What it was like to live in Great Britain in the 1960s
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.พ. 2025
- The ‘Swinging Sixties’ remain the defining decade for Britain. In just ten short years, London had transformed from the bleak, conservative city, only just beginning to forget the troubles of the Second World War, into the capital of the world, full of freedom, hope and promise. It was the centre of all excitement; the city where anything and everything was possible.
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What it was like to live in Great Britain in the 1950s th-cam.com/video/3udttIVXiEk/w-d-xo.html
A darn sight better than it now!!!
8 years old running amok
@@cathybrind2381those really were the days. Not like now or likely to be again.
Long hot summers, thunderstorms at night to clear the air, freedom. Bobby on the beat, women and children were mostly safe. Good old days, good music to
Yes safe walk the streets home from pubs and clubs even in 7os. I was teenager . Me n mate walked home from the dance hall. No probs, no skum then like now.
@@beverlygannon4141Because of the government importing tens of millions of foreigners in our country. There were some pockets of immigrants back then but it was nowhere near as bad as it is now. It looks like India where I live and where I used to live it now looks like Lagos. I have also visited lots of other areas that look foreign, in the west of Basildon it looks like Africa now, surprised to see what a dump it has become, kind of brings tears to my eyes. Clacton nowhere near as bad but I am starting to see some immigrants in the Point Clear area and around the pier area. More and more immigrants with each visit.
@iesrooExactly! Wish we could go back to those good old days of Jimmy Savile and Gary Glitter 😢.
@sboth. Got. Jailtime. outhlondon86
Born 1949 so a teenager through the 60’s. That was a great time.👍
Born 1948. It was a wonderful time to be alive. We were the focus of the world. So many amazing things were happening. It was like an awakening after a huge hibernation. Short skirts, music to drive anyone over 40 mad, Carnaby Street, Beatles, and most importantly, pride in our country and flying the Union Jack was a mark of pride, not of shame. Women were women, men were men, boys were boys and girls were girls, they were mothers and fathers and no -one queried that. Children left school able to read and write They were taught British history and there was a Gideons bible in every hotel room. ! Oh the difference is endless!
@@dulciemidwinter1925 agree
@@dulciemidwinter1925 I was born in 1948 too and I can relate to every word in your comment.
Another 49er. makes my heart ache for the youngsters of today, Britain was a magical place to be young back then, full of fun and hope, pretty girly girls, laughter, great music we thought anything was possible in our world. It is not looking back through rose coloured glasses, it was a kinder more caring Britain, we felt special in a special country we loved.
Same here!
My entire teen years were in the 1960s. It was a fabulous time for music and fashion and for living life generally. Britain has gone severely downhill since the end of the 1970s.
Same here. I did like some of the music of the 1980's, but the rot started to set in towards the end of that decade.
Totally agree, even the music is rubbish now, thank God we had the best Britain could give and the best of times.
absolutely correct 10/10 100%
You people are crazy, the 80's and 90's were amazing, everything started to go downhill in the 00's and especially started to go downhill exponentially around 2008 when smartphones and social media took off.
Born in 1952 , 60s was brilliant
Same age, and really loved the 1960's/70's with all the freedom. Living in the UK was great up to the 1980's. But we both started to get really fed-up living in the UK during the 90's, so finally escaped in 2003 for good ! With no regrets.😎
@@cyprusman5908 ditto ,1999 I left happy n content in Portugal
@@garrydust1701 Portugal is nice. Madeira looks good as well. We don't know WTF we are when we go back to the 'YUK' now, and can't believe that we were actually born there during the early 1950's. Because the country has completely lost its identity.😏
I was born in 1952 - 6 weeks after Elizabeth became Queen. Oh, it was a good time to be alive. We were the last of a now vanished world and had no idea how lucky we were.
@@tri5ia That's true, but maybe it was a good thing that we didn't know or it would have spoilt it all, dreading what was to come. It seemed like Britain ruled the world back then.
I grew up in the 1950s and 60s. People were mostly polite and courtious and the girls were slim and pretty without all those hidious tattoos and piecings. Baby boomers have had the best years. It was a great time to be young.
Totally agree about the tats. No women had them then. They’re gross
@@henrysmith883 I totally agree also, imagine looking forward to a french kiss with a girl, only to discover an ugly lump of metal through her tongue.
dont forget the sows rings through their noses.
