Hackney in 1979 - Documentary about London's working class district
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ก.ย. 2018
- Community-based arts projects burgeoned in the 1970s. This film follows four projects in Hackney, at that time a predominantly working class area in London.
Original title: Somewhere In Hackney
A film by Ron Orders
© 1979, Licensed by Cinecontact
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What a great bunch of people. We need to rediscover this sense of community. It's needed now more than ever.
Love that poetry 💞
communiteh of buy to let renters.
This is how I’d like to remember London, I grew up there in the 60’s/70’s.
That was my mum being interviewed at 5 mins. I would have been 7 so was probably off playing somewhere.
If you don’t mind sharing, how did you all get on in the year that past since filming?
Great stuff. I would have been 6. Where have all the years gone??
2021....Community spirit now only lives in the archives.
Nice to revisit 1979 where people and especially children, had safe environments to explore, learn and inject their creative styles into their communities.
You're joking mate aren't you? Do you know about the Sidney Cooke paedophile gang who were operating in Hackney back then? 3 young lads murdered. They lived in hackney and brought the kids back to their flat. There was also a paedophile pick up point at the shoe shop on mare street back then. It's amazing how people reinvent and distort the past.
Grew up in Hackney in the late 70s. Over time saw Hackney Library sold, opposite the Town Hall on Mare St. Saw Homerton library gradually dissolve. These were the only places for silent study if you were trying to prepare for exams.
Hackney Central now has wonderful library... same with Dalston Junction, massive upgrade on previous pokey library nearby, Homerton doing great... why all this doom and gloom? Hackney beautiful place to live and study.
@@tommygunhunter I’m in my 40s now, back then there was nowhere to study for exams. I’m clearly not talking about nowadays
Libraries are still the only places for quiet study. Try and get readers pass for British Library, properly enforced quietude 👩💻👨💻🙅♂️🙅♂️
Nothing of it left now lovely hackney my home
Wow! The nostalgia I felt watching this was quite overwhelming. I was a kid in London in the 70s and loved the community arts of that time. I used to go to Action Space at the Drill Hall in Goodge Street and the team were Incredible. Later I became a playworker in the 80s working at play-centres and would team up with the city farm in Hackney. In those days there was recognition of the need from councils to provide kids with play centres and youth centres. In the mid 90s the funding decreased and eventually the adventure playgrounds were turned into playgrounds without staff. Now kids find their entertainment through computer games. It's such a shame.
Remember the Capricorn club ? 🍀🇬🇧👍🏼
So many community workers. Too little culture.
yes Action Space - great days! My parents worked for them / with them for quite a time and then years later (later 70s/early 80s) some of them re-convened in Swindon, Wiltshire and continued on a similar thing
Love watching these old documentaries about London
Intelligent, and civilised, I do miss those days 😢
That's what happened when they removed God of the Holy Bible from the schools and homes.
@@our-days-are-short8254 Ah no, it was Americanisation. LOL The Bible. lol.
@@lunastargoddess1632both really .
Heartbreaking to see what it’s become
I went to that Cinema many of times. Played on the adventure at Kingsmead ,Hackney marshes. Went to school in Dalston and Mum n Dad got married @ Hackney town hall.
The end of the 70's was a good time for a 8 year old.
Felt safe and loved.
Lucky you didn't come across the Sidney Cooke paedophile gang or the Alan Brent "baby sitting" paedophile gang, all of whom lived on the kingsmead back then
I went to Caribbean House with my school several time back in the 80's, it was brilliant
OMG, such incredible scenery. Love 70s folk.
You get a great sense on community and belonging when you watch this film. Sadly this doesn't seem to exist much these days..
I agree mate.
I get a bit sad when I see old film like this!!
@sanjay j I lived just the high street here in Sandringham Road in the early 80s. I had virtually no money as the job I had paid very low wages. I could get by however and felt quite secure and content. Even affording a holiday to Greece and Cyprus in the summer. It really saddens me to see just how expensive things are, just the basics of life. And how people have to struggle. And yet there are a minority out there with incredible wealth!
