Absolutely wonderful.....I'm 71, this was the London of my childhood......If only we could travel back in time, away from the horrific world we now live in.
Born 8 Sutherland Row 1947,moved to 25Winchester Street, then Page Street and finally to Churchill Gardens. As a nipper I’ve walked all the streets shone in your extremely good film. Memories galore. Many many thanks
So many beautiful streets destroyed or disfigured by "developers" or "planners". Life used to thrive on the streets and the small local businesses and pubs. Many parts of London and other British cities were urban villages with vibrant local communities. I am glad I was young then. It is so much easier to be old now, when there is so much less to want to live for.
Thank you so much. I lived at 22 Charlwood street from 1960 until 1965 it was such a lovely, safe, neighbourhood and I have such happy memories of my time there.
Born at 26 Churton Street in 1952, was so good to see my old town as I remember it, almost had a tear in my eye when I saw Herberts Dairy at the top of the street.. Thanks....
It would be very interesting (and probably disheartening) to see this video alongside one filming the same places, from the same angles, of modern day Pimlico.
Fascinating time-machine this wonderful footage. I was aged 4 to 14 in the 1950s and in North West London. It's amazing to see how fast the traffic flowed then and how pedestrians happily jay-walked across roads and very few crossings available. I think Belisher Beacons were a new thing back then. Great to see Standard Vanguard cars and early Morris Minors, then in one shot a very "swish"! looking streamlined Bristol car sped past. Excellent film.
Seen this on passport to Pimlico great video...but today it jumped out of no where and while watching, it hovered on Ashley’s Truck store brought a tear as I remembered a friend of mine Ken Williams who worked there as a young man in the 60s I just heard last wk he’d died in 🇯🇲 Jamaica RIP Ken really nice fella x
Fantastic film, thank you so much for this. Great insights into 1950 and very helpful research for my new crime novel set in 1950 and featuring a Scotland Yard detective who lives in Pimlico but who is often called away to the coast to solve murder cases!
I spent the summer of 2017 and 2019 and 2020 in Pimlico London i loved im back to my country Tunisia 🇹🇳 sure i will come back im 51 i plan to spend the rest of my life in Pimlico
Born in 1949 I grew up on the Churchill Gardens, Pimlico estate from the age of one and remained there for more than 25 years (ignoring college in Brighton). While I knew every street shown - right down to the signs and shop windows (Sunlight Laundry is etched on my brain) there do seem to be some oddities in the footage. We used to walk and play freely as children. I got to know intimately the entire area between the river at Pimlico to north of Soho and Oxford Street, Chelsea in the West and beyond the Tower in the East from about age seven. I never saw a tram anywhere. Trolleybuses yes, trams no. By the time I was seven I had free reign and never saw the tram lines (although I think I saw remnants under worn tarmac in Vauxhall Bridge Road once). I think some footage must be pre-war as I feel sure there were bombed gaps in some places during my childhood that did not show in the footage. The big bombed hole (used to store water to put fires out during the war) in Belgave Road (now built over) was there well into my twenties. Also, I also believe some footage is post-fifties. The houses in Pimlico were almost all covered in peeling paint at that time. At every corner there was the following painted notice: "PUBLIC SHELTERS IN VAULTS UNDER PAVEMENTS IN THIS STREET" with a black arrow pointing along the road. At each entrance to the under-pavement coal cellars was a similar sign: "SHELTER" with an arrow pointng down. While there seem to be some of these in the footage many houses don't seem to have these wartime notices. Also, the white painted pillars seem too plentiful for the fifties auterity period. Nevertheless, this footage is priceless. I know that the songs are all "Pimlico-related" but they give a false impresion of the time. Bill Haley, Elvis, Cliff Richard and the Shadows, Marty Wilde, Tommy Steele would have been far more accurate. Pimlico was a perfect place to grow up - part of London, but separated from its worst extremes. It did not change for the better with the coming of the Victoria Line, suffering an early phase of gentrification followed by the franchise manipulations of the Westminster City Council under 'Lady Porter' just because that disgraceful Thatcher woman could not bear the fact that Westminster was very non-Tory.
