I hear you I'm 43 myself. I use to travel from old kent road to trocadero with friends. I remember hearing trocadero's craziness from within the train station down below. It was amazing and so full of life.
Meetoo, I was 18 back then. I’d drive in from Grays most weekends during 6th Form, just to buy cd singles in the multitude of record shops, have a slap up meal, and maybe pay £9 to see a film at the Empire or Odeon. Such optimistic times! Piccadilly is now a shit show of tack and souvenir shops. Remember how popular Trocadero was with Sega World and the shops. The building’s been empty for God-knows-how-long now, and a colleague said the council have approved plans to turn it into a mosque!?
@@qewfsdsd65445 all the buildings? There are plenty of buildings in view that are definitely 20th century, including one that I worked in, so not sure what relevance that might have in terms of a city changing beyond architecturally, which isn’t what most people refer to when they say how much things have changed.
@@shaunsteele8244 apex of civilisation was years ago. we now have front row seats at the collapse of the west and being at the mercy of the east. does not bode well (read up on chinas century of shame at the hand of the british. They'll be loving whats coming).
London is way better now. You have diverse community which means that the sesh is propa auetntic. Me and the fellas can have sesh in Hckney then go to queer chem sex party down the mosque. Fookin tae wee patter
I was 21 in 1998. I honestly think the late 90s were the peak. We had enough technological advances but not so many that we didn’t still require a human touch. It was pre social media, pre smartphones. People had time for each other. Pubs and clubs were packed, the economy was getting better. Holidays were cheap, as were houses. I am so happy I lived through this time.
A lot of what you're describing there is just being young. I too was 21 in 1998. It was a period of prosperity and optimism, no doubt. But it was all built on a huge credit bubble that was waiting to burst. It was artificial. Of course, we didn't know that at the time and it seemed like we were moving into a much happier universe. It was very much the definition of a "fool's paradise," looking back.
I did the same thing. Whenever I had a week off work in which I didn't go abroad I would usually take a day-trip to London and spend a lot of time in the Trocadero playing the arcade games. I was very sad when that arcade was no more.
I was working in Piccadilly back in 1998, so this is so familiar. The scary thing is I still recognise some of the window displays. Anyone remember Foyles bookshop in the 90s when it was still a dingy (but always fascinating) secondhand bookshop?
Yes! The old Foyles was like a never ending hive of books piled all over the place. I remember the character it had through its untidiness. I found a few gems just lying in piles which I don't think I'd have found if looking for them on ordered shelves.
I worked in Foyles 96 to 97. Good times. I was interviewed for the job by Christina Foyle in her apartment above the shop. Danny LaRue used to park his Roller in the loading bay at times.
I was 14yrs old that year and I can remember the group stages of the world Cup. My little brother was born that year and he's about to turn 26. It feels like yesterday to me.
This was the London of my youth. I lived in the suburbs and around this time used to commute daily to the city for work. I rarely visit now when I do it's surprising how much it has changed (not for the better) in the intervening years. It isn't a huge amount of time in the scheme of things but enough for extremely noticeable differences. The world then seemed full of hope and possibility maybe it was the flush of youth but I think there was more to it than that. The place had feeling of the past but also an amazing future. Now it feels lost almost a pre apocalyptic. Thank you for posting and allowing me to remember happier and better times.
@@davidmccann9811 I did it back to front: Virgin Megastore, HMV, then Tower. 🙂 Edit - late 80s, I have to include Stateside comic book shop after Virgin Megastore (I think it was part of the store then?)
Those were the days.unlike this age,there was always a sense of tranquility down the streets,no matter how busy they might've been.and most people walked modestly and spoke quietly.having enjoyed this brilliant video immensely_well done to the gent who made it_,a great deal of nostalgia just keeps me smiling🌠🌠🌠🌠🌠
Wow, I worked at Cafe Pasta in Covent Garden in the 90s, it is like going back in time when London had character, now it is just like any other city. I miss that time greatly 😔
I was 22 in 1998... I remember all of that from studying around there... Things were much more quaint back then, and it's not even that long ago... A time when London was owned by Londoners... Not foreign countries... Thanks very much for the footage! X
Watching this 25yrs on is pretty nuts, was walking through Covent Garden 2 days ago, absolutely packed compared to 1998, the building upgrades in this footage were worth it!
