I am amazed that while watching this video recently I saw my wife coming up an escalator in the tube. she passed away 30 years ago, so it was so nice to see her even though only for a few seconds. We had been together about a year when this video was taken. Unbelievable and joyful.
Thank goodness it has gone, else we would be stuck in some kind of weird theme park. Look how other cities have changed and for the better. No longer do people have to commute to work and be apart from their families, London is not just for work - but homes too occupy many central areas in new apartments. Who would have thought so much would be done to discourage the car and welcome in more options for those than just having transport by car.
London has changed so much. I preferred it when I grew up back in North London and went to college, then out to work in Bond St. life seemed so much better than how I found London now whenever I go back for a visit.
It's called getting older. I personally think London has changed overall for the best since my earliest memories of the early 80's. DLR, Jubilee extension, Overground, new rolling stock on numerous lines and now the Elizabeth line. I love that I can live in the East, visit friends and family East, North and West, work in the South and then enjoy central and more when off work 🎉
No, it really wasn't. Maybe in the centre area but definitely not in parts of East London, parts of South East London, and parts of North London not sure about north west or south west London.
Yet here on the South Coast loads of people had moved here from London in the late 70s / early 80s. Humans seem to have rose coloured spectacles about the past. My Nan always said that "the War was the best years of her life" er no Nanny you were bombed out and lived in a tin hut until 1952 and GD said you moaned constantly about it but she swore blind it was great.
I remember my Dad telling me when he was in the R.A.F in 1944 he took his shoes to be repaired in a London Cobblers but forgot to go back and pick them up, last week I was in London and found the exact shop he had left them,I thought I would ( just for fun) ask if they still had Dads old shoes, man in the shop said," they'll be ready Tuesday ".
Back in the day when I was listening to Steve Right on RADIO 1 and dancing around to DURAN, WHAM and Jackson. Culturally the big change has been the Internet but so many other things remain the same or have hardly moved on. Community and living wise, like the rest of the Country, its a mess and slowly being destroyed. Sad. Very very sad. Thanks for posting.
Every single shot was staged as a part of this glazed hazed over rose tinted info-doc that totally isnt lighthearted propaganda of a time long gone. This is dxactly what they wanted you to think, but the time was very different
I think the quality of the video makes us feel nostalgic and in another place of mystery 😂if you was actually placed in London at that time you would see it’s not that amazing compared to now
Born in 1956 ,,, 1st job in 1973 in a central London estate agent ,,, I remember loving the summer ,, getting into work early , watching the town wake up & come alive ,, 67 years old now ,, London is now a very different place in many ways ,, sadly Londoners are now unrecognisable to how it was !!
The first time I went to London was somewhere in 1993 when I was 6. I don't remember much. The second time I went there was the summer of 1995 and I remember there was a noticeable difference between then and now. I imagine everything was simpler in 1983.
For everyone querying the date, it’s 1983 that this film was made and broadcast. It says it quite clearly at 16:40 Obviously some footage was from other times, but it is a 1983 documentary.
Getting rid of the trolleybuses was one of the most misguided decisions of the immediate postwar years. The great smog of the early 50s should have been a warning of future traffic pollution. Even though much of the smog was caused by smoke from factories mixed with fog.
Many other cities replaced trolley busses with diesels. Not a good idea in hindsight. But when coal fired power stations were making the power, the CO2 and pollution was simply shifted back into town with diesels..
This video's transitions are top-notch for example at 13:20 I also liked the information of course, as well as the filming. Especially, the timing aspect of this scene at 7:52 And finally, the end credits are very well thought out 16:08 All and all very delightfully well-put-together video!
@MusicalElitist1 some of them do..but majority looks like bitches..or some look like guys ... and some guys looks like ladies as well. back then people looked more simple and human . now everyone is clever and unique :D
@@TheZiggiz and I like that people are unique its more interesting and it shows the human in them even more. Back then people bottled up their emotions and didn't express them selves which is unhealthy.
@@orangeflipgram6549 Today, more people than ever are committing suicide, so that shows than far fewer are expressing their emotions now, partly because of the oppression of political correctness with its ‘you can’t say that’ and ‘ you’re sacked because some freak has been offended’.
Bring back that type of London!!! And you see!!! We didn't have mobile phones or Internet those days Yet things did work very very well and if we enjoy what we have today its because of those years!!! I moved to London back in 1999/2000 and I can see how much this city has changed soo much in the last 20 years and not so much in a better way unfortunately.
Funny thing that. I was well into LT and it's buses as a youngster. We moved North in 72 so to me these 80's shots are of a London changed in just ten years, 'new' red phone boxes, roundels on the bus fleet instead of gold London Transport. So, a new picture of the Capital even though its now so dated (!)
