England, 1950

[@Captally]

I was 7 years old in 1950 and watch videos like this with lump in throat and tear in eye for what we have sold out to or given away. Either given away or given way to.

[@polishherowitoldpilecki5521]

You were born during ww2.

[@missmerrily4830]

It's called nostalgia. All oldies experience it.

[@solentbum]

@@missmerrily4830 I'm 72 , and I am not nostalgic for the poverty in the area of London where I lived.

[@CutieZalbu]

@@solentbum amen! Time stops for no man,So y’all better get aboard the train

[@jamielodge3930]

A far cry of what it is today :(

[@mickymantle3233]

It breaks my heart that I became a pensioner and had to witness the destruction of everything I held dear in these demonic days.

[@lesreed9269]

Indeed - rickets/slums/the sanitary man - chasing up slum landlords/no NHS/having to sit in The National Assistance Board offices - cap in hand - to beg for a pittance/"You've never had it so good" SuperMac told us! I was there, too - and I remember what it was like!

[@lesreed9269]

@Messenger Charles That has what - to do with anything? We had the NHS for three PMs - but some of us lived before 1948 - before MacMillan!

[@lesreed9269]

@Messenger Charles Piss off and irritate someone else - or get back into your JO corner. The thrust of my comment was about how difficult it was in the 1940s/50s/60s. Many of us experienced pre NHS/welfare state pain. That MacMillan said "you've never had it so good" was a slap for those of us who STILL were not having it good. Given your comments, I can only assume you failed comprehension at school - as you clearly didn't get the drift of what was being said. Having just looked at your page, I concluded that you are a little deranged.

[@lesreed9269]

@Messenger Charles Anyone that uses the word "commie" - in this day and age - definitely has a screw loose: your page shows that you fit the bill!

[@lesreed9269]

@Messenger Charles It's the 21st century!

[@sparx180]

Beautiful England. Doesn't get any better than that.

[@drspaseebo410]

Most areas are virtually unrecognisable today, alas.

[@tonycatman]

Fewer cars, and fewer road signs make a hell of a difference. Picadilly Circus (about 06:00) was synonymous with being incredibly busy. It looks like a quiet back street by today's standards.

[@Maryonpark]

What an utter mess we've made of this once great proud country. It breaks my heart watching this.

[@lesreed9269]

Yes, so much to miss... Poverty, slums, no NHS, school clinics for rickets etc... Yes, I really miss those times!

[@susanna8612]

Right in 20 years time you live under Sharia.

[@po5333]

There is no future and England is dreaming.

[@shepski8065]

Same as Mr ..a lot of the world used to look up to us in terms of many things...all for the greater but nowdays ...shame not though general folk..just corruption in government. money talks..if I n right circles ....

[@davesaunders3334]

@@susanna8612 - Shut up you dopey racist twat.

[@Hardflipryan]

Life looked so much less stressful than what it is today..

[@jake9854]

Ryan Ayres we got computer n smart phone son! we re living in da golden age!

[@MrDavil43]

Well, we now live longer than in those smog-laden days, or does it just seem longer? The 50's for me were long, happy childhood days, cohesive communities, steam railways and people who took a pride in manual work that required skills and muscle. But I remember, too, filthy slums and relatives becoming ill at middle age, old soldiers from WW1 with missing limbs, blindness and hacking coughs. Overall, I wouldn't wish to go back.

[@rattytattyratnett]

Infant death rates and death in childbirth were higher. Polio, TB was common. This was an advertisement with an American narrator.

[@davesaunders3334]

Because you're watching it on a film and not actually living through it.

[@SuperNevile]

@@davesaunders3334 and it's not even HD.........

[@susanna8612]

This was still the times when European people were and were allowed to be proud of their own achievement s, countries, cultures and people.

[@TheWizardOfTheFens]

Suzie 💕

[@CutieZalbu]

& this also when Britain were murdering my people aimlessly in one of their “colonies.” So what’s your point?