I’m 1990. I held on to the 90’s for along time I carried it with me and tried to relive that era all the way to 2016, but now I’m starting to accept that it’s a different world now and that the 90’s is becoming a distant memory that is fading away 😑
I only remember it from the 80s. It looked very empty to me in 1998...in 1980 l was 13 and worked on Berwick st market. I often had to do small deliveries ti restaurants on a barrow to Covent garden, Piccadili circus etc.. Neal st was where most of londons Old market barrows were leased from and repaired.
I left the north east to go and work in London in 1998, I worked as a plumbers mate in the Royal Opera House pictured around the 3 minute mark. It doesn't seem that long ago to me but it was a quarter of a century ago now, how time flies. Thanks for sharing the video!
Maybe you briefly time-slipped back into 1998, before looking again 10 seconds later and realising there was no leaking water.....and the container was nowhere to be seen!!!
I worked in Trafalgar Sq at that time so walked all these streets most days. On my lunch break, out for drinks after work, weekend shopping jaunts (especially Tower Records!) Happy memories of an easier time. Thanks.
Seeing the neon signs in Piccadilly Circus seems very strange now. The Sanyo one was so iconic and was at one point the only remaining neon sign left until its removal in 2011.
Compared to this, modern London feels more like an airport terminal than a capital city. We’re giving away our history, our soul. Will we ever get back to this?
I enjoyed the film. Though I did go a bit giddy with the camera shaking and quick pans around. I did love to see mostly my people and no third world inhabitants on the streets. I was there last October and couldn't believe the amount of people now in these areas. It almost made me feel claustrophobic. I think that London 1998 was still a great place to live and visit. In the early 2000's it changed rapidly. And not for the better. Thank you for the film and taking me down memory lane ❤
The artistic or creative small things like the water tubes, the metal gate that has writing on it that consists of its bar. The ambience I remember from my childhood, though I was only 4 in 1998, makes me feel like the internet is such an effective numbing agent that maybe it takes away from some visual creativity we might have use to crave in our surroundings.
I worked just off Regents Street for 9 years in the 90s. I loved it around there. I remember a Dunkin Donuts next to Burger King, that must have been after this film. I'm sure there was a pizza land or something like that along there somewhere. It had a great all you can eat salad buffet.
Loved working in soho in the late 90s, I worked on Great Chapel Street which was later demolished for the crossrail project, used to drink at The Bath House pub which sadly also no longer exists. Funnily the company I worked for (Metro Soho) has a van that appears in this video but I can't make out the driver which would have been one of my colleagues.
@@ok2760 Before mobile phone screen zombies, pre digital, pre widespread use of internet, before social media, pre mass immigration. This has all changed the culture and people indigenous to these isles.
No multi cultural in other words not from England, unenriching mobile black letter boxes for one thing etc etc etc!!! Frigging tragedy what's been done to London and the rest of England!!! Cheers anyway!!!
Tony Blair opened the doors to mass-migration, just because people aren't carrying guns it doesn't mean they aren't equivalent to an army. Open borders and lax laws around immigrants will inevitably lead to the destruction of what was your country.
@@airkuna It is, evidently, a time encapsulated to some extent, and it is an important historical record, because ALL historical records are important, so what exactly is your problem?
@@airkuna So much of London has changed architecturally. Not to mention how much busier it is and how people are on phones all the time. Plus the fashion and the shops and the cars etc in this era This shows how it was, therefore it is an important historical record. That is a factual statement.
I was 1 in 1998. What's scary is that certain places around Seven Dials are completely the same. e.g. the Birkenstock store in Neal St. is still standing!! Equally cooler stores such as comic books, or other independent vendors are completely pushed away (assuming by tastes, demand, and/or rent). What a lovely time capsule.
Great video, i drank in The Crown for many many years, the Rough Trade record store was in a basement just down the street as well. The Coach and Horses pub and The French House in Soho are still great pubs to this day.