Thanks so much for posting this. Sure, it's easy to carp on about the good old days, but honestly, I was there in the 70s and 80s and London then really did have a character and feel to it that doesn't exist any more. But hey-ho, things change.
Such an informative documentary. My Father also worked on the underground as a guard on the district line, till tubes became driver only. But London now isn't the same as the London l grew up in!!. I like so many others squeezed out and forced to move away!!.....................
London's population in 1983 was roughly 6 million, by 2021 it will reach close to 10 million. roughly 2 million increase alone happened between 2001-2016, That's a short space for a such a rapid increase of people in a dense area, And people wonder why buses are running late, the tube on some busy stations have to close the gates for crowd control, The system isn't designed to cope with this many people.
A fair amount of the increase has been replacing industrial areas (Colindale, Nine Elms,) and new sites - marshy Barking Riverside , Dagenham and Beckton Area along with the amount of higher tower blocks. Plus all the little shops into 3 storey flats.
I like the simple things,like how people have newspapers under their arms and no one is looking at their phones constantly. (I know there wasn’t mobile phones then)
For the moment I use a normal non-smart phone. Sometimes it can be anoying, because you can't acces information, but sometimes is fine, because I feel free. Worse of all, some people are looking on the screen while driving or riding the bicycle.
@@serenacameron3359 ...Yes, and I also remember men on the tube in the early 1970s in their suits with flared trousers going off to the office, with umbrella hanging over their arm and newspaper tucked up beneath their arm pits. Also many of them had longer hair than the ladies 😂
@@zeeteavathepipe3184 I don’t have a mobile phone now. They stopped selling pay-as-you-go sim cards, plus I wasn’t using it enough. The last time I was in Edinburgh, there was still a few public telephones around, so I might just leave off buying another “smart” phone.
Agree! The music doesn't help...it's very dated, even for 1983. And the narration is also very old fashioned even for then. It's like watching a video of 1980's London with a narrator that recorded his words 20 years earlier.
Let's all praise the beauty of diversity which has made today's London better than ever. Smarter, friendlier, better educated, more polite, and of course, safer. Said no one ever.
Thank you for this video. Bought back memories of when I was a kid. I still remember the smell of bus smoke and hot tyres as a toddler. Every tube line train had its own unique smell. Just a few months ago there was a one day special of all the old buses running in East London, that was amazing. I wonder if they could do that with the trains.
For the trains they have quite a few units on heritage railways and all that, the Epping and Ongar Railway in Essex (I think) has some and the Isle of Wight railways had some but were replaced, all the units were transferred to the Isle of Wight steam railway instead, so there’s some there. Not sure if they’re running or in the museum but you can still go in them.
Same here. I'm not proud of it in the state it's in now. The majority of people born there aren't either. Incredibly sad, but London will be back one day. Unfortunately, probably not in our time.
@@chrispatterson1019 ... London is still a fantastic and beautiful city, the problem is the people that now reside there are not proud of their city, the problem is not that the city has changed but that the people have changed and have no pride in their city anymore. London hasn't gone anywhere so how can it as you say "be back one day" ... Its here as its always been, and is like any big city for ever changing, its peoples rose coloured glasses that are the problem, as they keep one living in the past, that's fine but you have to realise that nothing stays the same and everything progresses and is renewed, that may not always be for the better, but that really comes down to peoples individual perceptions, London will always be a beautiful city and always has been.
I used to go to Hainault quite a bit and then get a bus to Chigwell Row , interesting to see the first train to go on the loop there. Loved the old buses and be able to jump on and off at the back , more fun 👍
A very archaic style for 1983...the retiree narrative character probably reflects what was on the minds of the filmmakers...40 years of educational shorts behind them...big library of footage to compile from.
+spencer hardy I produced this film. As we had to rely on the British Transport Films archive for much of the film it seemd sensible to us e the technique of presnting it through the eyes of a retired employee. The script was written by Norman Prouting hwo had supplied scrpits for BTF sinc ethe early 1960s. Sadly Norman died the very day we recored the voice over with Frank Middlemass.
During a ten year period I worked on a number of films for LT and LUL. Those that were publised include: Brill to Baker Street, Sweet Retun, Getting to Grips.
It's a bit unsettling to see the original wooden escalators still in use in 1983. In 1987, a wooden escalator at King's Cross caught fire from a discarded cigarette, killing 31 people. As a result, London Transport began replacing all of the wooden escalators in the entire Underground.
I love that the passenger(s) at 11.10 are politely standing aside to LET PEOPLE OFF THE TRAIN FIRST, as any sensible person would. Nowadays you see idiots standing in the way trying to get on first. unfortunately the intelligence of some people has regressed since the 80s rather than advanced.