Diversity has a lot of good things associated with it, but unfortunately a sense of community is one of the things that tends to get lost the more diverse a place becomes.
I was there.. Living on one of the estates... There was no community..
@Sagaris Starlight I wholeheartedly agree sir. If only we could go back to the good old days of Jimmy Savile and Myra Hindley! 😢😢
Really interesting time-capsule. Great to see people's attitudes and ideas back then. Some really positive things happening.
Mixed in with some truly terrible ones
Ah, 1979....the last year before Buying Stuff became the most important thing in people's lives.
Spot on, we're now in a Society saturated with consumerism, pumped into our brains from dawn to dusk. To what end ?
Working for Amazon, driving for Amazon, selling through Amazon, sitting on a sofa ordering shit you don't need, then completing the cycle, off it goes to landfill after its replacement has arrived from Amazon .
What makes me laugh is people who spend all their lives shopping for clothes........only to wear the clothes they bought last week to go shopping for new clothes the next week!
Dunno - that revolution seemed to start in the 60's. Materialism.
@@BritishSoundboardPranks You may be right - although it also hit me when I watched this doc that consumerism in either the 60s and the 80s was nothing compared to what it is now. I mean the current definition of the word 'hipster' is basically 'one who buys cool stuff'.
@@apolloc.vermouth5672 I'm sure people in the 50s and 60s didn't want cool things. That's why there wasn't an economic conjuncture the world over. Sure of it ;)
Some great footage of Clapton Park Estate back in the days, including some of an old neighbour! I remember the Free Form art group. Cheers for the upload
That so interesting. I grew up in Cromford Path and recognise a neighbour from there. She was quite racist though.
Wow.. what a document to have of the borough i grew up in. Thanks so much!
This is great to doc to have. I was blown away when I seen the silk screen posters for the RAR gig in Victoria Park. Amazing.
Thank you so much for uploading
People seemed far more intelligent back then...
They have been dumbed down on purpose...
v good point. All been on purpose. All of it.
They were well-spoken in my opinion even more working class read more books, I'm in my 30s and notice people read less books and papers today
@@robdubz1510 good point they are all on their mobile phones now ! And the art of conversation is long gone !
@@clairepeace5783 because we have phones and computers numb nuts
Wonderful I miss those times.. We need to learn and get back to art creativity community spirit and supporting each other! 💜
Absolutely. :)
Brilliant !!! Great memories !!
I would've been in my final months at primary school before secondary when this was shot. Still recognise the areas shown here, even though it has changed a hell of a lot over the years. Memory total recall.
Occult Floor Symbol there 2:05
There is now Occult Witchcraft Classes for Kids in the Hoxton, Shoreditch, Brick Lane area now
Yes I noticed that. x
The star of David? Are you confusing it with a pentagram? It's just a colourful geometric pattern no doubt chosen because it looks nice rather to bend young minds to the occult or to indoctrinate them into a secret Jewish cabal.
Wish this was still the East End instead of the island of insufferable hipsters it has now become.
Soo true. I grew up in Broadway market, Whiston road. It was a lovely place and community until about 2009. Now I look and feel out of place due to these yuppies and hipster that have driven up the price of the area.
@@sinkorswim24 it's called Gentrification and they plan on Gentrifying all London Boroughs
@@sinkorswim24 Historically Hackney has welcomed people from around the world and inward migration can be traced back to the 17th century with the arrival of immigrants such as the French Huguenots. Hackney also has one the largest groups of Charedi Jewish people in Europe, as well as large established Caribbean, Turkish and Kurdish, Vietnamese and Orthodox Jewish groups in the borough, as well as newer communities of people from African countries and Eastern Europe.
Places have always had an influx/movement of people. You're doing the rose tinted "It was and only was this way when I grew up in [insert place here]"
Same with Whitechapel - Was a Polish area 120 years ago, now it isn't.
Accept that change happens, or you'll become one of those "in my days..." people.
@@sinkorswim24 Also - Powercroft Road (E5) was principally built for all the bankers 100+ years ago, as it was a short commute to the emerging City.