Britain had a spring in its step, the pound was rising in value,wages rising, economy growing and rents/ house prices were affordable. Avg house prices in London was only 3-4 times the average income. Now it's 12x the average income!
People are wearing decent, good wool coats! They look wonderful. Today, everyone in London, residents and grimey tourists alike, wear navy blue quilted nylon jackets.
People with cameras are always criticised, always the subject of scorn, always unwelcome, then one day those same scorning unwelcoming critics turn around and praise those with the foresight to record history, a naked unfiltered history free of bias, free of agenda, free of politics. So which one is it? Are cameras bad or good? The critics have no answer
Things have changed - are things better? I'm not sure... I moved to London in 1995 and had really settled into the place by 1998. I had a job I loved and for the first time in my life a wee bit of 'disposable income'. Central London was somewhere I spent a LOT of time.. all these locations - Soho, Neals Yard.. etc.. Gigs, drinking (we didn't eat out much!) and shopping. I moved away from London 13 years ago. London is always changing - when I return now I still love it. However by 1998 there were a lot of independent shops as folks hadn't been priced out. That's a bad thing. Sometimes it feels like central London is one over priced burger joint after another. I mean... there's more to life than burgers FFS... The internet was kicking in.. but if you wanted to buy something.. a record, a nice shirt.. a book .. whatever.. you would go up West and you had a LOT of choice. This is only 26 years ago.. it doesn't 'look' that different.. Sometimes it feels like the heart of London has been sold off.. but you can still buy that cook record, or book or shirt if you look hard enough... and there is still a 'vibe'. They've royally buggered Denmark Street though!!
I work in Seven Dials now and can honestly say from this video to now, not much has changed. Nostalgia merchants on full show in the comments. I guess me being born in 1998 has a completely different outlook, and thank god for that!
Lived in London 1996-1999 and worked all over for High Street stalwart- the best time of my life, it’s become such a hassled dump since 2000 - so much so that I haven’t been back since the pandemic, and my remaining friends there insist on coming down to the South West to escape it.
14:36 sounds like a disembodied voice saying 'Hey Jim!'. It didn't have the louder fuller tones of a human voice. Some of the older analog equipment like old camcorder are better at capturing spirit voices. I love old VHS recordings.
Hey, I want to do a comparison video showing how things looked before and how they are now. Could I use some of your footage in it? I'd really appreciate your permission and would give you proper credits.
@@georgemulford2910 While my support for Blair ended in 2002; the bottom line is that Blair raised funds for vital public services which he fully funded; he also modernised the way those public services were accessed. He also raised funds and paid for major public infrastructure projects which also benefited various industries. During Blair and Brown's reign London was booming and London looked great, people were optimistic. Lastly Blair raised U.K.'s standing on the global stage. Whereas the Tories have done the diametric-opposite.
The last era when London still looked like London. Blair started the intense decline and every government since has continued to make it worse and worse.
Labour had only been in office for a year and hadn't put their, open door policy in action yet. Britain hadnt illegally invaded other countries, causing catastrophic unrest in the middle east. Blair had not tied us, hand and foot to Europe, with his eyes on being its president.
Felt so safe walking the streets then. When I come back London seems so much more aggressive. The class and style has gone. Also where have all the white people gone?
I was 18 in 1998... I'm 42 now. It doesn't seem that long ago, but it was a completely different world. I miss it terribly
I hear you I'm 43 myself. I use to travel from old kent road to trocadero with friends. I remember hearing trocadero's craziness from within the train station down below. It was amazing and so full of life.
The west end hasn't changed too much tbh
WELL, I was a 100 in that video, so I beat you. Now I am the oldest person in the world. SO THERE!
Meetoo, I was 18 back then. I’d drive in from Grays most weekends during 6th Form, just to buy cd singles in the multitude of record shops, have a slap up meal, and maybe pay £9 to see a film at the Empire or Odeon. Such optimistic times! Piccadilly is now a shit show of tack and souvenir shops. Remember how popular Trocadero was with Sega World and the shops. The building’s been empty for God-knows-how-long now, and a colleague said the council have approved plans to turn it into a mosque!?
