It's nice to hear an earlier narrator refer to the Queen of the Iceni as "Boadicea" rather than the latterday, 'Boudica' nomenclature. Wonderfully evocative !
Actually they technically were rebuilding London while at war, since Britain was involved in both the Malaya Emergency AND the Korean War in the early 1950s (partially why the government kept rationing so long). It honestly makes the achievement even more impressive.
Those modest little houses between Cheyne Row and Glebe Place (where the three children emerge from) still exist, according to Google Maps. The modern day purchase price is probably astronomical, I should think.
The commentary evokes a very different time - when speaking properly in a way that could be (and was intended to be) understood by all - even visiting foreigners - was expected from those in public life.
@@marklammas2465 Neatly put. It is a sad reality that we seem to have become victims of a dreadful revisionist view of what we have done and achieved that has seen an over- reaction that has gained little and lost much. But I for one remain glad that I knew a better time when pride and sheer common sense were far more prevalent than they are today. In the meantime, I am confident that the wheel will turn and we will see better days ahead. Hope is always the great panacea!
I don’t disagree about the dress standard that were required. Perhaps little elegance for us because of the cost of clothes - but there was little else in the 50’s that I wish was still the norm. Meat was a real luxury. Once a week? Hard to convince my grandchildren just how special chicken was - a real Christmas treat - rather like Ye Olde Smoked Ham Cars were way out of our reach. It was buses and lots of walking. Carrying shopping home was not like putting bags onto a boot We had no refrigerator - that meant shopping little and every day - increasing the time required for shopping and the costs No central heating. Coal fire downstairs and paraffin heater on the landing upstairs. Frost on both sides of the window in winter Everyone smoked; trains ran by churning out plumes of smoke; fires were ordinary coal - all smell and smoke Health service was rudimentary compared to today. My mother would not have died when she did if she had been alive 15,20 years later Just too naive to suggest how great everything was in the 50’s
@@theofarmmanager267 Your most candid and honest reflections on Britain in the 1950's reminded me of a quote: ''Hard times make for strong men, Strong men make for good times, Good times make for weak men, Weak men make for hard times.'' I think we are once again in hard times because of the disintegration of the moral, political, economic and social fibre of the nation. The 1950's may have lacked the wellbeing that a robust economy can bring but there was this strong social fibre as a bi product of the war that held everyone together and the belief that good times would once again be here. Your mother's untimely death also reminded me of a medical emergency of a burst appendix that happened to me in 1998. I was most lucky that this did not happen if I had been around in 1938 as the availability of antibiotics saved me. Hoping that once again strong men and women can turn this all around. Cheers.
@@davidparris7167 thank you for the reply. It seems simplistic to say that each generation has it easier and better than the previous one but there are few areas of material substance (I don’t count dress code as being of material substance) that seem to have been better for the previous generation. However, I think it is true and am thankful for that - unless anyone would wish their children a harder life? I’ve got teenage grandchildren and am grateful that their lives may well continue to be consistently easier. I have little doubt that WW2 was extremely formative for my parents; my father joined the Royal Marines when he was 18 and his first action was DDay on Gold beach - baptism of fire. I think that the deprivations suffered by all (okay, except for criminals and the elite) did forge characters which would not have been there if there had been only peacetime.
@@theofarmmanager267so things are better today? Still can't afford meat, including chicken; cars are ridiculously expensive; you can die waiting for your "free" medical treatment; the police will kick in your door for "mean" tweets; heating costs are still ridiculous; grooming gangs and illegal thugs entering the country like rats to a garbage dump. Yeah, so much better today, isn't it? 50 years from now will people be longing to return to this dumpster fire?
Actually, as a Londoner born in the 50s, I can say with some authority that London was dirty, smoke choked and bomb sites were my playground. Rose tinted glasses can be a dangerous thing.
With you 100%. We moved from London to Liverpool in the 50's when I was 6 years old. I remember asking my Dad why the fog in Liverpool wasn't green or brown. Coincidentally, I never got bronchitis again.
@@PERCYxyz In the context of the OP's comment, it's definitely the spectacles. The racists will point to the lack of any non-white faces (except briefly near the start of this second part), but what is also obvious is the lack of any working class faces except as 'serving' the requirements of the well-to-do Londoners shown in the film. A lot of these films were made as much to be shown abroad as incentives for visitors to come to Britain as they were for local viewing, so the focus being on the higher society attractions shouldn't be a surprise.