@@sidneydawe9937 yes Im woman I agree. Good times. And years. . One person may of had one tattoo. Never liked them . Just gross. Horrid
YES, us girls knew how to dress nice makeup , not like the pantomime dames with ugly eye brows and silly long eye lashes , l could go on 😅😅😅
Great time growing up in the 60's - Many good memories!
Born in Coventry 1947. In my late teens it felt safe to go into Town at the weekend, and just as safe to walk home after missing the last bus. Not now.
If I told it as it is now I would be called a racist and thrown off this site.
I feel so sorry for today's teenagers their great grandparents never fought for this.
I was born in 1948 and can relate to your comment. As for telling things as you see them, I think people should be entitled to their own opinions whether others agree or not. We can still debate without hate.
77yrs old now but back in the 60's I was a mod with my stay pressed trousers, Ben Sherman's and Brogues complete with my Lambretta having a good bundle down the coast, no knives or machetes just fists, great day's never forgotten 😢😢
Naturally pretty girls, wonderful fashion, everybody smiling , no rubbish on the streets , no mobile phones, no computers (bliss) polite youngsters and children, we took things for granted thinking nothing was going to change, it would always be the same as we’d always known it. How wrong we were, the world itself is still beautiful it’s the people and the way of life that is unrecognisable. Progress has not been for the better😢
There was no rubbish in the TV also and it went off at midnight end of....
@@AnnetteRead-m4k agree. It's the government as well that r shit.too. terrible now. I'm 69
@@lindawatts5102 I remember watching the film clips of the royal family and the playing of the national anthem at the end of the broadcasts. When you switched the set off, a white dot would appear and gradually disappear in the centre of the screen.
...and for girls, the pill. The freedom to choose, without the risk.
@@GeeCeeWU loving your masters ... they are an invading organised crime family who have stolen everything they own. unelected parasites who prevent democracy and enslave you in their capitalist debt system
Most biggest popular decade of the 20th century. I'm sure i would've had such a brilliant time if i was alive as a full grown adult in Great Britain in those days but unfortunately i was born in the mid 80s which i reckon was the wrong time so i'll never know what it was like to be alive in the swinging 1960's.
Me too. Born in 1963, but too young to remember the 60s, so 70s and 80s for me.
I were born in North London 1960 and so have fond childhood memories of the 1960s and the 60s was the decade when social change began to take place in Britain.
Social change was initiated by the Atlee government 45-51 then further implemented by the Churchill/McMillan government which followed attempting to restore some vibrancy to the post-war economy. The sixties were the first expression of this new found freedom and economic stability - you needed bread to buy the gear and the records and go to the concerts with new venues opening up everywhere and ads on TV and theatres and cinemas closing down because they were no longer viable : the perfect climate for dumbing down to be born and then thrive
I was born in the 70s sisters were born in the 50s and 60s the good old days❤✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️
Fresh baked bread delivered, milkman, corona man, penny loose, hired washing machines, hired T.Vs . Didn’t have a lot but we where so happy….. Never too be seen again.
cows raped and calves seized from their mothers at birth and sent for slaughter-thats your milkman
Born 1951 great times through the 60s thanks for the memories 👍
I was a teen in the 60s and it was the best years of my life 67-68 and never to be repeated, I was so cool also 😂😆
I was born in 1949 - Life in the 60s was Fab, Gear & Cosmic! Great clothes, hairstyles and music - London was great.
Good days i was CHILD . IN 1970 i was 15 . Lost in space ,loved it, The seventies was good for me, ..good groups ,Good music. Safe to walk the streets home at least 50 mins to walk from the dance hall. In London . It was brilliant. Wish i cud go back, this country's a mess now.... 😡😭❤🙏
....and for girls, the pill. The freedom to choose and live their lives.
Much more civilised than now.
Indeed. But now we have muslims!
tell that to the victims of the krays and the moors murdererers and the childen raped in care homes
civilisation has yet to begin. 22,000 people die daily from poverty and hunger
Bloody marvellous always something to do anytime of the day or night glad I lived it.🎉
You could walk out of one job and into another on the very same day.
I moved to London in 67 so lovely fun and free boys were boys and girls were girls so sad now
I was born in 1950. So the 60s, were, for me, from the age of 10 to 20. Great stuff. Great music, the King's Road, no speed cameras, etc.
100% better than it is now !
It was wonderful, I am glad I was a teenager in the 60s, I am 80 now and I look backwith nostagia. This was a time when people could demonstrate peacefully in support of their beliefs and remain on mostly good terms with the police. Women and girls were much safer then.
