1970s London | Selling Cars | Why are people leaving London? | Central London | Report | 1975

Noted musician and Presenter Benny Green explores London and explains central London's Warwick Road use to be a hive of motorcar sales activity!
First shown:
First shown: 09/09/1975
To license this clip please e mail: [e-mail]
Quote: VT60293
#london #londonlife #1970s #archivefootage

[@jamesnewman4351]

The good old days when you could tell which car/ motorbike you're listening to because each one had a distinctive sound.

[@rjjcms1]

When they were showing those motor car dealers at the beginning I was expecting Athur Daley to turn up at any moment.

[@SunShine-dk6rk]

Wow a Rover P6, had some in the old days, super cars, thanx for a great upload, best wishes to the uploader,loved ones and fellow viewers ❤❤❤.

[@tonykemp3432]

Where are the Muslims,or the black face covered teenagers with a machetes down his tracksuit bottoms,, or the Eastern Europeans?

[@Luke-yh6nm]

Yep.............My old man SWEARING at the brand new Jaguar he bought that won't start (Leyland built & Lucas Electrics!!!) 😮

[@tattyshoesshigure5731]

My dad was a car trader who started in early 1950’s Warren Street. Prior to that he was a lampshade salesman & he used to visit the Maples furniture store in Tottenham Court Road to show the buyer there his samples. One day he was waiting for the buyer & looking out the window across to Warren Street he saw several guys huddled around cars & noticed they would shake hands, then a large wad of the old white £5 notes would be exchanged for the car. He thought ‘this looks like a good game!’ & later went over to meet the traders to pick up a few pointers on how he could get started in the business. “Get yourself a Glass’s Guide” was the main advice, which he followed, and ended up doing well as a trader for the next 30 years.

[@stephenguppy7882]

The posters behind Benny Green at the beginning are a snapshot frozen in time. Ella Fitzgerald, Slade, The Drifters and Sweet Sensation ( who else remembers them?) all with gigs coming up. Marvellous.

[@ianharley1726]

Sad sweet dreamer

[@stephenguppy7882]

@ianharley1726 😊👍

[@danabrahams7892]

A part of London I really miss those posters everywhere...

[@alzeNL]

GONG ! Steve Hillage ! wow

[@stephenbudd3771]

led Zeppelin and Gong !

[@WildFlaccid]

Absolutely love his voice

[@nigelwyn]

I'd go back and see all those concerts advertised on the posters.

[@mikeh2006]

This guy is very current. Could see him on tv today

[@TheFlaneur-up1ft]

What an absolute natural he is, that’s how I remember tv back in the day. Well made, interesting and informative.

[@ivortoad]

That's why his dad let him go out with the horse and cart

[@regkray]

Decent saxophone player as well.

[@russcooke5671]

Love hearing stories like that. ❤

[@ianharley1726]

Beautiful looking cars!

[@westwood6246]

Looks like heaven!

[@waverley610]

Warren Street as a hub for second hand cars, that goes back to WW2 days and petrol rationing but no sign of it in 1976, just one year after this was made. Strange!?

[@rjjcms1]

I never went out of the station into Warren Street itself,but did get off the Tube just to do the maze and get on the next one. Couldn't resist doing it once.

[@chrismanners9091]

Be interesting to know when flyposting became a thing. I used to like it, and it's great seeing it in old footage, where I imaging myself going to the gigs. But it did make the place look a mess. Surprised to see it was illegal as far back as 1971. Seems like it only got eradicated in about 2005.

[@rjjcms1]

BILL STICKERS WILL BE PROSECUTED Graffiti: "Bill Stickers is innocent"

[@regkray]

If you search for a photo of Nelson's Column being constructed in 1844 you'll see flyposters all over the hoardings around the site. It's one of those details that is often overlooked in period dramas. Flyposters are probably as old as printing itself. If you have something to sell, then a flyposter is not a bad way to do it.

[@johnrider5701]

There's a few Arthur Dailys there.

[@rjjcms1]

And probably the odd Del Boy Trotter.

[@global001]

Warren St tube before the McDonalds opened where the boarded up and billboarded posters were. And opposite side of the rod torn down for the modern UCLH Hospital. Traffic signs over the Tottenham court rd have gone too. And Euston Station has kept the escalator to the tube but the rest has been redesigned.

[@centrelens]

Wow I hardly recognise Warren street in this video. The view 0:01 is gone, you cannot see that much sky now. There is also a underpass on euston road which I don't think was built then. This area is always heaving with people, it looks very quiet here.

[@ArmySigs]

People have been complaining since the dawn of time...

[@CycolacFan]

For thousands of years people have been saying things were better 10, 20, 30 years ago. In 2045 we’ll be saying the same thing.