Go back further Clapton was called Clopton and was farmland 150 years ago. Why Can't we have Clapton go back to a farm? (This is a reduction of your argument)
@@TheMixCurator u definitely missed the point of what I was saying and I can tell you definitely are not from Hackney because as you can see many Hackney residents that have live here for 30 years plus agree with what I said. Stop trying to be smart. Its called gentrification
When east london was east london. I was born and raised in hackney in the 80's/90's and it was a great place. Sadly its unrecongnisable these days and ive since moved away. My mum still lives there and its so so different now days. And not for the better..
So what has changed? Is it a rough area?
@@dublinsfaircity fucking hipsters
Used to live in Stoke Newington from 1976 to 1993, the house I used to live in is now worth £1.3 million.
Multiculturalism is a threat and society is the problem.
@@alishaobrien7221 omg
Amazing ! From the Rio Cinema
I grew up on the island, east London was great back then, I thought we was skint until I joined the British army and met lads from up north and Wales, 21 in 1979, oh how my country has changed, not for the better!
murf how did it become a dump
It's the same everywhere
@Meyer Mica kind of know what you're saying, I have 7 children, all grown up now eldest 39 youngest 20,they will see now as the good old days, I'm always saying to them, I wish I could take you back to 1976 just for the day, wouldn't change a thing, but let them see how my good old days were
@@scinformation7229 you're right, I worry about my grandchildren and the world there going to have to live in
Thought you was poor till you met a northern man 😂
I grew up in Hackney. I was a child of the 1970’s. Just moved out a few years ago. I Still have fond memories of playing in Hackney Downs, Clissold Park, Springfield park.
I loved Hackney so much I couldn’t move to far away, to a neighbouring borough. I love the diversity in London.
I wish there were more of these initiatives today to bring communities together.
You get the impression there was more genuine freedom of speech and expression at this time, because people were more patient and understanding in listening to other people's point of view, without shouting them down if they said something they didn't agree with.
That's because it was an unusual event to find out what other people were doing and thinking. These days the sheep all follow the herd and dissent must be punished.
i got into it with some stupid tart about the vaccine the other day. she went bananas when i said i weren't having it, the silly cow.
Perfectly illustrating why you shouldn't judge an era from one TH-cam documentary. 1979. When the country was torn apart by the winter or discontent. When society was deeply intolerant and often casually violent. When you "knew your place" and it was the era of the national front and skinheads.
@Anthony Andrea you're joking mate, aren't you? We're more tolerant now than We've ever been. People given the platform to speak out in a way they never had back then, just like you're doing now. Amazing how some people get so bitter as they age.
@@davelowe1977 err? Did you actually live through the 70s?? The era of corporal punishment in schools. The era of the national front and skinheads beating up people on the streets who were "different"
The Hairstyles haven't changed much in Hoxton .Thanks for uploaading!.
I think that joke has got to be past it’s sell by date now.
@@crabapples1995 uh no people like troye sivan the mass mainstream are now slowly acting like they are the 70´s after acting like they are the 80´s
Ahh when Britain was British yet still diverse.
I wish it was still like that. Now, it has been turned into a third world slum by the same people that came here to live a ‘better’ life.
@@tm1rt2vv8i when was the last time you were there? I think you might be getting your info from TH-cam.
@@imonlyhereforthecomments4267 my family and I have lived in Hackney for the last 3 generations.
@@tm1rt2vv8i you think London is in anyway comparable to a third world slum and you wonder why people call you privileged. You have no idea how lucky you are to live in London so stop moaning snowflake
@@morpheius521 what an imbecile. The individuals that have turned Hackney and other regions into a third world country are those that COME from a third world country who have failed to integrate, westernise and appreciate Great Britain.
This is not a matter of how privileged I am ‘compared’ to others. Oh, and by the way, I DO know how ‘lucky’ I am to live in the UK. Actually not ‘lucky’, but PROUD because this is my country that my ancestors fought for.
The irony is, that if we weren’t huddled over interweb devices in the ‘sanctuary’ of homes we could still have communities & associated activities
Very valid point.