Been to Pimlico a few times in the 40 years of living in London, I was north London, so sadly hard to compare these streets with the town now, although the film was excellent viewing, welcomed the chance to have seen this valuable footage.
I grew up on Tachbrook street early 1970s so I was gob-smacked to see all those streets I know like the back of my hand but in a 1950s scenario. The corner shop and the Constitution pub I know were already there!
Great video, thanks ! I lived on and off in a squat at 2 Moreton Street between 2005 and 2009. The building is now demolished and replaced with luxury flats but some of the building was built by Thomas Cubitt and dated from 1830 I think. I did a bit of research into the local history as well as having a lot of dealings with the council regarding the property as you can imagine. Thanks again for the resourse! Music is fantastic as well.
Recognisably London despite many changes. What strikes me is how empty everything is; the pavements aren't crowded, the roads aren't busy, the buses and trams are empty. All this makes me wonder when exactly this was filmed; presumably it was on a weekday as the shops etc. are open, and it looks like it was summer. Two things I especially liked, 1) the 'Reids' dray (Reids was merged into Watney Combe Reid, later Watneys), 2) the 'trafficator' on the vehicle carrying the camera that comes into view in the last minute or so of the film. I don't know when winking lights supplanted 'trafficators' but I do remember my parents not liking them!
It says that these are outtakes from a film. You'll see in a few shots that the extras are on their marks and waiting for action before they start moving, both pedestrians and vehicles. It was probably busier in real life but the streets may have been closed for filming.
I worked for London Transport as a driver on the 24 bus route in the 1980s (when still Routemasters), My understanding was that Pimlico was West of Vauxhall Bridge Rd, though I may be incorrect in that assumption? Certainly that is where all the tramcar scenes are based. Tramways didn't otherwise penetrate the Pimlico area. Despite many of the buildings depicted having long since been demolished, much of the area still appeared familiar in my memory from that depicted on film, although a recent visitrevealed demographic changes since the 1980s. The area then was a mix of great wealth abutting social housing, although I guess the social housing tenants have since been hounded out of the area by property speculators?
You are correct. Pimlico sat neatly in the triangle bounded by the river, Vauxhall Bridge Road and the rail tracks from Victoria Station the the rail bridge across the Thames. Since then, I have heard the term extended to Horseferry Road and encompassing Vincent Square, Horticultural Halls and the Tate Gallery. I would argue that this is incorrect.
@@alangaughran Pimlico has been the triangle you describe since the railway and trams were introduced. Born in 1942 I grew up in the Watney tenements in Greencoat Place, which was on the other side of Vauxhall Bridge Road and was always referred to as Victoria. I delivered newspapers around Pimlico in the 1950s and all those streets are familiar to me. We were English, Irish, Welsh, Scottish and happy in those days which were so safe, unlike today, enriched by diversity.
How many of these nice old buildings still exist? ...more to the point, how many were unnecessarily 'torn down' by overzealous planners in the 1960s? Did anyone notice the 1920s style car at 10:48?!
Great footage,love the old London street scenes...look closely and you can see JonWhiteley child actor in the distance coming across the road earlier in the movie....wonder why they let the camera run for so long in the last scenes? Could have been for back projection if it's for movie scenes...
This is a wonderful collection of various footage of Pimlico. The area appears in a number of 1950s films 😉. The child you saw is from the film Hunted, starring Dirk Bogarde. As I’m born and bread I can watch this sort of stuff over and over!
How did they ever cope? NO double yellow lines, bus lanes, traffic lights, cycle lanes, speed cameras, yellow boxes, pedestrian crossings, parking meters, Luxury .....