The CloneX2 ... Its a simple case of people were far better mannered back in the 1970s and 1980s than they are today, people really were far nicer back then, today people just seem to ignore each other, people were far friendlier back then, society wasn't so me, me, me back then.
I don,t want to be judgemental but: some people of third world origin don,t have western manners.....that's why You see from time to time: stampedes at their religious celebrations, where people are killed by mindless idiots with no manners. I myself have opened doors, and gone out of my way to help mainly women of this ilk.......and have received no thanks for my trouble. And judging by footage of oxford street etc: half of London seems to be full of people of this ilk.
This time machine thing reminds of a story I heard about a man in B and Q .. Man : "Excuse me, do you still have any of those paints that were on special offer ?" Assistant : "I'll go and look." ( Is gone for 15 minutes ). "No, sorry, sold out. We had loads last week." Man : "Well, that's useful information, isn't it ? Do you have a time machine ?" Assistant : "I'll go and look." Man ( Lunges at him ).
Massive nostalgia for me, I in the 70's rode the cushions of every in service RT and RM that LT operated including the 4 RM expresses that ran out of a unlisted garage in Penge that were hired out for other duties, also did all the Red Arrows when Merlin's and again when they were Leyland National's and then did all the LT Nationals, MCW's etc in late 70's adding their numbers to what became a telephone book of bus numbers lol Even the LC routes like the 410 I rode often and that was a hoary old ride in the old RT's going down Biggin Hill and the panicked expressions of the driver, more fun going up as driver and following traffic invented new swear words as the wheezy old things used to crawl up that incredibly steep hill hehe I do despair at the abject mess made of today's London, it used to be such a lively, friendly place but today seems to be full of people sneering at them with a penny less and fawning at those with a penny more as me nan would have said and she was a bus driver during the war, got a medal too for saving passengers when her bus got bombed.
There's strange disconnect between the video and the commentary. The video is from 1983 but the commentary sounds like it's from the 1950s. Most peculiar.
the camera quality even for 1983 seems like the film was made in 50s or early 60s only that Jubilee line poster and the dot matrix gave me an idea that this is the 80s
It's not long ago the old London. I feel the change sped up in mid 90s onwards. As a child I just about remember the old London when visiting around 1992
Yes, that is right. It did extend to Brixton in 1971 and that is about it. Completely different in North London. I feel like weeping as virtually (99.9% ) of people in this video shared by White/British Culture. Now only one child in 10 in 2016 was identified as " White/British" all in under 40 years but I DID see the change coming as I lived near Brixton and left soon after The 1981 Riots. I moved to The London Suburbs with most of these people it seems. I was not wrong as there was a smaller Brixton Riot only last week with a Police trashed with a pickaxe....
@@Isleofskye one more Brexit racist has spoken. Well your paradise will come after December last. All the bloody foreigners, like the Scandinavia au pairs is kicked out and you can enjoy your Tory government and all their Indian ministers.
One of the most interesting films I've ever watched! Thank you whoever put that on. I was completely lost in it , my two passions are history and old transport 🥰
This can't be true, the BBC keep telling us England, particular London has had a large ethnic community since Tudor times and before, the buss drivers don't look ethnic but it's only 1983 we're told they'd all been ethnic for at least 20 years by this time, how could they have built Britain for us?
This would be a fantastic resource for our Year 6 classes as part of their London & Brighton geography and history topic! Following the changes to transport over the years; how the city grew; links to historical events; building their own map of the underground lines over time; researching what has changed in London transport since 1983 and comparing then to the present day. and spotting some of the famous landmarks.
A fascinating watch... thanks for uploading! I do miss London Transport's glory days... as a youngster going on family holidays to Hastings we would always know we were 'in the country' when we started seeing green RT's instead of red ones from our car window... happy days indeed!
I moved to London in 1981, it was fabulous. It was also the year of the first race riots if I recall, so not all harmony. Upon balance I still prefer London then. Routemaster buses, by far better!
In 1983 I was five years old. I remember seeing people smoking 🚬 on the trains. I remember the busy interchange at a station that looked like the central Line with my mum. A man got off and his cigarette burnt my hand. The older underground trains smelt a certain way and the seats were more comfortable. Back then we were paying cash 💰 fares
That was London's answer to the RE,s what we had in the west country especially Bristol we had REs in Stroud I think that Luton had them as well ether so it is an eastern town just 25 miles north of London they can really shift
Red Rover tickets, care free days of jumping on and off those wonderful Routemaster buses ... they were the days, when you would get told off by the conductor for hanging out the side of the bus gripping the handle, and then once you got off shouting a mouthful of abuse at them ... wonderful forgotten insults such as Tosser, Wanker, old git, and worse, oh how those conductors must have just loved us kids 🙂
8:54 Behind the No.9 Routemaster bus a red 'Holies Car' better known as a Vauxhall Victor. Probably the best car ever built because it is so American looking. Hardly see any now a days
@@edwardoleyba3075 I tried that but everybody had heard of it or had it, so I went for my own twist on it, I tried cooking fat too..... Was a bit ott I thought 😅
I lived in Liverpool at this time , but I spent a couple of years in my formative years in Canning Town / Custom house.. they were brilliant times, if only I had a time machine, just to see my gorgeous girlfriend again.