This video is a very rose tinted slice of life in hackney back then. The reality was very much more mixed. It was absolutely crippled by poverty and chaotic families. There were also a lot of very dodgy people in the area - the Sidney Cooke paedophile gang lived in hackney back then and murdered at least three young lads. There were other paedophile rings, such as the Alan Brent "babysitting" one, who would prey on all the social chaos in hackney to get into vulnerable families and get the kids. I think we need to be very careful about imagining the sense of community was better then. For far too many people it was non existent.
Great video, I was brought up there and have some fond memories. Yes it has changed but everything does.
Britain was really good at this pioneering activity, going out to communities and bringing them alive through art. It created a whole new colourful landscape and gave a lot of artists jobs. Long live community art.
Yeah, teaching kids how to do graffiti instead of learning skills for jobs.
@@hc2155 Didn't bother to read the comment you think you're answering, did you?
@@Pstephen Barely any artist makes enough to support themselves or others and most are on benefits if they don't have a second job. It's a hobby for the vast majority, not a career. Completely different to learning professional skills for the future.
@@hc2155 Where I live there is a permanent open air public exhibition of the art and poetry of William Blake, done in mosaic. The artists who did it probably don't haven full time jobs as artists, but their work certainly makes the area more appealing. Art is useless, but life would be dull without it.
Community was stronger then because they got involved with local events and families didn't move house every year. It just seems so much healthier back then. RIP old days x
2024 /wow to look back without a mobile in sight x nostalgic x
When you could talk to your neighbours , and people were friendly
I was brought to London as a child in summer 1978 or 79. I had never seen black people in real life before - it was a novelty for me. We were able to walk down Downing Street and get our picture taken across the street for No. 10's door. It was the height of summer, yet not over-run with tourists. We could stay cheaply in a 4 star hotel in Kensington ( The Tara Towers Hotel ). But we walked on average over 10km a day, which for a 7 year old and a 9 year old was a bit much in the hot sunshine.
We're you from the countryside?
weird
I worked for a community arts organization back in the 1990's - however, in the early naughties, they had the budget slashed, and then continued to limp on in some form, to almost a whisper now.
those sorts of things get fuck all support from our pathetic government now. they don't want arts projects, they want us all zombified.
My dear old mum was born in Hackney.
Yes, Hackney in 1979 was still British society coloured with diversification in community strata. When I first came to Britain in 1980, for my college education. Spent 5 years in UK, first two years in England ( in King's Lynn, a market town in Norfolk county) then further three years in Edinburgh, Scotland. Those five years from 1980 upto 1985 were good and everlasting memory for me.
1979 was a BRILLIANT year. Trust me. It was incredible.
So lovely before Blair and mandelson fucked it all up
A Time of change for "Times are a Changing" a wonderful moment in history for self empowering, Power to the People.
Seems like a lifetime ago I guess it was! Thanks for this
I am 16 years old great times 😊
Anyone know who did the intro music it’s first class as is the documentary
The good old days....diverse but not overwhelmed and lost !
What does that even mean?
@thehoneyeffect
What do you think it means?
My grandparents were born in Hackney in the 1890s, my parents in the 1920s and myself in the 1950s. I dont recognise much of this film being about the Hackney I knew. Glad to say I moved out in 1990.
I really don’t know where this intelligence has gone in today’s society..? Seems like everyone now needs to be told what to do..It’s scary....☮️🇬🇧
Fantastic documentary. Lovely soundtrack, I wonder who the guitar player was?!
Hate to be that person but you really don't see the same type of community these days, but social media would make it so much easier to do more things!
that was good i am scouser from toxteth Liverpool i can relate
@17:03 - Frig me ! That girl's glasses are like re-entry shields !
I have kept the family home in Hoxton while everyone else moved away and I have observed so many major changes for the past 60yrs . Our family lived in the area since 1922. The demise of local street markets and social habits of going to the pub most nights was instrumental in killing off traditional close knit communities and their spirit. The markets/pubs were meeting places as well as service providers. But nothing stops evolution and everything changes. My area was run down poor and grubby, but families knew each other and helped each other. Now, long gone are the asbestos ridden rows of pre-fab maisonettes and run down council estates with poor lighting and parks you were scared to use. The old factories have turned into modern flats and Shoreditch park is a pleasure to visit. But the markets are dead or in their death throws, the indigenous locals pushed out by the the lack of homes or affordable housing to make way for a younger middle class. I actually like how things have changed so much and become modern. I still nostalgically harp back to how much fun it was in the old days around here with dodgy deals and skulduggery going on, but as I said, nothing stops evolution. p.s South Hackney is still classed as " bandit country " no matter how much money they throw at it.