It's a good question: I'm a modernist who values heritage and can get as nostalgic as anyone for just this kind of scene: that world's part of me too, through my mum and the films we used to watch (and I still do). But then I I think of how limited people's lives necessarily were: only the BBC (still just radio, for most) or cinema or local varieties for information & entertainment; limited educational opportunity (still the case today, for far too many); regular international travel the preserve of the rich; no computers or internet! (yes, I know most of it's tat, but it's invaluable for quickly grabbing data that would have taken weeks to gather back then - or footage of 1950s Pimlico.) So I'd take today without hesitation, for all its abominations. But we didn't have to throw so much away: imagine if we'd preserved the best of that world (decent shopfronts! Real cars! Trams!!) alongside our mod cons rather than replacing it with dismal identikit boxes. The world had to change, but we didn't need to make it bland and ugly for the sake of it.
Anyone wanting to find out when in the 1950s this film footage was shot? ...there are two clues. First is a Morris Minor (15:20) introduced in 1954, and the second are (original) Routemaster buses which appear throughout this footage. They were introduced in 1956 - so this footage is from 1956 or later. There are also still a few (the last ones) trams left in London. They went in the early 60s. So this footage is probably late 50s! Most of the footage seems to relate clips from the later film.
As a none Londoner (never been) Pimlico , is a name I only know from Films and books. The houses still look impressive, but I expected more squares and 'Circuses'. of Georgian style.
It's grander to the north as it becomes Belgravia, humbler to the south: the finer houses are 19th- rather than 18th-century: until then it was mostly undeveloped. And the area south of Lupus Street was largely redeveloped after the war (some bomb damage, mostly not).
![Extremely rare, spectacular film about London during WW-II in color [A.I. enhanced & colorized]](/img/n.gif)
Absolutely wonderful.....I'm 71, this was the London of my childhood......If only we could travel back in time, away from the horrific world we now live in.
l lived in London and was born at 18 Cumberland Street and it was a great area to grow up and the people were lovely to
My name was Eileen Gallagher back then
Yes because the 50s was such a great time!! Try telling that to gay people, ethnic minorities, women, people inflicted with mental illness..etc
@@Peachpetals111
Do us a favour, even those people would say it was better, no one likes woke, you PC people are despised by the whole nation.
So so true, my London has long gone 😢, unbelievable
Born 8 Sutherland Row 1947,moved to 25Winchester Street, then Page Street and finally to Churchill Gardens. As a nipper I’ve walked all the streets shone in your extremely good film. Memories galore. Many many thanks
Me too. I was born in1947 at denbigh place.
I was so pleased to see where i was born in 1947. It brought back memories of childhood.
So many beautiful streets destroyed or disfigured by "developers" or "planners". Life used to thrive on the streets and the small local businesses and pubs. Many parts of London and other British cities were urban villages with vibrant local communities. I am glad I was young then. It is so much easier to be old now, when there is so much less to want to live for.
amazing how many railing have gone, but also more left than i thought there would be
Worked in many of those buildings and streets from 1986 to 2020.Enjoyed every minute as a sparks.
Ineffably beautiful . I wish I could go back for a day.
Great memories, I was born in 1947. So this goes right through my childhood.
Thank you so much. I lived at 22 Charlwood street from 1960 until 1965 it was such a lovely, safe, neighbourhood and I have such happy memories of my time there.
Wonderful 😌 Take us back to these quieter times 🙏
Born at 26 Churton Street in 1952, was so good to see my old town as I remember it, almost had a tear in my eye when I saw Herberts Dairy at the top of the street.. Thanks....
Lovely, evocative scenes from everyday life in London. Well presented with helpful captions and great popular tunes of the era.
Fascinating. I spent a bit of time around Pimlico in the late 1950s as a schoolfriend lived in the area.
It would be very interesting (and probably disheartening) to see this video alongside one filming the same places, from the same angles, of modern day Pimlico.
Thank you for SUCH A BEAUTIFUL post....ah!!!.... London....how it used to be...where everyone knew there place and manor
I don't know the area at all, but it's fascinating to see footage from those days. The world looks a simpler, more sensible place.
Thanks for posting, that was my London, MAGIC.