Beautiful print - probably from original 35mm negative. Somehow parts of the newsreel looks a little later than the 50’s? The music is reminiscent of a 70’s Carry On film!😀
If you could go back and talk to all the veterans and show them what would end upnhappening to their country not a single one would have fought in the war.
You're getting a very rose-tinted view of London in this film, which was likely intended to be screened abroad in order to attract visitors. Lots of comments on the Reel 1 video especially talking with approval about the lack of non-white faces herein (did those people suffer a fit of apoplexy in the first minute of this second reel?), but very little comment about the almost just as lacking sight of working class areas, and the damage - both physical and to community cohesion - wrought firstly by the Luftwaffe and subsequently by town planners.
An idyll of London - sequences of highly selective chocolate box shots of the City and the west end. It's lovely and shows a lot of what was good about Britain and London in those days - but ....... Barely a trace of any rain, shows none of the extensive bomb damage and empty lot "bomb sites" which were still - in 1950 - everywhere to be seen and there were still vacant lot "bomb sites" in the Capital until at least the mid 1960s - I know because I grew up in London in the 1950s Take a look at the exterior scenes in the 1954 movie "The Lavender Hill Mob" where, in location shots made not far from the Tower of London, you can see whole blocks which were still rubble. Or location shots in 1949 movie "Passport to Pimlico" which again shows how much devastation there was. What we are shown here gives no clue to the extent of the damage done during WW2. This film never goes east of the Tower of London - or south of the Thames - missing out at least half of London. Almost all of South London is more or less discounted by saying that the underground tube trains can get you "anywhere that matters for a few pennies" - due to geology there is only one underground tube line south of the river Thames! All those models posing amongst the crowds - watch carefully and in a couple of places you can see members of the public in the background reacting to someone telling them not to look at the camera. It's a film made to promote tourism. Rex Harrison's American pronounciations of a couple of words (I doubt that anyone in 1950s Britain said "Ren-a-sonce" - until the 1980s we always pronounced the "ai") are evidence it was not made primarily for domestic consumption.
@@johnathandaviddunster38 Who cares about "muh racism?" There are differences between the races. London is English and cannot be home to any other group. Cope harder.
@@gch8810 yes there are differences between some members of the white race ... physically inferior , which leads to racist rants ...I'll leave the last insult to you....
@@gch8810 It's not exclusively " English" any longer though lol and the multi culturalism is only going to grow more and more so it's you that actually needs to learn to cope harder : )
Tell me, how many working class faces did you see in the film, other than as bit part players in the lives of the better off, that section of society being the true focus in a film probably shown abroad to attract visitors.
![The British Policeman [1959]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Kw8xjagiRao/mqdefault.jpg)
![The British Policeman [1959]](/img/tr.png)
The lovely London I loved and remembered. R.I.P
Be nice to live in a London like this one
I was there with my parents in April 1989. Even then London was nice.
Thank you for this wonderful film,London looks great ,I wish I could be transported back to compare it with the present day
no comparison
It's nice to hear an earlier narrator refer to the Queen of the Iceni as "Boadicea" rather than the latterday, 'Boudica' nomenclature. Wonderfully evocative !
London as was, lost forever thanks to the politicians
They really have destroyed their own country
Same here in America.😢
It´s amazing to see how well London had been restored and re-built only five years after the wars end!
Believe me,there were still loads of bomb sites all over London,just not shown here.
Everything was looted from other countries and they built there palaces,bunglows,roadsetc
Actually they technically were rebuilding London while at war, since Britain was involved in both the Malaya Emergency AND the Korean War in the early 1950s (partially why the government kept rationing so long). It honestly makes the achievement even more impressive.
Well they didn't show the bombed out areas - and there were still many in the 1950s and even 1960s.
Thank you British Pathé for these beauiful images of the past. London as it should be but never will be again.
When mums could afford to stay home and look after the children, stress free living….
WOW! LOVED PART -I 1 AND NOW PART -2 THANK YOU! ENJOYED BRITISH PATHE NEWS ! MEMEORIES OF IT !! AT THE CINEMA !! FROM U.K. (2022)
Those modest little houses between Cheyne Row and Glebe Place (where the three children emerge from) still exist, according to Google Maps. The modern day purchase price is probably astronomical, I should think.
Now a very expensive and exclusive neighbourhood.
The Chelsea I remember having lived there from 1944 to 1968.