@@qewfsdsd65445 all the buildings? There are plenty of buildings in view that are definitely 20th century, including one that I worked in, so not sure what relevance that might have in terms of a city changing beyond architecturally, which isn’t what most people refer to when they say how much things have changed.
Pre-9/11 and everything that followed. We didn’t have a clue how good we had it in the late-90s.
true... and it's an incredibly depressing thought to think that "this is as good as it will ever get". It's all downhill for the next 25 years
@@shaunsteele8244 apex of civilisation was years ago. we now have front row seats at the collapse of the west and being at the mercy of the east. does not bode well (read up on chinas century of shame at the hand of the british. They'll be loving whats coming).
Internet changed the landscape
@@rever7zukuk386True, closed down shops as a result of internet shopping for sure, not sure there is any going back on that.
Yes a magic period from the slump in early 90s to the immigrant rush and unaffordable prices of the 2000s
When London was wonderful and not the arse end it is now 😢
No, I think it's just your life that's gone to shit.
London is way better now. You have diverse community which means that the sesh is propa auetntic. Me and the fellas can have sesh in Hckney then go to queer chem sex party down the mosque. Fookin tae wee patter
It looks exactly the same yah wallop 😂
@@uksilverstacker413 nope! Completely different.
@@uksilverstacker413 wallop is another word for a smack, So how does your insult work lol
I was 21 in 1998. I honestly think the late 90s were the peak. We had enough technological advances but not so many that we didn’t still require a human touch. It was pre social media, pre smartphones. People had time for each other. Pubs and clubs were packed, the economy was getting better. Holidays were cheap, as were houses. I am so happy I lived through this time.
Exactly. I'm even feeling nostalgic for Super Nintendo!!
A lot of what you're describing there is just being young. I too was 21 in 1998. It was a period of prosperity and optimism, no doubt. But it was all built on a huge credit bubble that was waiting to burst. It was artificial. Of course, we didn't know that at the time and it seemed like we were moving into a much happier universe. It was very much the definition of a "fool's paradise," looking back.
Would spend hours in Trocadero playing the arcades. 80s and 90s were my golden years. 💛
I did the same thing. Whenever I had a week off work in which I didn't go abroad I would usually take a day-trip to London and spend a lot of time in the Trocadero playing the arcade games. I was very sad when that arcade was no more.
@Texy88 So many great memories there. When Street fighter 2 came out I made so many friends through that game lol
Same. A lot youth gangs and delinquents used the place as a hanging out point too from what i remember
sega world..
I was working in Piccadilly back in 1998, so this is so familiar. The scary thing is I still recognise some of the window displays. Anyone remember Foyles bookshop in the 90s when it was still a dingy (but always fascinating) secondhand bookshop?
Charing Cross Road used to be full of bookshops, world famous for it. Only a couple left now.
Yes! The old Foyles was like a never ending hive of books piled all over the place. I remember the character it had through its untidiness. I found a few gems just lying in piles which I don't think I'd have found if looking for them on ordered shelves.
I worked in Foyles 96 to 97. Good times. I was interviewed for the job by Christina Foyle in her apartment above the shop. Danny LaRue used to park his Roller in the loading bay at times.
Sei italiano? @@CiaoAndrewElias
@@dm_35 No mate…British.
Miss this London badly, Thanks for this time machine video.
The 90's were truly the pinnacle of British life.
In other words, when you personally were young
No. Before the third world invaded
I was 14yrs old that year and I can remember the group stages of the world Cup. My little brother was born that year and he's about to turn 26. It feels like yesterday to me.
This was the London of my youth. I lived in the suburbs and around this time used to commute daily to the city for work. I rarely visit now when I do it's surprising how much it has changed (not for the better) in the intervening years. It isn't a huge amount of time in the scheme of things but enough for extremely noticeable differences. The world then seemed full of hope and possibility maybe it was the flush of youth but I think there was more to it than that. The place had feeling of the past but also an amazing future. Now it feels lost almost a pre apocalyptic. Thank you for posting and allowing me to remember happier and better times.