I am amazed that while watching this video recently I saw my wife coming up an escalator in the tube. she passed away 30 years ago, so it was so nice to see her even though only for a few seconds. We had been together about a year when this video was taken. Unbelievable and joyful.
May God bless her
🌹🌷💐🌺🌸🌼
At 1:02? Which one is your wife? How amazing that you found this. It’s fate
How very lovely ❤. I watch old footage of Belfast and each time hope to see my mother or father.
How lovely
A London that's now gone forever.
😢😢😢😢
Thanks to Tony Blair
Thank goodness it has gone, else we would be stuck in some kind of weird theme park. Look how other cities have changed and for the better. No longer do people have to commute to work and be apart from their families, London is not just for work - but homes too occupy many central areas in new apartments. Who would have thought so much would be done to discourage the car and welcome in more options for those than just having transport by car.
Thatcher was worse
@@spleeeen4it She was truly wonderful. So much so, we still are enjoying the benefits of her foresight today!
Filled with respect for the huge effort put into keeping the city moving: the hard work. Great documentary.
London has changed so much. I preferred it when I grew up back in North London and went to college, then out to work in Bond St. life seemed so much better than how I found London now whenever I go back for a visit.
I grew up in south west London
It's called getting older. I personally think London has changed overall for the best since my earliest memories of the early 80's. DLR, Jubilee extension, Overground, new rolling stock on numerous lines and now the Elizabeth line. I love that I can live in the East, visit friends and family East, North and West, work in the South and then enjoy central and more when off work 🎉
London was a great place to be in 1983.
No, it really wasn't. Maybe in the centre area but definitely not in parts of East London, parts of South East London, and parts of North London not sure about north west or south west London.
If you were rich
Yet here on the South Coast loads of people had moved here from London in the late 70s / early 80s.
Humans seem to have rose coloured spectacles about the past.
My Nan always said that "the War was the best years of her life" er no Nanny you were bombed out and lived in a tin hut until 1952 and GD said you moaned constantly about it but she swore blind it was great.
@@sarahmiller9528 . Out of interest. Who was “GD”?
@@edwardoleyba3075 GD = Gran Dad.
I remember my Dad telling me when he was in the R.A.F in 1944 he took his shoes to be repaired in a London Cobblers but forgot to go back and pick them up, last week I was in London and found the exact shop he had left them,I thought I would ( just for fun) ask if they still had Dads old shoes, man in the shop said," they'll be ready Tuesday ".
Thought it was gonna turn on to a J R R Hartley style comment for a minute
@@jamesjameson4566 who
@@j-roc6989 😭
@@jamesjameson4566 I remember the 'J R R Hartley' bit from those days, don't cry.👆
Everyone looked well-dressed. So good to see.
The London I loved has changed so much
your so English...say it ow it is...its been invaded by foreign scum...governments fault
How things have changed in 30+ years. I won't say any more than that. Except that I could cry.
Peter Gordon The glorious 80s, eh?
SC info bless you.
Peter Gordon It'll return one day.
@MusicalElitist1 Anti-white troll. Kindly address your brain wasting disease.
@@chrispatterson1019 ... Oh no it really will not, it'll never be as it was.
Back in the day when I was listening to Steve Right on RADIO 1 and dancing around to DURAN, WHAM and Jackson.
Culturally the big change has been the Internet but so many other things remain the same or have hardly moved on.
Community and living wise, like the rest of the Country, its a mess and slowly being destroyed.
Sad. Very very sad.
Thanks for posting.
Give me a time machine to go back to the late 70s / early 80s in London any day
Every...single...solitary....time.
People smoking on all public transport and in cinemas
Fuck that 🤢
Every single shot was staged as a part of this glazed hazed over rose tinted info-doc that totally isnt lighthearted propaganda of a time long gone. This is dxactly what they wanted you to think, but the time was very different
when you find one give me a call !!!!!