The commentary evokes a very different time - when speaking properly in a way that
could be (and was intended to be) understood by all - even visiting foreigners - was
expected from those in public life.
I don't support loranorder. Or lorandorder. It's a spoken tragedy.
@@marklammas2465 Neatly put. It is a sad reality that we seem to have
become victims of a dreadful revisionist view of what we have done
and achieved that has seen an over- reaction that has gained little
and lost much. But I for one remain glad that I knew a better time
when pride and sheer common sense were far more prevalent than
they are today. In the meantime, I am confident that the wheel will
turn and we will see better days ahead. Hope is always the great
panacea!
@@songsmith31a One wonders if anyone will know the meaning and usage of such words as "panacea" by the time that period arrives.
My heart aches.
How did it all go so wrong??😢
The notorious 'race to the bottom' mainly.
Diversity
The long lost London, which many born and bred locals do not recognise anymore. Such a crying shame.
When things were, as one would wish them to be-- and not everyone dressed like a child about to go camping.
Yes, elegance in appearance for both sexes is now, sadly a lost art.
I don’t disagree about the dress standard that were required. Perhaps little elegance for us because of the cost of clothes - but there was little else in the 50’s that I wish was still the norm.
Meat was a real luxury. Once a week? Hard to convince my grandchildren just how special chicken was - a real Christmas treat - rather like Ye Olde Smoked Ham
Cars were way out of our reach. It was buses and lots of walking. Carrying shopping home was not like putting bags onto a boot
We had no refrigerator - that meant shopping little and every day - increasing the time required for shopping and the costs
No central heating. Coal fire downstairs and paraffin heater on the landing upstairs. Frost on both sides of the window in winter
Everyone smoked; trains ran by churning out plumes of smoke; fires were ordinary coal - all smell and smoke
Health service was rudimentary compared to today. My mother would not have died when she did if she had been alive 15,20 years later
Just too naive to suggest how great everything was in the 50’s
@@theofarmmanager267 Your most candid and honest reflections on Britain in the 1950's reminded me of a quote:
''Hard times make for strong men,
Strong men make for good times,
Good times make for weak men,
Weak men make for hard times.''
I think we are once again in hard times because of the disintegration of the moral, political, economic and social fibre of the nation.
The 1950's may have lacked the wellbeing that a robust economy can bring but there was this strong social fibre as a bi product of the war that held everyone together and the belief that good times would once again be here. Your mother's untimely death also reminded me of a medical emergency of a burst appendix that happened to me in 1998. I was most lucky that this did not happen if I had been around in 1938 as the availability of antibiotics saved me.
Hoping that once again strong men and women can turn this all around.
Cheers.
@@davidparris7167 thank you for the reply. It seems simplistic to say that each generation has it easier and better than the previous one but there are few areas of material substance (I don’t count dress code as being of material substance) that seem to have been better for the previous generation. However, I think it is true and am thankful for that - unless anyone would wish their children a harder life? I’ve got teenage grandchildren and am grateful that their lives may well continue to be consistently easier.
I have little doubt that WW2 was extremely formative for my parents; my father joined the Royal Marines when he was 18 and his first action was DDay on Gold beach - baptism of fire. I think that the deprivations suffered by all (okay, except for criminals and the elite) did forge characters which would not have been there if there had been only peacetime.
@@theofarmmanager267so things are better today? Still can't afford meat, including chicken; cars are ridiculously expensive; you can die waiting for your "free" medical treatment; the police will kick in your door for "mean" tweets; heating costs are still ridiculous; grooming gangs and illegal thugs entering the country like rats to a garbage dump.
Yeah, so much better today, isn't it? 50 years from now will people be longing to return to this dumpster fire?
For whatever a city or a man wishes, when brought to fulfillment, shows how worthy, or base, were the desires.
The London I remember well, Holidays in the 50s at nans house in Bermondsey, Far different now.
London as it used to be. An English city. Unfortunately, no more.
?
Actually, as a Londoner born in the 50s, I can say with some authority that London was dirty, smoke choked and bomb sites were my playground. Rose tinted glasses can be a dangerous thing.
With you 100%. We moved from London to Liverpool in the 50's when I was 6 years old. I remember asking my Dad why the fog in Liverpool wasn't green or brown. Coincidentally, I never got bronchitis again.
@@Jdicjei93jbr Americanisation, first and foremost.
I don't think it is rose tinted spectacles so much, more like using nostalgia as a vehicle for vile racism.