I spent a fair chunk of my disposable income at Tower Records in the mid-late 90s!
Me too! And the trocadero. The good old days 😉
Me too
Yep, and in the 80s. Just spending hours looking at records in Tower before walking up to Oxford Street for the HMV and Virgin Megastore.
@@davidmccann9811 I did it back to front: Virgin Megastore, HMV, then Tower. 🙂
Edit - late 80s, I have to include Stateside comic book shop after Virgin Megastore (I think it was part of the store then?)
HMV and Tower Records & the record shops on Berwick Street off Oxford Street.
Those were the days.unlike this age,there was always a sense of tranquility down the streets,no matter how busy they might've been.and most people walked modestly and spoke quietly.having enjoyed this brilliant video immensely_well done to the gent who made it_,a great deal of nostalgia just keeps me smiling🌠🌠🌠🌠🌠
Wow, I worked at Cafe Pasta in Covent Garden in the 90s, it is like going back in time when London had character, now it is just like any other city. I miss that time greatly 😔
I was 22 in 1998... I remember all of that from studying around there... Things were much more quaint back then, and it's not even that long ago... A time when London was owned by Londoners... Not foreign countries... Thanks very much for the footage! X
It wasn't that quaint getting back.to.luton thru.kings X
I worked at Belgo in Covent Garden in 1997. It feels like stepping back in time seeing it here a few months later.
Is that the place that sold Belgium beer, if so, i liked the one that tasted like fruit cake.
Ì loved that place. Ì went there a couple of times around 97 and 98
Worked soho/convent garden for many years in the 90’s….this video takes me straight back there….great memories!
I spent nearly one year between 1996 and 1997, worked in Europa Foods supermarket..now Tesco, good memories.
I miss europa foods
Watching this 25yrs on is pretty nuts, was walking through Covent Garden 2 days ago, absolutely packed compared to 1998, the building upgrades in this footage were worth it!
I’m 1990. I held on to the 90’s for along time I carried it with me and tried to relive that era all the way to 2016, but now I’m starting to accept that it’s a different world now and that the 90’s is becoming a distant memory that is fading away 😑
I only remember it from the 80s. It looked very empty to me in 1998...in
1980 l was 13 and worked on Berwick st market. I often had to do small deliveries ti restaurants on a barrow to Covent garden, Piccadili circus etc..
Neal st was where most of londons Old market barrows were leased from and repaired.
I left the north east to go and work in London in 1998, I worked as a plumbers mate in the Royal Opera House pictured around the 3 minute mark. It doesn't seem that long ago to me but it was a quarter of a century ago now, how time flies. Thanks for sharing the video!
I left school at 15 in 1992.. Got a job as a pot washer in Morgans on Ganton St Soho..
Its now 2022 Morgans isn't there anymore.. but I am!
👍
2:44 Strange thing is when I walked through Covent Garden piazza recently that water was still leaking into the same container.
😂
Maybe you briefly time-slipped back into 1998, before looking again 10 seconds later and realising there was no leaking water.....and the container was nowhere to be seen!!!
They got their money's worth out of that. 😂😂
Lived in London at this time, loved Belgos
Read that just as i got to the clip of the leak 😅
I worked in Trafalgar Sq at that time so walked all these streets most days. On my lunch break, out for drinks after work, weekend shopping jaunts (especially Tower Records!) Happy memories of an easier time. Thanks.
Seeing the neon signs in Piccadilly Circus seems very strange now. The Sanyo one was so iconic and was at one point the only remaining neon sign left until its removal in 2011.
The neon lights were iconic and historic. It’s now a giant tele-screen abomination. The neon should have been listed. Such a shame. 😢
Wow look so different back then, must have been Awesome to be alive in the 90s
yes it was amazing. People living in the moment and not staring at their phones
I was born in London at the end of the 60s and to me, the 70s/80s/90s all had their own unique flavour. But they were all very different to now.
@@qewfsdsd65445 The '90s are to gen-z what the '60s are to millennials...
Compared to this, modern London feels more like an airport terminal than a capital city. We’re giving away our history, our soul. Will we ever get back to this?