[@C345OFR]

Thank you! I thought he sounded like a miserable ol' get but looked like some in the comments section were praising him. Good to see I'm not alone.

[@Munch-g7s]

Look at the quality bands and solo acts on those gig posters. 70s were the best for music.

[@C345OFR]

LOL, the presenter didn't think so!

[@lokvagn3135]

1977-85 were great years for music. Punk music, new wave, synth pop and italo disco!

[@slalomsteve]

If only noise was the only thing wrong with London. People are leaving for very different reasons now.

[@gezbo66]

I left 10 years ago for Eastern Europe and have not looked back. I couldn’t take it anymore. I loathe visiting london now. Still heart broken and I am not an Englishman..

[@JamesSmith-qs4hx]

Mechanical diggers you say?🤨

[@chrisdstard5644]

It no longer feels like an English city. Oh wait I'm not allowed to say that......

[@chrismanners9091]

Population is rising fast. It would be rising a lot faster if it was as cheap as the 70s.

[@zeddeka]

Russian troll

[@davewilson3061]

I was born just off Albany Street not far from Warren Street

[@thenoobpolice3002]

Benny Green was a natural presenter, among his other talents.

[@ivortoad]

I thought that was steptoe

[@Jack_Warner]

Take me back to 1975! I was 13, getting up to mischief.

[@raymobbs732]

Me to jack we are both the same age, Carefree time you could go out the door in the morning and return at tea time..😊

[@derin111]

I grew up in London in the 1960s and 70s. In 1975, I was 12 years old. Don’t let anyone tell you different….it was a ‘ucking shit-hole!

[@gordoncampbell100]

Warren Street absolutely mental in 1970`s !!!!

[@DessieTots]

“Rich beyond the dreams of avarice” not average. But I might have mis-heard due to all the noise.😊

[@solsol1624]

Pretty sure he said it correctly. Rag trade long gone mow eh.

[@adaptandsucceed6875]

It was a joke.

[@markegg262]

Whoosh

[@AFaceintheCrowd01]

Look at that poster - Kokomo and Betty Wright. There was a double bill!

[@jamesdean1143]

Can you imagine that there were factories in London once, employing working people ?

[@lefuedebout]

Warren Street, wasn't that where the " mini-cab " idea took off? Or am I mistaken? I know it was somewhere in the West End or there about!

[@JeffPower-dv3zl]

❤ Bennys hair style 😂🎉😊

[@OldSethOnetooth]

That guy coming around the corner did not want to be seen.

[@hmq9052]

Hard, grim days. Hard geezers. Most people today wouldn't do the swap. They wouldn't be able to cope.

[@rjjcms1]

But you could still go and see Ella Fitzgerald perform live! And Betty Wright,and Slade.

[@davidlister370]

Ronnie Kray over here LOL

[@maxasaurus3008]

Reggie was better 😂 sorry I got them mixed again, you’re right Ronnie was the interesting one

[@crabapples1995]

Lol not really, few rough neighbourhoods but affordable housing, much lower crime rate, you could get a job in a day without even a CV let alone 400 emails and months of trying like today…

[@hmq9052]

@@crabapples1995 Home ownership rates were 55 percent in the 1970s Today it's 65 percent. Poverty and low wages was far more prevalent then.

[@MrItsme73]

Lead air pollution... Crime... Stress... Cultural shocks

[@version736ha2]

Was the population of London really 10 million then??

[@listenmullahsb]

Damn... looks so clean, all the street signs are shiny and new... wow

[@chrismanners9091]

Benny Green is very watchable, but not sure what it's got to do with America. And yeah, it's noisy if you stand by the biggest road in Inner London. It's not so noisy round the corner in Warren Street. Moving out of London was very much a thing till the early 90s, when it began to grow population again and has never stopped. I don't think "noise" really explains it. Probably more that traditional manual jobs started to go, and with that the wider traditional community life of families and friends living and socializing close by. If you're going to have to travel to work, you might as well move out to the suburbs or a new town and have a back garden. There was more effort to get manual jobs into new towns than into central London. There were new jobs coming in offices (massive boom in this era) but not everybody adapted to that. As someone who' only ever worked in an office, I think I'd have been in my element at this time. Cheap flat share in Zone 1, walk to work, lot easier than the train and tube commutes I had to do.

[@Mkbshg8]

Did he say 2 million people? Listened a few times and that's all I hear...

[@stIllIll_1111]

I thought he said 10 million people. Edit. I Googled the population of London in 1975 when this was first seen... 7.5 million so... 🤷

[@Mkbshg8]

@@stIllIll_1111 Yeah I did the same lol, you're probably right him saying 10 million and meant it approximately.