Do you remember the CND ban the bomb marches from London to Aldermaston?
Best time of my life, 🌈☕️, 71, now , so Blessed
Spent most of the 60's in London in my 20's. Fantastic times
I was born in 1955 and growing up in the 60s when there was hardly a sign of the troubles there are nowadays.
I loved the old pop pictures with the bubblegum the Christmases when you didnt have to ask what you wanted but " Santa" knew what you would like.
The simplicity of it all and the love in your home made you feel warm inside.
The music, I specifically remember when I was six after Sunday lunch my mam and dad watching a film in the afternoon, so many great memories, I only wish the world had stayed like that
The high streets had real shops like butchers, bakers, greengrocers and hardware stores and, of course, the inevitable newsagent/tobacconist/sweetshop (rather than charity shops, barbers, tattooists, nail bars etc.). They closed on Sundays and each town also had early closing, usually Wednesday or Thursday when all the shops closed for the afternoon. There were also electrical retailers who had many TV sets in the window constantly turned on and around 4:45pm on a Saturday a group of people would assemble, watching the football results come through on the teleprinter. There were lots more pubs and they were real pubs then, focused on selling beer, not food. They had restricted opening hours, but they all opened all the hours they were allowed to - none of this not opening Mondays or not opening until 5pm. Music came on 7" singles and 12" albums and the charts were meaningful then. Just two, then becoming three, TV channels, but what they produced was much better - especially the sitcoms. No wokery. No political correctness. No social media. Happy times.
i have been lucky enough to have lived through some amazing times being born in 1961 yeah times where so different to now //people looked at the sky instead of being buried in a mobile smh x
I was born same year, sixties beats the lot, school days and even school dinners so much better then now I'm certain.
Born the same year. Loved the late 60s and into the 70s. Wouldn’t have changed it for the world. Police driving Hillman Imps, dunno how they fitted into the things, they all seemed to be well dressed giants, not the scruffy tramps you see purporting to be coppers these days. Last time England football team won owt, says it all.
An old farmer said to me when i was a lad ,you lads have got it made for you with those miniskirts ! You can start up where i used to finish off 😂😂😂😂😂
Sometimes the journey can be more enjoyable than reaching the destination.
Farmers ain't changed much!
Born ‘54. Slightly too early to get the best from it, but I caught up, just as the 70’s were starting.
It was generally fun and safe, with hope looming in the future.
I’ve was very fortunate.
Excellent music. Good comedy on the tele. Pre house price hike.
What could go wrong?
The 70’s was the start of the very slow crumbling of all that had briefly been so good.
@@expressoevangelism80 : Yes, great times and girls, shame about the STD's though.
@@expressoevangelism80 : Yes, when a house was a home not a commodity eh?
@@sirjohng1 I remember Subscriber Trunk Dialing. 😊
I was a teen/young man in the Sixties and what hits me the most in these photos is the huge difference in colours. Back then the fashions were vibrant and colourful.
Today - boring, tedious and doleful black everywhere you look. Coupled with the overwhelming eyesore of tattoos and the youth of today haven't a bloody clue, really.
I was born in 1950. In the 1960's we had great womens fashion, fabulous music and sensational cars and terrific technology.
I would go back in a second and start again from there.
Wait for me, I want to join you.
@@GeeCeeWU "Profers hand..."
The guys look great too. ❤
How did that Fab magazine from 1979 slip in. The big giveaway clue was the price was in post decimalisation. Great trip down memory lane.
Good question!
A shot of a Jag XKS slip in too. They went made until 1975
I used to read a magazine called 'Rave'. I wish I still had them now, they'd be worth a small fortune.
Also the photo of the yellow price posters was from the seventies because 20P (pence) came in in 1971 should have been 1s 9d
Born in 1945, absolute privilege to have lived through the 60s , the music, the fashions, every time went to pub always got invited to a party, the dance halls, amazing time to meet people, jobs were easy, could go for interview in my lunch hour, get the job offered there and then, go back give my notice in, they would then offer me pay rise to stay, London was so safe, travelling on tube trains as a teenager was never a problem, didn’t have any fear of going anywhere , loved it
Girls dressed better and where better looking than today
Absolutely.
Yes, and they weren't covered in tattoos and piercings.
@@pete6645 or as fat as barage balloons.
Born in 49 take me back anytime
You need to see The Doctor.
The only people who would not agree, are too young to know any better.