I think the quality of the video makes us feel nostalgic and in another place of mystery 😂if you was actually placed in London at that time you would see it’s not that amazing compared to now
Born in 1956 ,,, 1st job in 1973 in a central London estate agent ,,, I remember loving the summer ,, getting into work early , watching the town wake up & come alive ,, 67 years old now ,, London is now a very different place in many ways ,, sadly Londoners are now unrecognisable to how it was !!
this randomly popped up on my recommendations and god I'm glad it did! look how proud the British people once was! it's beautiful
This is such a charming little film, thanks for sharing it. Wonderfully put together!
The first time I went to London was somewhere in 1993 when I was 6. I don't remember much. The second time I went there was the summer of 1995 and I remember there was a noticeable difference between then and now. I imagine everything was simpler in 1983.
EU started in 1993.
The good old days in London. Brings back so many good memories.
All dead now yet still alive in endless time, endless art. Lovely film thanks.
‘ All dead now…’ uhm, nah, it was only 1983.
For everyone querying the date, it’s 1983 that this film was made and broadcast. It says it quite clearly at 16:40
Obviously some footage was from other times, but it is a 1983 documentary.
I loved the titling on the destination board. As British as Open All Hours.
This programme may have been made I 1983 but obviously lots of the footage is from different eras, from the 1950's onwards.
Wow, actual Londoners when they still lived in London 😲 It hardly looks like the same city today.
Getting rid of the trolleybuses was one of the most misguided decisions of the immediate postwar years. The great smog of the early 50s should have been a warning of future traffic pollution. Even though much of the smog was caused by smoke from factories mixed with fog.
And the coal that was still being used to heat people's homes.
They were removed in the 60s
Many other cities replaced trolley busses with diesels. Not a good idea in hindsight. But when coal fired power stations were making the power, the CO2 and pollution was simply shifted back into town with diesels..
This video's transitions are top-notch for example at 13:20
I also liked the information of course, as well as the filming. Especially, the timing aspect of this scene at 7:52
And finally, the end credits are very well thought out 16:08
All and all very delightfully well-put-together video!
And ladies dressed so well.
@MusicalElitist1 some of them do..but majority looks like bitches..or some look like guys ... and some guys looks like ladies as well. back then people looked more simple and human . now everyone is clever and unique :D
@@TheZiggiz and I like that people are unique its more interesting and it shows the human in them even more. Back then people bottled up their emotions and didn't express them selves which is unhealthy.
@@orangeflipgram6549
Today, more people than ever are committing suicide, so that shows than far fewer are expressing their emotions now, partly because of the oppression of political correctness with its ‘you can’t say that’ and ‘ you’re sacked because some freak has been offended’.
I was 20 years old then great times
You've seen better times for sure
@@popindosin228 NO I HAVE NOT
me too i'm 57 now
Me as well good times unlike now
I was 19
Bring back that type of London!!!
And you see!!! We didn't have mobile phones or Internet those days Yet things did work very very well and if we enjoy what we have today its because of those years!!!
I moved to London back in 1999/2000 and I can see how much this city has changed soo much in the last 20 years and not so much in a better way unfortunately.
Funny thing that. I was well into LT and it's buses as a youngster. We moved North in 72 so to me these 80's shots are of a London changed in just ten years, 'new' red phone boxes, roundels on the bus fleet instead of gold London Transport. So, a new picture of the Capital even though its now so dated (!)
Well Britain has voted for paradise and unicorn farming so everything will be great on the other side of New Year. 😉
@@bokhans . And you’re content to be ruled by a bunch of egotistical, overpaid, self serving idiots - enjoy 😉
@@danbaltic9678 what natives?
@@oomz1975 indigenous Britons descendants of Anglo-Saxon and Celtic tribes
Thanks so much for posting this. Sure, it's easy to carp on about the good old days, but honestly, I was there in the 70s and 80s and London then really did have a character and feel to it that doesn't exist any more. But hey-ho, things change.
Good old days, I wish people had the same sense of pride these days
Great Video of this 80's video
My first trip to London was the summer of 1982. I remember it well. Still alot of punk rockers still on the tube.
Me too. I was 5 years old then
Can you believe it’s 39 years since this was filmed
Looking at the contents of the average platform then to now, something has gone drastically wrong
It’s now 40 years
Such an informative documentary. My Father also worked on the underground as a guard on the district line, till tubes became driver only. But London now isn't the same as the London l grew up in!!. I like so many others squeezed out and forced to move away!!.....................
It's not right, our capital city needs more Mary's
Not one niqab!! No knife attacks. No grooming gangs.
....no racists...
IRA, Jimmy Saville, Gary Glitter, Fred West. Was an awesome place. Doh!
Absolutely love watching old London as it was,very interesting and very well narrated.
London's population in 1983 was roughly 6 million, by 2021 it will reach close to 10 million. roughly 2 million increase alone happened between 2001-2016, That's a short space for a such a rapid increase of people in a dense area, And people wonder why buses are running late, the tube on some busy stations have to close the gates for crowd control, The system isn't designed to cope with this many people.