Fascinating time-machine this wonderful footage. I was aged 4 to 14 in the 1950s and in North West London. It's amazing to see how fast the traffic flowed then and how pedestrians happily jay-walked across roads and very few crossings available. I think Belisher Beacons were a new thing back then. Great to see Standard Vanguard cars and early Morris Minors, then in one shot a very "swish"! looking streamlined Bristol car sped past. Excellent film.
Seen this on passport to Pimlico great video...but today it jumped out of no where and while watching, it hovered on Ashley’s Truck store brought a tear as I remembered a friend of mine Ken Williams who worked there as a young man in the 60s I just heard last wk he’d died in 🇯🇲 Jamaica RIP Ken really nice fella x
Loved the last song especially ❤️👏
Some great footage here and thanks for sharing. Made me feel nostalgic as I too grew up in Pimlico in the 50's
London is wonderful...
Lovely film and memories when I lived in Winchester Street.
What a great footage...So simple life, and its amazing to see how most of the buildings are still around these days. Nice time machine !
fantastic footage, such great memories
An excellent little video , many thanks for uploading.
Fantastic film, thank you so much for this. Great insights into 1950 and very helpful research for my new crime novel set in 1950 and featuring a Scotland Yard detective who lives in Pimlico but who is often called away to the coast to solve murder cases!
Have you finished the book yet?!
I've now written four in my Inspector Ryga 1950s series with number five due out this June. @@loushared6602
I've lived here for 21 years. This is really amazing to see thanks for the upload.
wow they knocked downs some amazing buildings!
yes but they knocked down a lot of slum buildings as well
I spent the summer of 2017 and 2019 and 2020 in Pimlico London i loved im back to my country Tunisia 🇹🇳 sure i will come back im 51 i plan to spend the rest of my life in Pimlico
76 now grew up in this area from the 50s to the late 90s ,
Born in 1949 I grew up on the Churchill Gardens, Pimlico estate from the age of one and remained there for more than 25 years (ignoring college in Brighton). While I knew every street shown - right down to the signs and shop windows (Sunlight Laundry is etched on my brain) there do seem to be some oddities in the footage.
We used to walk and play freely as children. I got to know intimately the entire area between the river at Pimlico to north of Soho and Oxford Street, Chelsea in the West and beyond the Tower in the East from about age seven. I never saw a tram anywhere. Trolleybuses yes, trams no. By the time I was seven I had free reign and never saw the tram lines (although I think I saw remnants under worn tarmac in Vauxhall Bridge Road once).
I think some footage must be pre-war as I feel sure there were bombed gaps in some places during my childhood that did not show in the footage. The big bombed hole (used to store water to put fires out during the war) in Belgave Road (now built over) was there well into my twenties.
Also, I also believe some footage is post-fifties. The houses in Pimlico were almost all covered in peeling paint at that time. At every corner there was the following painted notice: "PUBLIC SHELTERS IN VAULTS UNDER PAVEMENTS IN THIS STREET" with a black arrow pointing along the road. At each entrance to the under-pavement coal cellars was a similar sign: "SHELTER" with an arrow pointng down. While there seem to be some of these in the footage many houses don't seem to have these wartime notices. Also, the white painted pillars seem too plentiful for the fifties auterity period.
Nevertheless, this footage is priceless. I know that the songs are all "Pimlico-related" but they give a false impresion of the time. Bill Haley, Elvis, Cliff Richard and the Shadows, Marty Wilde, Tommy Steele would have been far more accurate. Pimlico was a perfect place to grow up - part of London, but separated from its worst extremes. It did not change for the better with the coming of the Victoria Line, suffering an early phase of gentrification followed by the franchise manipulations of the Westminster City Council under 'Lady Porter' just because that disgraceful Thatcher woman could not bear the fact that Westminster was very non-Tory.
alangaughran Do you think redevelopment was an enhancement to Pimlico or a gentrification eyesore?
The Luftwaffe destroyed part of pimlico the post war architects did the rest!!!!!
What a delight
Not offended but uplifted. Thank you so much. Best wishes. G
Great stuff. Some lovely footage and a great soundtrack. damn gentrification .