@@PERCYxyz In the context of the OP's comment, it's definitely the spectacles. The racists will point to the lack of any non-white faces (except briefly near the start of this second part), but what is also obvious is the lack of any working class faces except as 'serving' the requirements of the well-to-do Londoners shown in the film.
A lot of these films were made as much to be shown abroad as incentives for visitors to come to Britain as they were for local viewing, so the focus being on the higher society attractions shouldn't be a surprise.
@@PERCYxyzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Beautiful print - probably from original 35mm negative. Somehow parts of the newsreel looks a little later than the 50’s? The music is reminiscent of a 70’s Carry On film!😀
Computer upscaled graphic definition and frame rate. Does wonders.
@@marklammas2465 ah! Cheers.
If you could go back and talk to all the veterans and show them what would end upnhappening to their country not a single one would have fought in the war.
Then Safe, clean and actually English!!! Now unsafe, dirty and NOT English!!!
Do you live in London?
You're getting a very rose-tinted view of London in this film, which was likely intended to be screened abroad in order to attract visitors. Lots of comments on the Reel 1 video especially talking with approval about the lack of non-white faces herein (did those people suffer a fit of apoplexy in the first minute of this second reel?), but very little comment about the almost just as lacking sight of working class areas, and the damage - both physical and to community cohesion - wrought firstly by the Luftwaffe and subsequently by town planners.
@@ShanghaiRoosterhow horrible, not enough blacks or "foreigners"; guess you're happy with the human flotsam there today
London is in UK
An idyll of London - sequences of highly selective chocolate box shots of the City and the west end. It's lovely and shows a lot of what was good about Britain and London in those days - but .......
Barely a trace of any rain, shows none of the extensive bomb damage and empty lot "bomb sites" which were still - in 1950 - everywhere to be seen and there were still vacant lot "bomb sites" in the Capital until at least the mid 1960s - I know because I grew up in London in the 1950s Take a look at the exterior scenes in the 1954 movie "The Lavender Hill Mob" where, in location shots made not far from the Tower of London, you can see whole blocks which were still rubble. Or location shots in 1949 movie "Passport to Pimlico" which again shows how much devastation there was. What we are shown here gives no clue to the extent of the damage done during WW2.
This film never goes east of the Tower of London - or south of the Thames - missing out at least half of London. Almost all of South London is more or less discounted by saying that the underground tube trains can get you "anywhere that matters for a few pennies" - due to geology there is only one underground tube line south of the river Thames!
All those models posing amongst the crowds - watch carefully and in a couple of places you can see members of the public in the background reacting to someone telling them not to look at the camera.
It's a film made to promote tourism. Rex Harrison's American pronounciations of a couple of words (I doubt that anyone in 1950s Britain said "Ren-a-sonce" - until the 1980s we always pronounced the "ai") are evidence it was not made primarily for domestic consumption.
I was born there in September '57.
That lovely skyline by the Thames before the ugliness of the City of London took over and ruined not only London but the country with its greed.
With luv from INDIA ❤
Ño mobile phones no online so all shops open no shifty trainers woman dress beutifull oh high heels
💎
Sure this is London everyone looks English.
Pity the ignorance of RACISM...
@@johnathandaviddunster38 Who cares about "muh racism?" There are differences between the races. London is English and cannot be home to any other group. Cope harder.
@@gch8810 yes there are differences between some members of the white race ... physically inferior , which leads to racist rants ...I'll leave the last insult to you....
@@johnathandaviddunster38 You're a fool.
@@gch8810 It's not exclusively " English" any longer though lol and the multi culturalism is only going to grow more and more
so it's you that actually needs to learn to cope harder : )
Did they show the East End??
Doubt it - Probably not posh enough. 😊
Enoch Powell was right.
Tell me, how many working class faces did you see in the film, other than as bit part players in the lives of the better off, that section of society being the true focus in a film probably shown abroad to attract visitors.
@@ShanghaiRoosterChrist your all over the comments spouting the same old crap.
@@TrumptonMayor As are you sweetie.
Virtually all the people in this reel were actors. Puff piece
Great town go back soon
they were orgnaised in 1950 ohhhhhhhh apperciate
Welcome to 'Racists' Corner'
Their rose-tinted specs are so dark they can't see other than what they want to see.
Painful innit mate!
@@TheSereneWanderer87 Why should I cry? People liker you are generally failures in life.
come here to vent your jealously
Said the clueless leftie.