Free form come to my street in the 80’s where we all built a rockery and a few tiled pictures on the walls.
Free Form we’re great! 👍💪
Thank you Free Form
Legz Akimbo.
Ha ha my thoughts too. Great documentary though. :)
Or as i call it ...Aids in a van.
In 70s Bristol a double decker bus decked out as an art workshop in summer. I remember printing a tshirt. This is pretty much the same sort of thing. Was this an organization that was set up around the country?
Go there now and stand still. Would take about an hour max before someone tried to rob you
Brilliant and depressing all at the same time... wonder what that lady who did this project is doing now?
Lynford Casting moved out of London no doubt.
@@NoycieBrv I have temporarily and miss it very much.
What's depressing about it? Everyone seems a lot happier than they are today in that part of the country. (By happy, I don't mean all the fake smiling and emoting that's fashionable for people to do these days in cities like London).
"Depressing" Andy because it's not like that anymore and we have gone backwards :(
Yeah I bet you do, like that other urban fan and multi culter fan Billy bragg who has also moved to the shires. You middle class white people are full of shit
Totally unrecognisable now thanks to new labour opening the flood gates in 1997-2010..
London is a hollowed out welfare city, 75% BAME.....shocking.
If I went on holiday to Cornwall after only ever living in Hackney I doubt I'd ever want to return to Hackney.
littlegee why?
that's what happened to Billy bragg the well known labour and multicultural fan. he went on holiday to Dorset from his beloved Dagenham and never went back and now sings his twee songs about Racism from the safety of that shire
@@insertnamehere5146 oh look a wee bigot insulted by someone who has balls....
@@insertnamehere5146 Dorset, a county lines stronghold. The mean streets of Poole.
very white in cornwall isnt it
Cool
Not a single mobile phone in sight when people used to enjoy each others company
And yet here you are using your mobile phone to watch this and leave comments. You old hypocrite.
It's the 1970's, of course there weren't any mobile phones. Idiot.
I was living at Brentwood at the time, and when I saw Hacking in 1985, thought it dump then, still a dump in 2022, looked like nothings going to change that much, tarted up Hackney Central, I still feared being mugged, as a dodgy area.
Life seemed to have a vibrancy back in the 70s/80s. I can still feel it when I think back. Today seems to be so sterile & numbed.
Freeform Arts Trust did some great work for nearly forty years, despite very little funding or interest from councils or government. Then it was gone, and nobody much cared. They put up a parking lot, and people said, "Ok".
Community has always existed before excessive technology, fear mongering and obsessive rules and regulations . Its got nothing to do with different cultures coming together. We need to stop watching the news and being scared to let our kids out and for us as adults to speak to eachother . Half the people complaining about community wouldn't say hello to a stranger and I'm guilty of being a shy and having those fears too . We can't keep complaining about society as if it just dropped from the sky out of nowhere . We can always put the love back in and start seeing eachother again .most people want and need that interaction and would really appreciate it . Let's not sucome to it and accept the zombie state that already exists .
Hear hear. We also need to regain our sense of humour for it's the glue that says you're alright and I'm alright because we can enjoy a laugh together. Accepting that we're all sometimes a bit daft is absolutely ok. It allows for vulnerabilities and stops people believing they have to be perfect - to be just as you are is good enough. But society is forgetting this and is holding people to impossible standards which means we're in danger of losing our humanity. In fact it's a beautiful synchronicity that human and humour are almost the same word. I'm not sure you can have one without the other.
"excessive rules and regulation" - such as?
@@joy6085 "standards that mean you lose your humanity" ? Give us an example please.
Wow! Traffic actually stopping at a zebra crossing!! A totally different age!