Been to Pimlico a few times in the 40 years of living in London, I was north London, so sadly hard to compare these streets with the town now, although the film was excellent viewing, welcomed the chance to have seen this valuable footage.
Cor brings back some memorys
I grew up on Tachbrook street early 1970s so I was gob-smacked to see all those streets I know like the back of my hand but in a 1950s scenario. The corner shop and the Constitution pub I know were already there!
Clear Visions Media ..I believe that The Constitution pub. Was also called HENEKEYS.
Great video, thanks ! I lived on and off in a squat at 2 Moreton Street between 2005 and 2009. The building is now demolished and replaced with luxury flats but some of the building was built by Thomas Cubitt and dated from 1830 I think. I did a bit of research into the local history as well as having a lot of dealings with the council regarding the property as you can imagine. Thanks again for the resourse! Music is fantastic as well.
Amazing, thank you.
Remarkable and moving footage played it through with some Robert Farnon scores seemed more in keeping with the period but real Time Machine stuff
Gold !
great i was born in vauxhall bridge rd but a lot of this had already been demolished when i was living there it looked better then
Recognisably London despite many changes. What strikes me is how empty everything is; the pavements aren't crowded, the roads aren't busy, the buses and trams are empty. All this makes me wonder when exactly this was filmed; presumably it was on a weekday as the shops etc. are open, and it looks like it was summer.
Two things I especially liked, 1) the 'Reids' dray (Reids was merged into Watney Combe Reid, later Watneys), 2) the 'trafficator' on the vehicle carrying the camera that comes into view in the last minute or so of the film. I don't know when winking lights supplanted 'trafficators' but I do remember my parents not liking them!
It says that these are outtakes from a film. You'll see in a few shots that the extras are on their marks and waiting for action before they start moving, both pedestrians and vehicles. It was probably busier in real life but the streets may have been closed for filming.
Was the Film Passport to Pimlico actually filmed in Pimlico? Also how big is Pimlico?
Google size
No passport to Pimlico was actually filmed mostly in Lambeth
I worked for London Transport as a driver on the 24 bus route in the 1980s (when still Routemasters), My understanding was that Pimlico was West of Vauxhall Bridge Rd, though I may be incorrect in that assumption?
Certainly that is where all the tramcar scenes are based. Tramways didn't otherwise penetrate the Pimlico area. Despite many of the buildings depicted having long since been demolished, much of the area still appeared familiar in my memory from that depicted on film, although a recent visitrevealed demographic changes since the 1980s. The area then was a mix of great wealth abutting social housing, although I guess the social housing tenants have since been hounded out of the area by property speculators?
You are correct. Pimlico sat neatly in the triangle bounded by the river, Vauxhall Bridge Road and the rail tracks from Victoria Station the the rail bridge across the Thames. Since then, I have heard the term extended to Horseferry Road and encompassing Vincent Square, Horticultural Halls and the Tate Gallery. I would argue that this is incorrect.
@@alangaughran
Pimlico has been the triangle you describe since the railway and trams were introduced. Born in 1942 I grew up in the Watney tenements in Greencoat Place, which was on the other side of Vauxhall Bridge Road and was always referred to as Victoria. I delivered newspapers around Pimlico in the 1950s and all those streets are familiar to me.
We were English, Irish, Welsh, Scottish and happy in those days which were so safe, unlike today, enriched by diversity.
How many of these nice old buildings still exist? ...more to the point, how many were unnecessarily 'torn down' by overzealous planners in the 1960s? Did anyone notice the 1920s style car at 10:48?!
The film may be post-war, but the music is definitely pre-war!
Great footage,love the old London street scenes...look closely and you can see JonWhiteley child actor in the distance coming across the road earlier in the movie....wonder why they let the camera run for so long in the last scenes? Could have been for back projection if it's for movie scenes...
This is a wonderful collection of various footage of Pimlico. The area appears in a number of 1950s films 😉. The child you saw is from the film Hunted, starring Dirk Bogarde. As I’m born and bread I can watch this sort of stuff over and over!