4 million? I just can't imagine how many problems this can generate.
A fair amount of the increase has been replacing industrial areas (Colindale, Nine Elms,) and new sites - marshy Barking Riverside , Dagenham and Beckton Area along with the amount of higher tower blocks. Plus all the little shops into 3 storey flats.
London population is roughly 12 million and looking to increase in years to come .
I like the simple things,like how people have newspapers under their arms and no one is looking at their phones constantly. (I know there wasn’t mobile phones then)
I know what you mean. Mobile phones are great in a way but it has made people less sociable.
I remember men in bowler hats off to work on the tube behind their large morning newspapers in the 60's.
For the moment I use a normal non-smart phone. Sometimes it can be anoying, because you can't acces information, but sometimes is fine, because I feel free.
Worse of all, some people are looking on the screen while driving or riding the bicycle.
@@serenacameron3359 ...Yes, and I also remember men on the tube in the early 1970s in their suits with flared trousers going off to the office, with umbrella hanging over their arm and newspaper tucked up beneath their arm pits. Also many of them had longer hair than the ladies 😂
@@zeeteavathepipe3184
I don’t have a mobile phone now. They stopped selling pay-as-you-go sim cards, plus I wasn’t using it enough. The last time I was in Edinburgh, there was still a few public telephones around, so I might just leave off buying another “smart” phone.
1983?? Very 60s in style and presentation
Jack Sargent yes
Agree! The music doesn't help...it's very dated, even for 1983. And the narration is also very old fashioned even for then. It's like watching a video of 1980's London with a narrator that recorded his words 20 years earlier.
E
Exactly what I was thinking
Agree. I Lived in London mid 80s, and it just didn't look like this.
Let's all praise the beauty of diversity which has made today's London better than ever. Smarter, friendlier, better educated, more polite, and of course, safer.
Said no one ever.
1981 the year I was born. It's feels like it's either 50s or the 60s while I was watching Moving London.
Much of it is, old films from way before 1983, just happened to be published then.
Thank you for this video. Bought back memories of when I was a kid. I still remember the smell of bus smoke and hot tyres as a toddler. Every tube line train had its own unique smell. Just a few months ago there was a one day special of all the old buses running in East London, that was amazing. I wonder if they could do that with the trains.
For the trains they have quite a few units on heritage railways and all that, the Epping and Ongar Railway in Essex (I think) has some and the Isle of Wight railways had some but were replaced, all the units were transferred to the Isle of Wight steam railway instead, so there’s some there. Not sure if they’re running or in the museum but you can still go in them.
Is that Basildon, Essex that we see in this video (when the narrator refers to 'new towns, away from the city'?
I enjoyed watching this. Very interesting look back on life in Britain.
As a Londoner since 1999 i have seen so much change and I still love the is city
Great video I like watching videos from the past its always nice to see how life was back then compared to what it is now
still proud to be one last còckneys born in bow in 1947 used to go and get. pie and mash for my old lady on Fridays good luck from dangerous brian
The year I was born. 😊 Proud to be born in such a wonderful city as London
Yep, love London.
Same here. I'm not proud of it in the state it's in now. The majority of people born there aren't either. Incredibly sad, but London will be back one day. Unfortunately, probably not in our time.
vermilion J 🧕💣💥
@@chrispatterson1019 ... London is still a fantastic and beautiful city, the problem is the people that now reside there are not proud of their city, the problem is not that the city has changed but that the people have changed and have no pride in their city anymore. London hasn't gone anywhere so how can it as you say "be back one day" ... Its here as its always been, and is like any big city for ever changing, its peoples rose coloured glasses that are the problem, as they keep one living in the past, that's fine but you have to realise that nothing stays the same and everything progresses and is renewed, that may not always be for the better, but that really comes down to peoples individual perceptions, London will always be a beautiful city and always has been.
Same... born in 1983
I used to go for rides around London on the buses without telling anyone I loved to travel.
I used to go to Hainault quite a bit and then get a bus to Chigwell Row , interesting to see the first train to go on the loop there. Loved the old buses and be able to jump on and off at the back , more fun 👍
A very archaic style for 1983...the retiree narrative character probably reflects what was on the minds of the filmmakers...40 years of educational shorts behind them...big library of footage to compile from.
+spencer hardy I produced this film. As we had to rely on the British Transport Films archive for much of the film it seemd sensible to us e the technique of presnting it through the eyes of a retired employee. The script was written by Norman Prouting hwo had supplied scrpits for BTF sinc ethe early 1960s. Sadly Norman died the very day we recored the voice over with Frank Middlemass.
