHT JACK !!

[gaywatchuk]

@englishrose1488 there's no place on youtube for racists. please take your hate elsewhere

[chanctonbury63]

@gaywatchuk Unfortunately there is. There are hundreds of them. Just dial up some of the WW11 and white supremacist films/comments.

[skcodyerrus]

Correction! Yeast Merchant.

[skcodyerrus]

Written on the back of the van (1:50) is R. Matthews Yeast Manufacturer, Brixton SW. Proberbly going to either Courage`s or Sarson`s.

[bd3104]

if once i got the rule on british... Inshallah i will make as same as in 1930 London.........

[MadMac2236]

If we didn't have the EU bill on human rights, we'd bomb you slags back to the stone age! And you damn well know it!

[raycrawley]

I was born two years after this film was taken and in the same area...I wonder if my parents could have been there? Really great film,and good quality...so much to see that it's a must to watch again and again.

[skcodyerrus]

Pause the clip on 1:57 and you will see Manzi`s Pie and Eel shop. It`s still there today!

[ednaolgapurviance]

Wonderful footage. (Also really love seeing the man crossing the street, and suddenly does a little Charlie Chaplin walk for a brief moment.)

Also thinking the man with the wooden leg, could have been a WWI vet, but maybe not.

[snowbag]

What does the last title card mean, "the man who keeps the death rate down?" Is he selling tonic or something?

These scenes seem more like the teens and 1920s than the Thirties (although 1931 is barely in the decade), similar to the 1924 color Petticoat Lane clip.

It is surprising how, given similar periods, different the cars and clothing are from London neighborhood to neighborhood (and class to class). Not too many open-spoke wheels in Marble Arch.

[rgwholt]

I think you are right....i would put it around 1921...25.....steam lorries were popular in the 20s, and there are just to many horse drawn vehicles to be 1931 and not enough cars.

[skcodyerrus]

Pause on 2:17 and note the sign Rvd. R.M. Kedward. Roderick Morris was a methodist minister who stood for parliament in 1922, 23 & 24. He was elected MP for Bermondsey West in 1923 and lost his seat in 24. He did return to Parliament in 1929 as the MP for Ashford, Kent; and was unsuccessful in the elections of 1931 and 1933. Given this and some of the `ats the younger women were wearing; I think that you are correct to date this film as early to mid-twenties.

[martianboy99]

This clip is superb! I wonder if any of the children in these films have seen themselves? I wonder how many are still alive?

[sarahknight07]

i could watch these films all day-brilliant stuff

[riotagus]

LOL. 2:00!!

[betsy1947]

This was fascinating to watch, and the quality was really good. Thanks for posting it!

[lms264t]

I love watching these old films. It is fantastic to see not only London, but what other parts of England looked like and how people lived in those times.

[sdrowe]

Thanks for posting all these wonderful films, totally brilliant.

[kludd28]

It's interesting how so much footage of this vintage doesn't really show what people are doing, it shows them stopping what they are doing and looking at the camera. It's not that I am complaining or enjoy the footage any less, it's forgivable in this time period that people are interested in the camera, it's a novelty. But still, it seems to do a better job of showing people staring right at you than it does showing what people were doing then.

Excellent stuff tho', this is why I like BFI.

[mandscat]

very interesting, I wondering if any one in that film is still alive today - I bet they would love to see this film

[littlebigbrain]

Some of them will be alive as the oldest British man just died and he was 113 years old and this certainly looks like the early 1920's. Aint the camara brillient mate?

[madbob73]

All the 10 year old kids in this were fighting Hitler 10 years later!

[littlebigbrain]

Yes they were fighting Hitler but most of them survived as many as 9 out of 10 did. Even with the blitz the vast majority of the 10 year olds here would have been 40 to 50 year olds in the 1960's. Given average life expectancy is about 75 years old today you could expect about 15% (Accepting working class origin) to still be alive today. Ruff calculations.

[millwall33]

Its a shame there aint no sound as they talk Jafaican in this part of London in the 1930.

[grahampl]

@millwall33 Innit.

[eggsbenedict01]

Fascinating. Theatre costume designers everywhere take note.

[RV1864]

Great footage. LOL @ 2:01