[@susanna8612]

@@CutieZalbu now Great Britain is small unsafe Pakistan, disgrace. Go guilt tripping someone else, it does not work for me. none of the normal people killed anybody or ever even visited your country, which where not yours since you didn't even exists.

[@ooloncolluphid5299]

Amazing how much more industrial England was back in the 50s. We used to manufacture so much.

[@paulgabolinscy2502]

Yes if it was Made in England it was made to last. Not anymore.

[@solentbum]

Did you notice how OLD the looms were, how labour intensive the coal mining was, as was the car manufacturing and ship building. As for the Docks, they were so inefficient. I visited a shipyard on the Tyne in the mid 1960's. They had just come back from a strike about whether Aluminium panelling in the superstructure was WOOD or STEEL! Meanwhile the Koreans were building ships at a much lower cost . Would you like to live in that dirty old Thatched cottage shown early in the film? One of my childhood friends lived in one, he had permanent coughs until he moved to a new brick built house. I have no fond memories of my childhood in a dirty smoggy London, only the memory of my mother nearly dying from the poor air quality.

[@MsPaintMr]

@@solentbum So just because we squandered Modernisation, we can't be proud of what we achieved? I bet you also think that we have no Culture because "tea is from India, akshully".

[@thunderbird1921]

Until the 90s, America's manufacturing was remarkable also. Now both of our countries have been robbed of industries in favor of slave labor in China and other tyrannical nations. Makes me nauseous.

[@anth7354]

Huge loss of life in two great wars, all for nothing, we should be ashamed

[@Ropponmatsu2]

Why should "we" be ashamed? Who is this "we" that you are talking about? This footage was shot in 1950, "these" people mostly thought the war had been hard but had been worth it and was not "all for nothing." Even if you were a full on, cross-eyed socialist, there was the prospect of social reform in the air, people were disgusted at what had been uncovered in Germany, and all of the warnings that had been sounded about Fascism had in fact been correct. It was not for nothing.

[@TheRogey1]

I think he means what the state of this country is today!

[@Finglesham]

@@TheRogey1 I assumed he was a fascist who preferred the Germn way of life.

[@iseegoodandbad6758]

The 1950s. The last decade of a fully old fashioned traditional Britain where people still lived as they had for centuries. All to be destroyed by modernity and "progress". What a pity!

[@carbugnov1952]

i would prefere england of our great grand parents in the early victorian era, 1840's before the great wars which destroyed many families , before time became an obsession.

[@Alex-km5ce]

For some reason instead of every country looking more beautiful as the years past by it’s the opposite soo sad

[@jusb1066]

Due to asset stripping of the country over decades

[@Zs0902]

If i was only born in that time :( Life looked much better back then, alot different then what it is now.. Sadly.

[@lindsaypeterholden2701]

Anyone know where I can buy a Time Machine!!!!!

[@beerbandit291]

You're out of luck. They sold old next year.

[@beerbandit291]

You're out of luck. They sold old next year.

[@pete6645]

Amazon probably sell them.

[@neo9961]

Area 51

[@MrConan89]

Enoch Powell said it all but was called a 'racist'. We have 'labour' politicians who never worked a day in their lives in a proper job. I left UK in 1975 thank goodness.

[@mrstandfast2212]

And neither have the Tories or the ilLiberal unDemocrats, PC, SNP, DUP, Greens .... a pox on 'em all!

[@mottledbrain]

To live through the Great Depression (I have no idea how it affected England) and to then go through the Second World War; No wonder things seemed to be positive in a film like this. My parents lived through these times. The 1950s/60s must have seemed wonderful. The stories I heard when they were alive ...

[@saltspringrailway3683]

I was a child in the 60's. Living in a grotty 2 up 2 down with only 1 water tap and an outside loo in the middle of a northern city - Hull. However, we all played safely outside in the street, not indoors staring at a screen hour after hour. Just about all children were slim and probably healthier than today's children. The air quality was poor though. My parents bought a caravan by the sea when I was 6 so we could breath fresh air every weekend.