[@rjjcms1]

@Mkbshg8 Perhaps he meant inner London rather than Greater London,which has sprawled outwards a lot since then,as a whole.

[@chrismanners9091]

@@rjjcms1 The Green Belt's limited the sprawl in Outer London, but a lot more people lived there from Inner London and outside, making it much more urban. Previously lots of Outer London was very suburban, and residents seriously considered themselves being part of Kent, Surrey, Essex etc.

[@rjjcms1]

@@chrismanners9091 Spot on. We were always part of Hertfordshire even if with the advancing sprawl some people tried to tell us we're part of London. Really noticed the instant transition from being in the grimy capital to outside in open fields in the Green Belt once a short distance out of Romford on the train on our visits to my aunt,cousins and uncle's house in Brentwood.

[@YOSEMITEVUE-fo9tu]

Old day not like new day

[@fredcork1]

I'll offer him a tenner for that Mk1 Ford Escort if it's still tomorrow.

[@petedemaio168]

Can you edit the Description as it says Warwick Street instead of Warren Street. Come on Freemantle. Gis a job.

[@SajidHussain-lj5mr]

Those were the good old days

[@zm321]

That is paradise compared with today's UK cities.

[@thepostman9664]

Wow, not ******* in sight 😊

[@fasthracing]

Slightly dodgy car dealers. "Lovely motor Mrs"

[@markmewordz6860]

All British cars then.

[@blissy1]

When it was safe to walk the streets

[@chrismanners9091]

2024 murders- 105. 1970 murders 105, with a much smaller population.

[@warriorboy1976]

&? ​@@chrismanners9091

[@tonemc6047]

@@chrismanners9091 What about sexual assault,stabbings and street robberies ?

[@maxasaurus3008]

Blaming your yank cousins for your horrid two tone emergency sirens??

[@danabrahams7892]

Yes, British was always a bell wasn't it

[@user-ht9fr6eh9u]

yeah man Italian way better

[@glenngeeful]

What???

[@fasthracing]

Anyone notice anything different with today?

[@gary23jag]

You know it

[@OldSethOnetooth]

But I thought "it was always like this."

[@michaelingram8056]

So, Roman London was very 'diverse' but those people all left in 1975 whilst this was being filmed.

[@russellhunter8378]

Yeah, they don't sell cars in Warren Street anymore, I know that's what you mean.

[@tonykemp3432]

Yeah,, you can't tell if it is London nowadays......cespit of shit from all the world......am I close?

[@fordprefect80]

Wow, looked like an English city back then.

[@adamstanford2549]

No Palestinian or Islamists flags anywhere. The good old days

[@TrueBrit1]

Wow, so good to see the commenters have absolutely no views on London today. Yep, no c.ensorship necessary. Ahem.

[@the.blue.man21]

London is a great big place, your just sore because you don't live or work here.

[@tone6403]

​@@the.blue.man21 they live in the comments and their job is to whine. Extremely bitter.

[@TrueBrit1]

@@the.blue.man21 Really? I spent years having to work and travel through that great big sh1thole of a place - happiest day of my life was leaving it for the final time, just over 10 years ago. It's a disaster of a place, full of crime, vermin, dirt and violence. The only up side was that I was never stupid, or unfortunatete enough, to ever have to live there.

[@user-or6yn8pm3c]

Actual British people in London??? Is this a dream or real life????

[@muttley523]

History repeating itself a terrible Labour government in the seventies ruining everything and just like today social disharmony now London has a shocking Mayor driving businesses and Londoners out I moved south in 1978 unfortunately just before Maggie got in and made everyone get off their arses and encourage entrepreneurs cars were my thing in the seventies they were so cheap to buy in 4 years I had 5 Cooper S’s 2 Cortina’s Anglia Mini Van Mini Traveller a Mk2 Jag and a Radford Cooper which I took down south the music scene in the 60’s and 70’s was fantastic in West London and great to see those posters I still go back to London to watch my beloved QPR and see my old mates there but I’m always relieved to get home to Hampshire

[@WaqasAli-dq9wg]

Probably the street food is giving em Cholera...!!! Apart from that Chulapa and Shawarma are not up to the mark

[@chrismanners9091]

Read about Warren Street car dealers, never seen footage of it. So this is very interesting.Bernie Ecclestone started there. As with lots of old footage of London, it's striking how little the authorities bothered. Can't imagine those blokes were paying much tax. Even Arthur Daley on his car lot would have had the council after him for Business Rates. But I'd have enjoyed having a walk down there and taking in the atmosphere even though I can't drive. It's funny too seeing these people complaining about London in the 70s. Traffic and noise were nothing compared to later, I suppose it always feels that things are changing too fast.