@@GeeCeeWUYou could then easily
@@jamesjackson7844 Yes absolutely and you didn't need a Tardis.
5:30 In 1965 I worked with a woman who chain smoked Capstan Full Strength. She'd been a landlady in charge of her own pub and used to tell us, "there was never any trouble in my Pub.....three things I banned was talking about politics, religion or sex". Blimey!! We believed her as well as she was quite a formidable character with arms like Popeyes!
Salt of the earth.
Bring back the mini! Of course ladies now would have to slim!!
@TerenceMalone-i3h, the only bad thin about the mini was, those slim girls stopped wearing stockings and suspenders.
@@Behwyelzebub I agree, I would rather have left the skirts a bit longer if it meant keeping the stockings.
What about the men as well, wow those tight trousers that they wore! unfortunately they got baggier through the years!
@@Devon-r1f We used to call them drainpipes.
Nice nostalgic video, but definitely not all 60's. There was a 1971/2 Ford Capri in there, decimal currency that came in during 1971 & a FAB magazine from 1979! But still really enjoyed it - thank you
Ok friends ❤😄
Born in 1950, so the sixties were for me billiant. I served my apprenticeship as an electrician, qualifying in 1971. There must have been bad times but I really don't remember them. Society seemed much more caring, people all had fun, we could do with some fun about now!!!
@mike-jy9pz. Those were the days when an appreticeship meant something. the last thing your employer wanted, was for you to leave after five years, unlike the later YTS type scheems. The other thing was, we worked with men who became our mentors, they used to talk about their wives and kids, and home making, not fighting and stealing cars. So we had our fun, then grew up into responsible adults'
The British people looked healthier and happier.
And white!
Return to the 60s yes I would do that now Loved every minute of it so many happy memories
Bring back the 60s! Life was full of love, hope and improvement. The GP was a friend of the family. Our front door in South London was always open to friends and neighbours. There were the Balham Boys and cigarettes, so it was not perfect, but beautiful. I could walk to school without risk!
I was born in 1947, so grew up in the safe, subdued fifties. Teenager in the swingin' sixties, worked in Carnaby Street in the seventies, then when it all fell apart in the eighties I moved to Los Angeles. I think my timing was good!
No obese, No tattoo, No torn pants, No purple hair ………..No attitude ❤️🌹
I feel lucky ,having been a teenager in the late 60s .Feel sorry for my 14yr old grandson , facing afuture I cannot see improving .The atmosphere when out in the streets has an underlying sense of menace now , that wasn't there in the sixties
Cold in winter no central heating
We had solid fuel fires with a back boiler to heat the water.
A lot better than it is today, by a long shot.
I remember coming home on leave at the age of sixteen you coulld have a good night out for ten shillings
So much nicer in so many ways, I miss those days.
Those days are gone forever.
I was in my twenties then so remember then very well indeed.
You will never know unless you were there.
Before Britain was bullied into feeling bad about itself and it's heritage.
Remembered some of this with fondness. A question: Will the youngsters of today look back in 50 years and have the same feelings about the more restricted, controlled, chaotic world of today? I wonder... 🤫 ps: the things that jumped out were, how slim and healthy looking both the kids and adults were and in public spaces how smartly dressed! ☺
I was born in 63 so I remember the late 60s but still too young to really appreciate it, however what I do remember was indeed FAB!
It was bloody great , gillie now 70yrs old never see the like again ❤❤😊
Bloody brilliant, had a great childhood then teenage years in the late 60s.
Time fly so make the best of it before is too late!
I was a teenager in the 60's and it was great music, live bands and being amongst women that looked like women. Hardly any overweight girls that have tattoos or rings and studs in every orifice like today's generation.
No ulez or Sadiq Khan!
It was good in the 70s no Gaza marches no stabbings like now pretty girls slim and lovely.
No tatoos and piercings
And I don't remember any fat girls then.
The music was better as well.
The men were slimmer too and smarter in nice shirts and waistcoats etc, not like todays men in trakky bottoms and scruffy baggy t shirts
I was there. It could not be beat! Remember a day.
I was born in 1958 so the 60s were my childhood years born in north London happy times, ready steady go was my favourite programme 😊
I'm pretty sure you'd of been dead a long time if you were born in 1058😂
@@chriswatts1680 😂😂😂 1958 I meant to say oops 😁
Was born in 54 and remember the sixties well, particularly my older sisters girlfriends and the mini skirts they used to wear 👍
People look slimmer, healthier and happier than today .