[@MsPaintMr]

To answer your confusion, Britain never had the "Roaring Twenties". The British Economy stagnated for 20 years from the end of WW1 and all the way up to WW2. The 1929 crisis was just one of many recessions that Britain had to endure throughout the inter war period. The 50s saw growth return, but not nearly as fast as other European countries, and by the 70s the Economy had once again stagnated, and ironically the former Axis powers of Germany Italy and Japan all surpassed Britain.

[@thunderbird1921]

Well, don't forget Britain was involved in the Korean War in the early 50s along with America and multiple others, so it wasn't all happiness and relief (though the Brits weren't having their cities bombed constantly, so at least it wasn't the hell on earth that was World War II). The Soviet threat also loomed in the background.

[@DaBriars]

Omg Look how clean it was and no vermin to be seen anywhere

[@rattytattyratnett]

Infant death rates and death in childbirth were higher. Polio, TB was common. This was an advertisement with an American narrator.

[@CutieZalbu]

The only vermin is that nasty attitude of yours 🤮

[@lesreed9269]

What a weird comment! Vermin were everywhere - particularly in the slums that were prevalent!

[@MrRadiorobot]

The leftie thought Crime police still in operation I see.... 😂🤣

[@quietman2672]

When we knew who was amongst us

[@martm216]

Well, yes - much could be said about this, more than can be written here. I was born in 1953, so have some childhood memories of the fifties. There were a lot of good things then, which we have since lost. But it was also a class-ridden society, even more so than now, where it was difficult to break through the 'glass ceiling', which was probably more a wood and heavy plaster ceiling. There was a solidity and order about society then, which had its good aspects, certainly. But perhaps it was too fixed, in the sense that if you were say, working-class, that's where you were most likely to remain. One good thing to come out of the years that followed was the Open University, allowing people who, largely because of home and family circumstances, could never aspire in many cases even to 'O' levels or 'A' levels, never mind university. And the internet has brought many things within reach of ordinary people, although we know that while being a blessing, it can also be turned into a curse.

[@bendover6087]

I'd rather be poor in that honest society. Than rich in this disgusting degenerate times. People were just better people in those times simple as. Less immigrants more community, it just looks like it was an absolute dream how can London of been that beautiful compared to now. No point even saying anything nothing will ever change this is just what we got and its nothing to be proud of.

[@martm216]

@@bendover6087 yes, there are many precious things that we have lost.

[@martm216]

@@Tolpuddle581 wow Rupert. Quite a story. I wouldn't have had the courage to do that. Apart from the fact that I wouldn't have coped with the climate. I'm stuck with Britain, for better or worse.

[@martm216]

@@Tolpuddle581 well done. You would have seen some snow though in Derby this year!

[@jeremypreece870]

I love at 5:56 to see that "Piccadilly Circus ... sets the rushing roaring tempo ...as paths of Empire meet and mingle ... the traffic's endless flow" and we see about half a dozen buses and a dozen or so taxis only.

[@johnrichards6352]

What could possibly ever go wrong?

[@karlhrdylicka]

+John Richards Just about everything that could go wrong has gone wrong ..

[@mottledbrain]

If England is anything like North America one of the big things to go wrong, industry-wise, has been the advent of, most recently, trade with China and previous to that trade with third world countries ... we just cannot compete. We need our wages! (Even if just to manage to pay our taxes.) - Reg. (Sorry for replying two years late.)

[@Sennmut]

Just liberalism.

[@polishherowitoldpilecki5521]

R. W. Smith Globalism destroyed America and United Kingdom.

[@12dougreed]

@@heighwaysonthewing you are the prick here. Only you.

[@mervynsands3501]

Where has it all gone. Don't recognise the place now. Good old blighty.

[@elenparvin440]

The beauty of England is immortal that i belief.

[@lesliewatson6146]

It makes you want to cry better time's it sad the bloody liberal politicians had to spoil it

[@Eddiecurrent2000]

It wasn't the liberals who destroyed it, it was the right wing.

[@pete6645]

I love seeing the old industrial scenes.