I loved Cumberland Street and the people were lovely to Eileen Gallagher
It didn’t get any better
seems like a less hectic time
The camera is pointing from Rochester Row across Vauxhall Bridge Road.
I didnt get to see my old school Churchill Gardens in lupus street. I wonder if its still there?
It was my Primary School too - and yes! It’s still there. Check it out on Google Earth!
@@wellersmate Did you live in tatchbrook estate?
No Churchill 😉
@@wellersmate yeah Churchill gardens estate. I had friends there
Ah, happy days. Parking anywhere
Does anyone know much about the Moreton Triangle? I’ve always been interested in it’s history
How did they ever cope? NO double yellow lines, bus lanes, traffic lights, cycle lanes, speed cameras, yellow boxes, pedestrian crossings, parking meters, Luxury .....
The last London tram ran in July 1952. This was only a few years after the blitz. The planners continued the work of the Luftwaffe, unfortunately.
i used to live there in St Georges Sq..
A lot of the music was at least 30 years older than the footage.
Made me groan. There are different degrees of "old," you know.
The place was built centuries ago. Groan off.
Probably intended for BP (background projection) mattes.
Take your pick
Then or now?
It's a good question: I'm a modernist who values heritage and can get as nostalgic as anyone for just this kind of scene: that world's part of me too, through my mum and the films we used to watch (and I still do). But then I I think of how limited people's lives necessarily were: only the BBC (still just radio, for most) or cinema or local varieties for information & entertainment; limited educational opportunity (still the case today, for far too many); regular international travel the preserve of the rich; no computers or internet! (yes, I know most of it's tat, but it's invaluable for quickly grabbing data that would have taken weeks to gather back then - or footage of 1950s Pimlico.)
So I'd take today without hesitation, for all its abominations. But we didn't have to throw so much away: imagine if we'd preserved the best of that world (decent shopfronts! Real cars! Trams!!) alongside our mod cons rather than replacing it with dismal identikit boxes. The world had to change, but we didn't need to make it bland and ugly for the sake of it.
Anyone wanting to find out when in the 1950s this film footage was shot? ...there are two clues. First is a Morris Minor (15:20) introduced in 1954, and the second are (original) Routemaster buses which appear throughout this footage. They were introduced in 1956 - so this footage is from 1956 or later. There are also still a few (the last ones) trams left in London. They went in the early 60s. So this footage is probably late 50s! Most of the footage seems to relate clips from the later film.
The footage is between 1951-1953, as I was a schoolboy crossing Vauxhall br rd when the trams stopped running during these years.
@@briansantilli245
The trams ceased to run in London in 1951.
Watch The Film."""Passport To Pimlico""""...Wonderful....
As a none Londoner (never been) Pimlico , is a name I only know from Films and books. The houses still look impressive, but I expected more squares and 'Circuses'. of Georgian style.
Yes there are squares but they did not show any. st georges square is beautiful
It's grander to the north as it becomes Belgravia, humbler to the south: the finer houses are 19th- rather than 18th-century: until then it was mostly undeveloped. And the area south of Lupus Street was largely redeveloped after the war (some bomb damage, mostly not).
Subbed
i lived in charlwood st
what songs boys an girls
Jump back just a couple years and you get this view from "Passport to Pimlico"
th-cam.com/video/QJEpl2ghReM/w-d-xo.html
£20.25 a week hrrrrrrr
think I have loads in the bank 40.50 p honest have a laugh on me the bird berries are near ready wooooo yjmmmy
As you can see London has always been multi culti I think not Mr Woke
Where are all the..Pothole's?
WELL WHAT HAVE WE HERE MMMMM TESTING JEHOVAH ?
I like all kinds of music but that is yoweling
HEY--that's, OUR VERA THAT IS
imagine being JEHOVAHS ANGEL
Music is-wrong for the era, it’s the 50’s not the 30’s. Still a dump now ! Lol
Good film though.
the 50's--started in--1950
The first piece of music, is Florrie Forde, singing “ My Flo From Pimlico”. Recorded in 1904.
The music demonstrates associations with Pimlico.