A drive around Aden circa 1960

A drive around Aden, the BP site and some of the local employees, and parts of the Bandar Sheikh residential area. Digitised cine film (standard 8 no sound) by Fred Collinson, taken in Aden where he lived with his family and worked at the BP oil refinery from 1957-1962. There are other Aden clips on this channel. For more about Aden see www.bpadenkids.com

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Colonial
• History
• Aden
• Colony
• Protectorate
• BP
• British
• Petroleum
• Oil
• Refinery

[FBCCine]

Apologies to farisaden - I deleted your comment in error - the comment was "Thanks for this wonderful video. It has a very important historical value. But it shock me. What did the Bristish do for Aden along all those years. Aden looked to me as if one of the medival ages villages. I was born well after the date of this footage and my father used to tell Aden was very well and properous modern city. It did not see that in the video."

[FBCCine]

I intended to "reply" (not "remove") that this is an interesting comment. However, you could also drive around some parts of England in 1960 and find it hard to find any signs of modern progress.

[faisal7alawi]

Hello we thank you so very much for uploading these treasure videos of aden and i was woundering if it was possible of you to send the full version of the video.

Thank you

[FBCCine]

Many thanks for your kind comment. Everything is in fact here except for private family sequences we would not want to upload. Everything likely to be of wider interest is here. Also the quality is probably about as good as we can get it, the main constraint being that the originals were on 8mm cine film, not good to start with, which were copied to VHS some years ago, and VHS deteriorates.

[FBCCine]

Copy of a recent email: I have had the chance to watch the fabulous film of 1960 Aden. I was born in Aden forty six years ago (the age of this film). I have emailed my brother to play the film for my mother, he did and it made her cry. My Understanding is that Fred and Dorothy were your parents. May Allah bless their souls, accept them, and grant them his mercy.

[omerawy]

عــــــــدن الجميلة ...

هل لنا غيرها ...؟؟؟

وإن شاااء الله نرجع لها في أقرب وقت...

[FBCCine]

The translation is:

The beautiful Aden ...

Do we have other than???

We hope from God to comeback again to it as soon as possible...

[ASMAYEMEN1]

OMG !

This is Aden in yemen ?

Beautiful

so nice .. I love Yemen :)

[jimbojamesIV]

I wonder if in 1957 you knew how evil BP was, and, if so, did you block that out so as not to make you wonder if you were part of that evil?

I apologize if this comes off as insensitive, but I'm really just interested to know if people understand how awful they were even in 1957 or did people think that what they were doing was good?

[shiodax]

interesting video, i remember a programme in the 80s called End of Empire and Aden was featured. i notice that the traffic these days now drives on the Right.

[ADEN1961]

It was a shock to come back to England and have to cope with the winter of 1962

Having lived in Crater that was so vibrant and later in Khormaksar nothing could have prepared me for Brookville Norfolk.This video is When I was there .I remember a car accident. An Adenese guy was knocked down on the main Road,We were walking home and saw it my Mum spotted Jimmy the local Indian Chemist who stopped and put he injured man in theCar and took him to Hospital

[ADEN1961]

I half expect to see Our car yes I was there in 1960 and yes compared to our return to England Aden did seem Hot and very modern especially Maallah Straight

[ADEN1961]

Aden was very prosperous look at the Roads cars and blocks of houses. unheard of in many towns at this period The shops were full of goods and even the locals were well off our Houseboy had a radio , for a 13 year old Adenese boy this was a real luxury other boys in Yemen could not have. It was 1960 even some parts pf London were not as wealthy and just as delapidated

[andrewockenden]

We left you a refinery; bunkering station; international airport; good hospitals, several prosperous townships; an administration/infrastructure to ensure continuing prosperity; domestic water supply and sewerage system, better than most other neighbouring states enjoyed; our dead, murdered by terrorists during the struggle for independence which most Adenis did not want. We left offering friendship; with great respect for those who had supported us and a prayer for all.

What happened after?

[kingrapid]

Why did da british leave Aden???

cos whenever i go on holiday from london to Aden (yemen)...I always stay in ma'alla and little aden...cos it reminds me of places like kent, sussex etc...

this mustve been taken after da insurgency...nevertheless respect for the video...would love to c more...

[rantbox21]

in fact it looks pretty much the same as it did in 1992 but with less cars!!

[rantbox21]

What a great video... I lived in Aden in 1992-93 and I have great memories of it.

The people were warm and hospitable, true Arabs... thanks for sharing.