[@lesreed9269]

Nice to refresh my memory about some things - but too much of the rose-tinted spectacles, I'm afraid. I remember rickets/slum housing - "Peter Rachman"/poverty /endless hours at the local National Assistance Board office (where you had to go - AFTER you'd pawned your wedding ring & clothes! Lovely times, indeed...

[@SuperMikado282]

@Messenger Charles ignorant savage...learn some manners

[@SuperMikado282]

@Messenger Charles Hahaha, you are easily rattled Charlie-boy.

[@SuperMikado282]

@Messenger Charles yawn.....you will have to do better than that Chuckie

[@johnwormley5161]

Dear old England ...

[@m101ist]

The good old days 🙄

[@johnwormley5161]

@@m101ist amen to that ....

[@fordlandau]

The commentary is a self parody of travelogues of this period. All the depicted industry is long gone.

[@drugfckd]

no pink or blue haired facially pierced limp noodles back in them days

[@bignewshound]

Er... I think this voice over was delivered in all seriousness. It's all so frighteningly innocent.

[@MTknitter22]

bignewshound True because GOODNESS tended to rule in the culture then. Opposite of today.

[@TheTk1971]

'All i was waiting for 'were the words.....Baalham Gateway to the south.

[@ashleyhill2130]

Time has passed by here....and so shall we!

[@martm216]

Ah - a Peter Sellers fan?!

[@FlorianHelling]

England 2050, 31 years after Brexit.

[@snowflakemelter1172]

A free sovereign nation ruled by its own parliament , sounds great.

[@FlorianHelling]

@@snowflakemelter1172 England is a free, sovereign nation with its own parliament. Also within the EU.

[@jusb1066]

@Messenger Charles extract head from Ass and see how worse off we are now

[@Geordie-Geordie]

All the best has gone. I hope I'm wrong. Can/Will it get better. Attitudes have to change . Pride, Respect and the Willingness to do the Right Thing. Come on Lets Get Britain Great again.

[@stevedunningduckinggiraffe6296]

No. This is a rose-tinted version of the past, selectively avoiding the slums and the class system. It really wasn't better, do your research. Growing up in the 60s and 70s there were strikes all the time: I revised for my o-levels by candlelight! If I went out and filmed the very best of the UK today, I really think it would easily stand up to this.

[@derekevans8266]

Amen to that I grew up in Wigan in an old terrace house that was falling down not at thatched cottage in the Cotswolds, The school I went to had THE best football team in Lancashire but we didnt have a football pitch no showers no changing rooms, if you couldn't play football they wern't interested as far as I know no one from my school ever went to uni. Some of the teachers we had would do jail time now I saw one teacher hit a boy so hard he knocked him off his feet.

[@matthewsmith2787]

1950s seems like a transition stage from the wartime era into the early modern world

[@godislove8050]

Massive changes to society. The affluent 1950s. Population 50 million, now 66 million. The Welfare State meant if you didn't like your boss you could stuff the job and go on the dole. The tables were turned and the trade unions became powerful against employers and government, the unions began crippling the country. For example, in 1979, 'The Winter of Discontent' a fifth of the workforce was on strike and 29 million working days were lost, teachers, nurses, dustmen, miners, railways, power blackouts, rubbish mountains piled high in the streets, check KZbin videos. The labour communist ideology that everyone should have an equal share didn't work, in the 1970s the poorly educated became powerful, greedy, idle, fat and we began to live in squalor. The people turned away from mess the Labour Party had caused and voted for Margaret Thatcher of the Conservative party (dubbed the 'Iron Lady' by the Russians) she remained in government for 3 terms (11 years) battled with the unions, limiting their pay rises to 5% and when they didn't agree she finally crushed the unions stripping them of their crippling power. She turned the economy around to prosperity and got rid of the national debt. I don't like it that things went this way and we have lost our great industries but how would we have survived the 1980's if we had continued under the thumb of the workmen and their ideologically communistic influenced unions. Can you imagine, no electricity for 3 days each week, no rubbish collection for weeks on end, schools closed, no hospital admissions, no railway trains, buses etc etc etc etc.