TOWER RECORDS damn i had some great shopping days in there, great video, cheers.
Tower, in the old Swan & Edgar building on Piccadilly Circus. That brings back some happy memories.
I had already left London for NYC in 1994 but I did come back to this city in 2006 and stayed until 2011. I live is Seattle now.
I live in Madrif
Just looked up that Belgo restaurant, closed in 2020 according to Wikipedia, shame as it looks good
I enjoyed the film. Though I did go a bit giddy with the camera shaking and quick pans around. I did love to see mostly my people and no third world inhabitants on the streets. I was there last October and couldn't believe the amount of people now in these areas. It almost made me feel claustrophobic. I think that London 1998 was still a great place to live and visit. In the early 2000's it changed rapidly. And not for the better.
Thank you for the film and taking me down memory lane ❤
The artistic or creative small things like the water tubes, the metal gate that has writing on it that consists of its bar. The ambience I remember from my childhood, though I was only 4 in 1998, makes me feel like the internet is such an effective numbing agent that maybe it takes away from some visual creativity we might have use to crave in our surroundings.
When Britain still felt British 😔
Now it's just all American consumerism, greed and tory govt
There we go again...
Russian troll
@@jeshkam True though.
Before the Internet destroyed the world.
I worked just off Regents Street for 9 years in the 90s. I loved it around there. I remember a Dunkin Donuts next to Burger King, that must have been after this film. I'm sure there was a pizza land or something like that along there somewhere. It had a great all you can eat salad buffet.
Loved working in soho in the late 90s, I worked on Great Chapel Street which was later demolished for the crossrail project, used to drink at The Bath House pub which sadly also no longer exists. Funnily the company I worked for (Metro Soho) has a van that appears in this video but I can't make out the driver which would have been one of my colleagues.
I used to perform standup comedy in the Bath House Pub
@@shaunhutchings Awesome, the landlord in there (Matt) was a top bloke, that was like 1997 to 2000s, wonder what happened to him.
The Old World.
I remember.
Thank you for this.
Central London still looks the same. Time flies though
Come out and say what you really mean
@@ok2760 Before mobile phone screen zombies, pre digital, pre widespread use of internet, before social media, pre mass immigration. This has all changed the culture and people indigenous to these isles.
@@alan6 I hope the R word is Righteous. But I have no doubt it will be something else. I've got an R word for what we're living in now - Ruins.
I can't quite put my finger on it but something's changed over the last 25 years.🤔
No multi cultural in other words not from England, unenriching mobile black letter boxes for one thing etc etc etc!!! Frigging tragedy what's been done to London and the rest of England!!! Cheers anyway!!!
Tony Blair opened the doors to mass-migration, just because people aren't carrying guns it doesn't mean they aren't equivalent to an army. Open borders and lax laws around immigrants will inevitably lead to the destruction of what was your country.
What's a pathetic old racist to do but watch videos of olde London?
@@joshlevy3480Actually there were ethnic minorities living in London in the last century, from the 1950's onwards; it only deteriorated from 2010.
@@joshlevy3480 victims
A time encapsulated...
An important historical record...
And a great eye for the visual...
Thank you
Wtf are you talking about?? Nonsense
@@airkuna It is, evidently, a time encapsulated to some extent, and it is an important historical record, because ALL historical records are important, so what exactly is your problem?
@@markofsaltburn what is here in this video "an important historical record"??????
@@airkuna So much of London has changed architecturally. Not to mention how much busier it is and how people are on phones all the time. Plus the fashion and the shops and the cars etc in this era This shows how it was, therefore it is an important historical record. That is a factual statement.
I was 1 in 1998. What's scary is that certain places around Seven Dials are completely the same. e.g. the Birkenstock store in Neal St. is still standing!! Equally cooler stores such as comic books, or other independent vendors are completely pushed away (assuming by tastes, demand, and/or rent). What a lovely time capsule.
Great video, i drank in The Crown for many many years, the Rough Trade record store was in a basement just down the street as well. The Coach and Horses pub and The French House in Soho are still great pubs to this day.
