London in the 1970s

[Idris2002]

When googling for images for my adverts from the year of your birth thread, I came across this vintage blog:

vintag.es

Anyway, they have a post featuring Black and White photos of London in the 1970s.

http://www.vintag.es/2013/02/black-white-photographs-of-life-in.html#more

Which I think some of you may enjoy.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

 

[davesgcr]

Superb - you cant help thinking there was a bit more community when old girls could go to the pub and get pissed / squiffy - whereas today's pubs seem a bit more attuned to money making and branding and target markets (i.e the young , gastro meals etc)

Love the departure from Liverpool St station with the relatively disintrested Railman. !!!

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Superb - you cant help thinking there was a bit more community when old girls could go to the pub and get pissed / squiffy

Except you couldn't go into a pub on your own and they refused to serve you a pint. They'd let you have a Cherry B or a port and lemon.

 

[oryx]

Fantastic pictures, thanks for the link.

I aspire to be the lady in the 'At The Royal Oak, Bethnal Green' in forty years time.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Love the departure from Liverpool St station with the relatively disintrested Railman. !!!

Ah, the old slam door trains. I slammed one of them on my thumb once. My thumb was flat and had an impressive blood blister. I cried

 

[Gingerman]

What a great little website,some fantastic pics on it.

 

[Favelado]

Except you couldn't go into a pub on your own and they refused to serve you a pint. They'd let you have a Cherry B or a port and lemon.

Really really really? Bloody hell. The things I don't know about Britain before 1981.

 

[xenon]

Ah, the old slam door trains. I slammed one of them on my thumb once. My thumb was flat and had an impressive blood blister. I cried

I've still got some British Rail magnets that came from one of those doors. It's quite a gnostalgic sound that, the old doors slamming. And the carriages definitely had a distinctive grimey sorta smell.

 

[Favelado]

I remember how the Northern Line used to smell before they changed the trains around the turn of the milennium.

 

[DotCommunist]

Really really really? Bloody hell. The things I don't know about Britain before 1981.

even as late as 1988 in the provinces there were still pubs which had men only bars and women to be sat in the lounge are with lemonades and crisps. Like children.

 

[clicker]

I like the famous peoples passport photos on that site....they look glam even in those...no quick two minute jobbie in a booth in woolies after a ten hour shift for them.

 

[xenon]

I remember how the Northern Line used to smell before they changed the trains around the turn of the milennium.

Never went on that one much but I remember perhaps falsely, the underground didn't seem to have much air conditioning if any back in the 80's.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Really really really? Bloody hell. The things I don't know about Britain before 1981.

Actually you could have a bottle of barley wine, or stout (for the iron).

 

[Favelado]

even as late as 1988 in the provinces there were still pubs which had men only bars and women to be sat in the lounge are with lemonades and crisps. Like children.

I knew there were men's areas in bars but I assumed women could drink alcohol in the non-apartheid section. None of my family went to pubs when I was a kid and I didn't go to one until 1994 so I grew up not knowing.

EDIT - I'm starting to dislike the term "provinces" a bit. Does anyone else find it a bit weird that we have a name for everything that isn't London or the Home Counties?

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

I've still got some British Rail magnets that came from one of those doors. It's quite a gnostalgic sound that, the old doors slamming. And the carriages definitely had a distinctive grimey sorta smell.

It is, I'm sitting here imagining guard blowing whistle and lots of doors slamming. Or is it the other way around? And people sticking their heads out of the windows. Don't think you can do that on any trains now can you? My brother got whacked in the eye by a branch once

and don't forget they stank of cigarettes and if you were unlucky, piss

 

[Favelado]

I was on a slam door train at Clapham Junction as recently as 2000/2003 I think.

 

[DotCommunist]

I knew there were men's areas in bars but I assumed women could drink alcohol in the non-apartheid section. None of my family went to pubs when I was a kid and I didn't go to one until 1994 so I grew up not knowing.

EDIT - I'm starting to dislike the term "provinces" a bit. Does anyone else find it a bit weird that we have a name for everything that isn't London or the Home Counties?

its where I live

Northampton was once the capital of england you know. no shit.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

I was on a slam door train at Clapham Junction as recently as 2000/2003 I think.

Probably. Think they were around for a long time

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Last spring, on a preserved steam line...lovely door slam I was a little disappointed not to see a luggage rack that wasn't made of a net of knotted leather cord on a metal frame. The last time I saw that might have been in the sixties though.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

I was on a slam door train at Clapham Junction as recently as 2000/2003 I think.