[@sidwhitworth2714]

Mr Found you make some reasonable points about all we have Lost - yeah I remember the end of the 70s. But the crippling strikes were partly caused by equally crippling inflation. I've always firmly believed inflation is not majorly caused through high wage rises but through irresponsible governments printing or borrowing too much money (this is still happening big time but our money now flows overseas and into the pockets of the super rich, i.e., flowing linearly and not in a circle). Management was and remains bloodily awful and I have to say we Brits are still lazy and too academically-educated. A university degree SHOULD be an elitist statement and we fail to train our kids vocationally. Thatcher did not clear the national debt but she did bring it down considerably. She did privatise (so did Blair) as the EU tends to demand, which is fine to a point, but not when those businesses join most of our other major corporations in falling into foreign hands or simply shut down. But yes, we must take back our sovereign powers, produce more of our goods and resources and stop the flow of European and Asian imports. Maybe Brexit will spur us on to be Great again but I doubt it.

[@mrwilliecowie]

I bet you worked in the banking industry.

[@russellgxy2905]

6:30. I'd call bull crap, but that was one of the closest trains Britain had to a streamliner after WWII.

[@Voucher765]

By the time the 50s rolled around Britain and alongside the entire world recovered from World War II which had damaged it's infrastructure severely

[@internet123ism2]

forever grateful to my Dad who saw through this crap and left for Canada.

[@colcot50]

internet123ism2 oh well you have Trudeau now, best of luck.

[@CutieZalbu]

@@colcot50 you’re forgetting,he doesn’t have to go bankrupt because he has free healthcare and even better social services than y’all!

[@TIMBOWERMAN]

Piccadilly Circus is NOT Times Square and Britain's railways are NOT called railroads.

[@carbugnov1952]

today not even this kind of voice commenting is heard anymore.

[@Rog5446]

Don't know why they refer to Tower Bridge as Historic? It was only completed and opened 54 years before I was born. So not much history there then!

[@leedsman54]

Rog5446 Historic to the Yanks!

[@peterleadley7103]

Birmingham is not the second city of the nation. It's York.

[@peterturley1331]

💜😪💔

[@johnriggs4929]

"England - land of freedom..." yeah right.

[@m101ist]

Was once upon a day. 😳

[@michaelnaisbitt1590]

Doesn't me tion that Britain still had food rationing in 19r9--50 Ah the good old days At least today you know t that every politician elected is a crook out to feather their nests at the expense of yours In these days we all thought they had the nation welfare as their main concern What tools we were

[@1258-Eckhart]

"Burrming - Hemm"

[@gavriloprincip4152]

Amazing, those where the days! When England was for the English and Debbie do-gooder wasn't defending Johnny foreigner at every opportunity. If this comment offends you then get outta here. Iv got liver and onions for my tea tonight, and you cant get more British or better than that. Close the boarders and protect the NHS.

[@robtyman4281]

I could do without the 'patronising' American narration which ruins this footage. Was this a film made for Americans to visit Britain? ...as it portrays us as being simple country yokels, yearning to be educated by savvy, fashionable and brash Americans. I had to turn the sound off after a minute as it was driving me nuts.

[@Payne2view]

Such is England, the wrong name for the UK that Americans to this day insist on using. England where England England is England for England was that ancient England as is the England of England today.

[@UKTransportVideos82]

Wow look.at difference now to Bradford then looked great now a dump worst place in Yorkshire

[@tony_w839]

A lot of rose tinted glasses around.

[@MTknitter22]

tony w True but at least England was ENGLAND These strong people would have fought to the death before passively giving their premiere city over to being LONDONISTAN

[@yanikkunitsin1466]

Ratched world of freedom

[@clairepeace5783]

I clicked on this thinking it was English narrative ?! Oh dear America yet again stick to your country 😂

[@cosak23]

with brexit there is nothing left but outpost britain .

[@snowflakemelter1172]

Moronic.

[@csapienza001]

See you sons of the West...

[@robot7759]

Propaganda. So now you know why you're a sap.