Interesting film. Did you produce any more films like this, and are they available to watch online?
During a ten year period I worked on a number of films for LT and LUL. Those that were publised include: Brill to Baker Street, Sweet Retun, Getting to Grips.
Sound like porn titles.
A retired gentleman's reflections on the advent and changes of transport in a city he served for 50 years. How 'dya expect the narrative to go?
This is what life was like for our parents when they were our age.
I was born in 1983. London was a whole different place back then ❤️
1980 born... Agree a whole different place... Much better now overall! ❤
I could afford to live there back then
Some of this film is a lot older than 1983
Thanks for posting this it was amazing
It's a bit unsettling to see the original wooden escalators still in use in 1983. In 1987, a wooden escalator at King's Cross caught fire from a discarded cigarette, killing 31 people. As a result, London Transport began replacing all of the wooden escalators in the entire Underground.
And the slats on those wooden escalators were always full of cigarette ends.
Smokers will always be selfish. Quoi de neuf
I love that the passenger(s) at 11.10 are politely standing aside to LET PEOPLE OFF THE TRAIN FIRST, as any sensible person would. Nowadays you see idiots standing in the way trying to get on first. unfortunately the intelligence of some people has regressed since the 80s rather than advanced.
@@pennywatson8710 Yeah, why?
The CloneX2 ... Its a simple case of people were far better mannered back in the 1970s and 1980s than they are today, people really were far nicer back then, today people just seem to ignore each other, people were far friendlier back then, society wasn't so me, me, me back then.
@@martinwebb5588 . I think it’s called ‘self entitled’. 😉
I don,t want to be judgemental but: some people of third world origin don,t have western manners.....that's why You see from time to time: stampedes at their religious celebrations, where people are killed by mindless idiots with no manners. I myself have opened doors, and gone out of my way to help mainly women of this ilk.......and have received no thanks for my trouble. And judging by footage of oxford street etc: half of London seems to be full of people of this ilk.
Import it, become it
This time machine thing reminds of a story I heard about a man in B and Q .. Man : "Excuse me, do you still have any of those paints that were on special offer ?" Assistant : "I'll go and look." ( Is gone for 15 minutes ). "No, sorry, sold out. We had loads last week." Man : "Well, that's useful information, isn't it ? Do you have a time machine ?" Assistant : "I'll go and look." Man ( Lunges at him ).
brilliant video thanks for sharing
Massive nostalgia for me, I in the 70's rode the cushions of every in service RT and RM that LT operated including the 4 RM expresses that ran out of a unlisted garage in Penge that were hired out for other duties, also did all the Red Arrows when Merlin's and again when they were Leyland National's and then did all the LT Nationals, MCW's etc in late 70's adding their numbers to what became a telephone book of bus numbers lol Even the LC routes like the 410 I rode often and that was a hoary old ride in the old RT's going down Biggin Hill and the panicked expressions of the driver, more fun going up as driver and following traffic invented new swear words as the wheezy old things used to crawl up that incredibly steep hill hehe I do despair at the abject mess made of today's London, it used to be such a lively, friendly place but today seems to be full of people sneering at them with a penny less and fawning at those with a penny more as me nan would have said and she was a bus driver during the war, got a medal too for saving passengers when her bus got bombed.
14:01 Harrow Bus Station, looks exactly the same today from that angle!
I have a quiet fondness for our transport system
Miss T.E.A. Many people do !
Much better in those day's.
How London has changed, and at such a pace, the indigenous Angelo Saxons are now a minority in our once great Capitol.
GOOD TIMES GONE BY.
Thank you for uploading. The video was very informative and interesting to know the history of London Transport.
I miss the 1980s transports very much, what a sad they're changed right now is, 2023 is all long gone! :(
There's strange disconnect between the video and the commentary. The video is from 1983 but the commentary sounds like it's from the 1950s. Most peculiar.
Great piece of nostalgia, shame the city has lost its soul.
The “soul” is still there! It’s up to the people to ensure it REMAINS😉
the camera quality even for 1983 seems like the film was made in 50s or early 60s
only that Jubilee line poster and the dot matrix gave me an idea that this is the 80s
It's not long ago the old London. I feel the change sped up in mid 90s onwards. As a child I just about remember the old London when visiting around 1992
EU started in 1993.
What a nice little show. Lovely
I remember piccadilly line ending at Cockfosters.
American here; the city south of the Thames is still kinda under-served by the Tube, right?
Yes, that is right. It did extend to Brixton in 1971 and that is about it. Completely different in North London.