Some still in use as late as 2009

There's even a Wiki page on them

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slam_door_trains#Demise

 

[xenon]

It is, I'm sitting here imagining guard blowing whistle and lots of doors slamming. Or is it the other way around? And people sticking their heads out of the windows. Don't think you can do that on any trains now can you? My brother got whacked in the eye by a branch once

and don't forget they stank of cigarettes and if you were unlucky, piss

Doors then whistle. I'd forgotten you could smoke in them back then. The carriages were more intamit too. Not necesarily a good thing.

I was on a slam door train at Clapham Junction as recently as 2000/2003 I think.

Yeah I think the suburban routes still used them for quite a while. South West trains out towards Berkshire.

I'm not a train nerd honest.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Doors then whistle. I'd forgotten you could smoke in them back then. The carriages were more intamit too. Not necesarily a good thing.





Yeah I think the suburban routes still used them for quite a while. South West trains out towards Berkshire.

I'm not a train nerd honest.

Yeah, I remember the compartments, and it was most often businessmen doing paperwork, or dodgy types who you'd imagine would flash you (if my brother wasn't with me)

I used to use them from Fenchurch and Liverpool Street to Southend

 

[Garek]

Superb - you cant help thinking there was a bit more community when old girls could go to the pub and get pissed / squiffy - whereas today's pubs seem a bit more attuned to money making and branding and target markets (i.e the young , gastro meals etc)

"No dogs, no blacks, no Irish"

 

[clicker]

Last spring, on a preserved steam line...lovely door slam I was a little disappointed not to see a luggage rack that wasn't made of a net of knotted leather cord on a metal frame. The last time I saw that might have been in the sixties though.

Ooh may remember these from the seventies...had to get a train to secondary school and many a time, a mis-timed lunge up to the luggage rack could result in a yanked back finger, innocently trying to retrieve your pe bag that had now been interred beneath half a dozen briefcases, and before you knew it the man trap of knotted cord entwined your hands and put up a fight for ownership of the lofty pe bag.

I loved the upholstery on the seats...you could thump it with your fist and watch the dust rise magnificently in the early morning sunshine. It was rough almost carpet like material...reminded me of my Uncle Bob's stubbley beard to the touch. And the windows were always streaked in rusty dust...what was that all about? And who could forget the fug of day old benson and Hedges getting you by the throat and not letting go until every window had been unceremoniously pushed down by the women coming out of the biscuit factory.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

I loved the upholstery on the seats...you could thump it with your fist and watch the dust rise magnificently in the early morning sunshine.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

the women coming out of the biscuit factory.

Huntley & Palmers? Whatever happened to the Breakfast Biscuit?

 

[clicker]

Peek Freans....the home of the Marie biscuit i think...possibly the most boring and non descript little morsel ever invented. No where near as classy as the above Butter puff.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Yeah I think the suburban routes still used them for quite a while. South West trains out towards Berkshire.

Yes - on SW Trains in diminishing numbers until 2005 (then the 'tame' units on the Lymington branch)

And people sticking their heads out of the windows. Don't think you can do that on any trains now can you?

Yes - on the 1970s High Speed Train units - predominant on the First Great Western main line, and the bits of East Coast that electrics can't do.

Although they now have central door locking, so you can't open the doors until the train stops and the guard (or whatever the heck the job title is this week) releases the doors.

I loved the upholstery on the seats...you could thump it with your fist and watch the dust rise magnificently in the early morning sunshine. It was rough almost carpet like material...reminded me of my Uncle Bob's stubbley beard to the touch.

as in this ?

(ETA found a better photo)

And the windows were always streaked in rusty dust...what was that all about?

Something to do with the dust generated by the action of brake blocks on train wheels

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Yes - on SW Trains in diminishing numbers until 2005 (then the 'tame' units on the Lymington branch)



Yes - on the 1970s High Speed Train units - predominant on the First Great Western main line, and the bits of East Coast that electrics can't do.

Although they now have central door locking, so you can't open the doors until the train stops and the guard (or whatever the heck the job title is this week) releases the doors.



as in this ?

(ETA found a better photo)

Something to do with the dust generated by the action of brake blocks on train wheels

That's a very clean looking train. Doesn't look like any of the ones that were on the Southend line