Am a geordie but still found a nostalgia buzz from this, Sweeney, OnlyFools and Minder gave me a feeling for this people in this time.
Big up Mabley Street
Just hearing these people talk I can tell the people of hackney changed today
"Theres a mistrust in hoxton about the art people being overtly left wing" xD
They had no idea bless em
Well, they weren't going to be overtly right-wing and creative were they
Filmed mainly in Dalston and Hoxton areas. The council/social housing estate is De Beauvoir Estate, Hoxton.
At least Cookes Pie and Mash is still going strong.
Not the one shown here (Kingsland Rd) though
R.I.P Hackney.
And then ...
Era of interesting cars
Posh woman sets up a 'Community Arts Project' in a working class area.
The more things change the more they stay the same.
totally different types to now
@@dee_seejay Definitely a Working Class Chauvinist. Unapologetically so.
I'll always call out Middle Class attempts to colonise Working Class communities too.
@@dee_seejay That's a long read which deserves more time but I did notice that you referenced your background and then went on to state your pride in Squatters Co-ops. I'm not sure which community you're from but in mine Squatters would have been regarded with outright contempt.
@@dee_seejay "Us"? Who are you speaking for?
@@dee_seejay I don't "represent" a community. I do however, come from a community that values self reliance, hard work, unity, Country and Civic Pride. These are common Working Class values.
Now, who is this "us"?
The zeitgeist has spooked us all out of countenance
I wonder what happened to the woman talking five minutes in. I hope she is a successful politician! I am usually quite cynical, but she really made me feel all change is possible!
I was in Hoxton in 2006, and the hipsters hadn't arrived en masse yet. I wonder where those posters are now. They would make a great exhibition.
Now it's full of smashed avocado on sliced toasted soda bread hipsters.
As opposed to smashed heads from the national front like it was in the 70s?
Or being mugged by afro Caribbean s
@16:27 - Good to see Elton John getting involved in the community.
No that's David Hockney.
so much has changed since but humans are still the same.
Community Arts
Oh England, how we lost our way; our voice; our soul; our strength in community .
You just got old and grumpy, mate. You sound like my grandparents in the 70s saying exactly the same thing. Amazing how grumpy old people sound the same in every era. Guess what? The world changes and the world of our youths disappears. It happens to everyone who ever lived. So maybe make your peace with it. It ain't ever coming back.
Few old cockneys going down the rubber dub
Who else thought the Jake the Pake 3 handed silkscreen board at 0:33 was freaky?
Lovely to watch but things better these days
What's with the Dutch flag 8:12 ?
8:01 Kingsmead Primary School - I was 5 in 1979 and have lived opposite it for 46 years now! My little part of the world! The teachers I remember were Miss Bouncle, Mr lewis, Miss Smith (she punched me in the back for not finishing my greens one lunch time, very tough old bird)😂. Wow that was a long time ago!
Isn’t this Ragga Twins place of birth..?
Hackney was a fantastic place to live in the 1970s moved to Dagenham in the early 1980s I was never the same
this is great - so of its time :))
I WOUNDER WHERE THEY ARE NOW
AND I WOUNDER IF ANY OF THEM GOT JOBS WITH THE COUNCIL IN THE 1980S
Multipass
Those were great times for us posh people who came in to get council funding - we got some parties and the kids got loads of activities and murals. Like the lady says - the adults never got into it in a big way and it is a success that they came along just for the kids anyway. All the miserable comments here about hipsters moving in with avoidocardo? I've still got my rusty old 'Keep Hackney Crap' badge! It was crap, and fun. Now it's hip, expensive, and has entryphones on stainless condos for the fintech imperialists. The crap has just got monetized.
I lived 30 minutes away in Hounslow as a young child and teen in the late 60s and 70s and at that time I just thought it was COOL and GROOVY and FAB but looking at this it's like I'm looking at Victorian times LOL and I'm feeling about 269 years old after seeing this HAHAHA Funny how time changes your perception ... Or maybe it's the way it's been filmed and presented with all the OLD folks trolling down the high streets !! ... And HERE WE ARE :) Greetings from Middle Earth