The Blue plaque actor William terriss he haunts the underground station
1975 yılları soho mesurdu patron um Enver usta sık sık ziyaret ederdi ruslipde garsonluk yaptım oraları çok iyi bilirim
Born in in 2002 and reading everyone’s comments about their experience in the 90s. sonder is such a bizarre feeling.
Britain had a spring in its step, the pound was rising in value,wages rising, economy growing and rents/ house prices were affordable. Avg house prices in London was only 3-4 times the average income. Now it's 12x the average income!
I love u soho
miss it so much....i use to work in Neal's yard...st tropez restaurant....
This year was my first trip abroad and to London after Soviet union collapsed.
That was very good, an excellent document of how things were.
Blimey, at 6:52 there's a shot of the end of the street you walked along to get to Rough Trade, in the basement below Slam City Skates -happy days!
This look's like Dublin thirty years later. 👊☘️
People are wearing decent, good wool coats! They look wonderful. Today, everyone in London, residents and grimey tourists alike, wear navy blue quilted nylon jackets.
London has and still is, expensive.
My dad got lost in the Piccadilly section during WWII
'The happy highways where I went
And cannot come again.'
I do regret that I never visited London before the invasion. I would have loved to see it then.
Hello, my name is Sean. I am racist but I can't actually come out and say it.
If staring at crowds of white people just moving from place to place does it for you, you shouldn’t have to travel that far
😂
@@ok2760 Is it really racism to see the Capital City of England have less than 30% English people in it?
@@lucidmoment71 as if you're not an old-fashioned racist
I work on Agar Street and you almost tantalisingly filmed it! Would have loved to have seen it.
People had personalities then and warmth
So you don’t?
yeah. seems like a much nicer place
It's the same. London is all hustle and bustle
@@rever7zukuk386Yeah but its not the same is it?
We all know that so stop pretending
@sparkeystevens7521 I think you're mixing up london and England. England is a mess. London is still thriving, business gets done in London
I used to love going to HMV and watching _Fraser_ with Jude Law and Vanessa Feltz
People with cameras are always criticised, always the subject of scorn, always unwelcome, then one day those same scorning unwelcoming critics turn around and praise those with the foresight to record history, a naked unfiltered history free of bias, free of agenda, free of politics.
So which one is it? Are cameras bad or good? The critics have no answer
Good point 👉
Things have changed - are things better? I'm not sure... I moved to London in 1995 and had really settled into the place by 1998. I had a job I loved and for the first time in my life a wee bit of 'disposable income'. Central London was somewhere I spent a LOT of time.. all these locations - Soho, Neals Yard.. etc.. Gigs, drinking (we didn't eat out much!) and shopping. I moved away from London 13 years ago. London is always changing - when I return now I still love it. However by 1998 there were a lot of independent shops as folks hadn't been priced out. That's a bad thing. Sometimes it feels like central London is one over priced burger joint after another. I mean... there's more to life than burgers FFS... The internet was kicking in.. but if you wanted to buy something.. a record, a nice shirt.. a book .. whatever.. you would go up West and you had a LOT of choice. This is only 26 years ago.. it doesn't 'look' that different.. Sometimes it feels like the heart of London has been sold off.. but you can still buy that cook record, or book or shirt if you look hard enough... and there is still a 'vibe'. They've royally buggered Denmark Street though!!
No eastow fc insight London was wonderful back in the day
Great video thanks
No smartphone zombies yet. :0)
Had some great nights out in Punch and Judy's in the 90s
I work in Seven Dials now and can honestly say from this video to now, not much has changed. Nostalgia merchants on full show in the comments. I guess me being born in 1998 has a completely different outlook, and thank god for that!
The experience is different I think. It’s the small things that make a difference.
Lived in London 1996-1999 and worked all over for High Street stalwart- the best time of my life, it’s become such a hassled dump since 2000 - so much so that I haven’t been back since the pandemic, and my remaining friends there insist on coming down to the South West to escape it.
stop being cowards running away
London was affordable and cooler up until early 2000s. after 2005 started crumbling.