Now UK society reassembles one massive psychiatric hospital !
Always good to take a walk down memory lane and protect ones sanity .
Give it another 20 year's and you won't recognise the place 😃
I don't recognise it now.
No trout pouts no going shopping in your dressing gown and pyjamas no men wearing dresses and calling themselves Susan what a great time to be alive
Very very few humpa lumpa people in the 60s
Up to 1968 everything was fine everywhere in the world.😢
A hellava lot better than these days.
I was a teenager in the 1960s. This was a pretty good representation of the time. We were still recovering from the war years (hence the many tatty bomb sites and rundown buildings) but there was a great sense of growth and change in the air. What is hard to portray in pictures is the freedom to do and say what we wanted without the censorship and mind control that is so prevalent in todays world. Girls seemed to have softer natures in those days too. And of course, the wild fashions and the music !!!!! They really were wonderful years to be young.
Gr eat decade lived it loved it..Before we imported Micky Ds. KFC. Pizzas. Im afraid a bunch of the women now would have to shed around 50 to 60 pounds to come anywhere close to how good they looked in the 60s
Decimalisation didn't start till 1971.
I had a Saturday job in a grocery / green grocers shop and had to help all the pensioners out with their change in the "new" money. Bless them.
Best years ever - from the mid 50’s on - notice how smartly dressed people are, and hardly any obese people - people had a pride in almost everything. Yes there were Teddy Boys and Rockers - and then the “mods”. I did not know anyone who carried a knife for example. Bicycle chains were carried but no one dare use them! I was told by an old lag I was sitting next to on his way yo a trial at the Bailey he never carried a weapon on any sort as there was the presumption that if you carried id then you must have an intention to use it and your sentence would be more severe. So how have we made such a mess of things? The pseudo intellectual liberal elite??
I was born in 1950 so spent my teens in the sixties. I knew it was a good time to be that age, but just didn't appreciate how good. The seventies weren't bad either.
No memory,I was not born till December 1978,Have seen something from the 60's,The old technology was even more bigger and more chunky back in them days,I heard that people could easly work some good hours back in the 1960 broght home a decent wage back in them days,They had enough to keep them well going,Unlike now days wont last 5 mins
7:35 Oh what a lovely sight for a working man to come home to.
Thanks👍
if only I had a time machine
Maybe you need to see the doctor.
Doctor Who?
@@fredcork1 Yes, that's the one.😄
People ate cleaner food. Less processed shite and people were generally slimmer and fitter.
The Beatles decade
Born in 1944. It was the abolition of National Service, being called up to the army at age 18, that caused the "Swinging Sixties", but it was all an illusion, and the 70's paid the price for it.
2:25 Sign in the TV shop window, said "Showing Every evening on Both Channels" lol 😂😅. I'm Guessing BBC1 and BBC2 ( unless it meant BBC1 and ITV)
It meant BBC and ITV.
Even after BBC2 appeared in 1964, coverage was restricted, and ordinary people didn't want the limited programming available anyway.
It was seen as ''high-brow', and kids at school who came from Guardian-reading families used to say 'BBC One' just to show us how 'posh' they were.
A good time to grow up as a Dawlish Infant School Student. We had so many great TV Programmes to watch. And everyone seemed happy and pleasant. I guess all that 60's Psychedelic Music and Fashion made Britain the place to be.😊👍
Thanks for the Spangles image, forgotten about some of those flavours, still miss all of them even the Old English. Nothing replaced them they just disappeared!
The best years. Even though money was tight! ❤
Totally fabulous
Everybody had a bit of money in a pocket back then
Things are so bad in the uk now, for me the 70s and 80s were the best times.
they were great days and the kids today have more but their lives are so dull in comparison....
It seems that we had England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and London making up Great Britain, according to this, but being born in the 40's oop norf here the 60's were probably even better. A 78 year old grump !!!!
a hell of a lot better than now I know iam 68
7:39 🎵Lovely Rita--Meter Maid🎵
you could still shop in your local highstreet. and not be forced to shop online, what a ghastly future we have in front of us, we don't even have freedom of asociation.
Brilliant motor bikes great
Yes, I was a mod though.
Rename it to what it was like to live in London in the 1960’s
Loved the 60s had great time the music was good had lots of fun and girls dressed like girls in shift dresses pretty mini skirts no joggers trousers had such fun at dances clubs best years so glad I was a teenager then!❤❤
We had an outside toilet when I was kid.
If only we could turn the clock back