I feel like weeping as virtually (99.9% ) of people in this video shared by White/British Culture. Now only one child in 10 in 2016 was identified as " White/British" all in under 40 years but I DID see the change coming as I lived near Brixton and left soon after The 1981 Riots. I moved to The London Suburbs with most of these people it seems. I was not wrong as there was a smaller Brixton Riot only last week with a Police trashed with a pickaxe....
Yes, one reason is that the geology is different and it is much more expensive to construct a deep “Tube”.
@@Isleofskye one more Brexit racist has spoken. Well your paradise will come after December last. All the bloody foreigners, like the Scandinavia au pairs is kicked out and you can enjoy your Tory government and all their Indian ministers.
One of the most interesting films I've ever watched! Thank you whoever put that on. I was completely lost in it , my two passions are history and old transport 🥰
This can't be true, the BBC keep telling us England, particular London has had a large ethnic community since Tudor times and before, the buss drivers don't look ethnic but it's only 1983 we're told they'd all been ethnic for at least 20 years by this time, how could they have built Britain for us?
Ethnic doesn't just mean non-white folk chief.
@@oomz1975 what does it mean then. I thought ethnicity was most definitely what colour you were. Religion is something different.
thanks very much for uploading Joanne
This would be a fantastic resource for our Year 6 classes as part of their London & Brighton geography and history topic! Following the changes to transport over the years; how the city grew; links to historical events; building their own map of the underground lines over time; researching what has changed in London transport since 1983 and comparing then to the present day. and spotting some of the famous landmarks.
Can anyone explain why they got rid of the trams?
Iron tracks in the roadways?
The background music is very 50s.
Great video - thanks Joanne.
Is that Bernie Winters narrating ?
Lovely little film.
Stayed in the Mount Royal Hotel London 1983 came for a revisit golden memories 🎉🎊🙏
Is the uploader of this video any relation of the bloke in this video?
Where’s his Freedom Pass 1:10 ?
A fascinating watch... thanks for uploading! I do miss London Transport's glory days... as a youngster going on family holidays to Hastings we would always know we were 'in the country' when we started seeing green RT's instead of red ones from our car window... happy days indeed!
I moved to London in 1981, it was fabulous. It was also the year of the first race riots if I recall, so not all harmony. Upon balance I still prefer London then. Routemaster buses, by far better!
I m fascinated as bout videos like this I freaking love it
Thanks for posting!!
went there in late July of that year. Great trip. lack of ice was rough.
I hope then flutist & oboe player are still getting royalties for their stellar blowing efforts on this one
The clips has fragments from throughout the 20th century NOT 1983.
In 1983 I was five years old. I remember seeing people smoking 🚬 on the trains. I remember the busy interchange at a station that looked like the central Line with my mum. A man got off and his cigarette burnt my hand. The older underground trains smelt a certain way and the seats were more comfortable. Back then we were paying cash 💰 fares
If I remember correctly, from my 'Red Rover ticket' days, those Red Arrows could really shift!
That was London's answer to the RE,s what we had in the west country especially Bristol we had REs in Stroud I think that Luton had them as well ether so it is an eastern town just 25 miles north of London they can really shift
Red Rover tickets, care free days of jumping on and off those wonderful Routemaster buses ... they were the days, when you would get told off by the conductor for hanging out the side of the bus gripping the handle, and then once you got off shouting a mouthful of abuse at them ... wonderful forgotten insults such as Tosser, Wanker, old git, and worse, oh how those conductors must have just loved us kids 🙂
Same ! Swifts/Merlins. Blue destination screens.
Would happily get in a time machine now and kiss modern world goodbye.
The ambience of the clip feels like something from an earlier decade.
8:54 Behind the No.9 Routemaster bus a red 'Holies Car' better known as a Vauxhall Victor. Probably the best car ever built because it is so American looking. Hardly see any now a days
I haven't seen a bus in ages now you come to mention it!!
Only joking - I know you meant the car
I use number 9 every now and then
Just for the record this is a 1960s film, probably made in 1983, but all of the vehicles, fashion, street furniture, shops are 1960s
Love the handle! ‘Donkeys Thingies’! Wish I’d thought of that 😉
@@edwardoleyba3075 👍🏼
@@bonkeydollocks1879 . I’m going to try for ‘bogs dollocks’. I’ll let you know if I get away with it 😉
@@edwardoleyba3075 I tried that but everybody had heard of it or had it, so I went for my own twist on it, I tried cooking fat too..... Was a bit ott I thought 😅
@@bonkeydollocks1879 . Oh. Higging Frell. I’ll have to try something else 😉
The fackin good ol’ days!
I lived in Liverpool at this time , but I spent a couple of years in my formative years in Canning Town / Custom house.. they were brilliant times, if only I had a time machine, just to see my gorgeous girlfriend again.
he sounds a bit like sid james
Wow, yeah he does!
Denholm Elliot I think.