It was nice but the prices always have been the same
( 6:53 ) Whitleys! 👍🏻
When London was normal
I would have been 17 at the time. I miss this London a whole lot.
This video is just missing, stardust-music sound better with you, playing in the distance. That track was everywhere that year.
The Carlisle Arms in Bateman Street has since been gutted and is now a noisy disco cocktail bar.
People were slimmer and dressed smarter then.
14:36 sounds like a disembodied voice saying 'Hey Jim!'. It didn't have the louder fuller tones of a human voice. Some of the older analog equipment like old camcorder are better at capturing spirit voices. I love old VHS recordings.
Prior to being a Police Station the building was used by homeless people.
1982 I was working with DER TV rentals,
I installed a TV in the building
Are you talking about Charing cross police station?
Went uni on the strand. 96 to 99. Grew up along that part of charing cross, leicester sq and covent garden. Its not what it was!
Hey, I want to do a comparison video showing how things looked before and how they are now. Could I use some of your footage in it? I'd really appreciate your permission and would give you proper credits.
Credit me and state I gave permission.
I would like to watch this. Bit try and film it at about the same time of year - this looks like it's mid-week in March.
it's scary watching it
It's been a dump since 2003, this is the time people forgot or never knew. London is like an Asylum with no order
Before steadycam 🤦🏻♂️
😮 not one townie in sight😂
Not many mobile phones either
Anybody notice the giant going into the Boardwalk restaurant at 13:13 😮😅
😂 wow! Great spot 👁️
covid was almost 5 years ago, so this is only five covids ago, not long really, film quality ages the world
Less people too was nicer now it’s too busy
no effing delivery kamikazi, no stripey flags everywhere, hop on bus, take my smartphone take me back
Annoying motor sounds non stop - crazy!
Incredibly not one shot of the most famous landmarks in Soho-- Bar Italia Frith Street or Ronnie Scott's 🥴🎶🎶☕
Where are all the "models"?
None I'm afraid in this part of town !
@@davidmoore570 Did you get the joke? "Models" being women of loose ways.
@@Emulous79
Standing in doorways in Soho. That was when they had the 'PEEP SHOWS' where you could look at a naked women for £1. 😂😂
The last decade :(
This guy loves a Belgo
Tony Blairs New Labour voted in to the tune Things can Only get Better....fast forward to London 2023 Hmmmm
London's decline has nothing to do with Blair; and everything to do with Tories from 2010.
@@FART-REPELLENT Nothing to do with Blair? "I will rub their noses in diversity" (not a tory fan either they are also culpable)
@@FART-REPELLENTcan you explain how?
@@georgemulford2910 While my support for Blair ended in 2002; the bottom line is that Blair raised funds for vital public services which he fully funded; he also modernised the way those public services were accessed. He also raised funds and paid for major public infrastructure projects which also benefited various industries. During Blair and Brown's reign London was booming and London looked great, people were optimistic. Lastly Blair raised U.K.'s standing on the global stage. Whereas the Tories have done the diametric-opposite.
@@FART-REPELLENT but what did the Tories specifically do to cause the decline of London? Does any accountability lay at Sadiq Khans feet?
The last era when London still looked like London. Blair started the intense decline and every government since has continued to make it worse and worse.
Labour had only been in office for a year and hadn't put their, open door policy in action yet. Britain hadnt illegally invaded other countries, causing catastrophic unrest in the middle east. Blair had not tied us, hand and foot to Europe, with his eyes on being its president.
...and we had yet to face over a decade of Tory austerity under the guise (lies) of all being in it together.
Seems like Tony Blair has a lot to answer for.
Felt so safe walking the streets then. When I come back London seems so much more aggressive. The class and style has gone. Also where have all the white people gone?
The reason you think it felt so safe then is because of the fear and division stoked by all that time you spend on Facebook
That's not the answer for everything you know. @@ok2760
@@ok2760😂
No one cares that you feel unsafe karen. Don't like it here leave simple as.
People were much nicer then
When you could walk down the street without some kid with hair like mini mouse on a clacking Line bike swiping your phone.
The nigerians anthe pakistanies saved London from disapearing