London Traffic Jams (1946)

Unused / unissued footage - dates and locations may be unclear / unknown.
London traffic jams.
Traffic moving over Tower Bridge - not much of it, mostly horse-drawn carts, a few cars and trucks. M/S of moving truck in the traffic congested (for the time) streets of the City. Good point of view shots as we travel along the roads. Crowds of people stand in a City square and listen to a brass band playing.
Several shots of jay walkers holding up traffic by walking in the middle of the road.
This is great for showing traffic (obviously!) in 1946, but also for adverts on buses and on street billboards! Such as 'Did you Maclean your teeth today?', 'Don't be vague, ask for Haigs' and 'To colour Grey hair with Safety, Evan Williams Tunisian Henna'. A few servicemen and women walk along streets, but most pedestrians are in civvies.
People hold up bus by clambering onto it in the middle of the road. Man hails a taxi and holds up traffic whilst he boards it in the middle of the road. View of the Strand as we travel along, passing Vaudeville Theatre. We travel on to Piccadilly.
FILM ID:2327.13
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British Pathé also represents the Reuters historical collection, which includes more than 136,000 items from the news agencies Gaumont Graphic (1910-1932), Empire News Bulletin (1926-1930), British Paramount (1931-1957), and Gaumont British (1934-1959), as well as Visnews content from 1957 to the end of 1984. All footage can be viewed on the British Pathé website. www.britishpathe.com/

[@marinedrive5484]

Thanks British Pathe... some amazing footage here and so much to take in. It really is a window into the past: the people, the clothes, the cars, the buildings and shop signs and so on. Wonderful!

[@ricdavid7476]

my dad had just come back from 3 years on the burma siam railway courtesy of the japanese and was living in London he was ill for the rest of his relatively short life.

[@hilaryrubinstein9022]

It is truly amazing that there were not dozens of dead bodies of those trying to cross the road. It was famously said that "London motorists divide pedestrians between the quick and the dead."

[@sandmanjono1239]

Addictive & fascinating filming 👌🏻

[@santitofelipe6283]

Just Amazing!

[@jamilaparvez8301]

Beautiful

[@deshood3406]

Cant believe how clean it looks.

[@dugebuwembo]

London wasn't clean back then, the coal factories created a lot of smog that would build up on clothes.

[@callumhardy5098]

@@dugebuwembo There may have been a little coal smoke but just look, everyone is dressed in a suit and tie, there are no potholes in the roads, every pavement is not spattered with chewing gum.

[@dugebuwembo]

@@callumhardy5098 hmmmm 🤔

[@callumhardy5098]

@@dugebuwembo is that a hmmmmm?, ‘your talking bull’ or hmmmmmm? ‘You may have a point?

[@dugebuwembo]

@@callumhardy5098 I live in London I don't see pot holes in the roads...

[@ncs8730]

1930s or 1940s? Traffic was no less heavy than today; and people yet crossed the streets where they liked - and there were no problems!

[@doreenfawcett9717]

Wow amazing film

[@mitchellgiffard1978]

Very Interesting love seeing historic London dating back from then.

[@andymccallum8761]

Mesmerising. 👍

[@Pluggit1953]

I wonder if that was the US Army Air Force Band performing one of their lunchtime radio broadcasts. My late father told me about them.

[@charleshussey118]

Surprisingly little bomb damage - I wonder whether the filmmakers deliberately avoided showing this?

[@julianaylor4351]

The houses in my road in London were built in the twenties, so the garages are meant for cars from that era and are too small for modern cars, but were still usable until the late seventies, when cars got bigger.

[@bilaltugrulugurlu8577]

I love London a magnificent city 💖😍

[@trueman5483]

Very nice early footage of London

[@williamrubinstein3442]

Someone said in the 1920s that "London motorists divide pedestrians between the quick and the dead"

[@michaelkenny8540]

2 adverts for the film 'Dragonwyck' on busses at 3:19 & 5:54. It ran at The Odeon Leicester Square May 18th to June 6th 1946.

[@MichaelGunner123]

Great footage. Just wish volume was included.

[@gerardburton1081]

1.10 looks like bags of coal. There was still a lot of horses and carts in 1946 that surprised me.

[@Jeffybonbon]

we are all just passing through

[@robnewman6101]

Keep Calm and Carry on.

[@deano3580]

There is a sports car with a GB sticker on it at 3:25. Must have been very rare for cars to go overseas in 1946. Also hardly any paint markings on the roads back then.

[@succulent951]

Relatively no markings and multiple lanes of traffic 😯

[@missasinenomine]

Not him again! Why do all Pathe videos have to end with Mick Jagger?!!!!

[@peterrivet648]

The opening scene shows Tower Bridge when it was still lit by gas. I can remember seeing this as a small child and wondering how the gas pipework for the street lighting was arranged so that it could cope with the central spans being opened.

[@michaelkenny8540]

Something is dropped in the road at 5:32 (fell from the bus turning?) and a boy runs over to pick it up (behind the motor cycle at 5:38) and then chases after the bus(?)

[@Mr.1.i]

Do you reckon anyone got charged with driving without due care and attention.or cycling mikey vetting everyone about mobile phones

[@andrewbutterson8367]

Busy London streets love those old AEC stl buses and taxis

[@user-kk5kr5ys6i]

Just after WW2 ended, if the date is correct; my parents' young lives.

[@malcolmlewis6014]

It looks more like before the war to me.

[@simonworman7898]

That maybe because all the cars maybe of prewar design

[@Christina-ge3xr]

Not much difference than now 😊

[@wondermum9770]

People dressed so smartly then,very lovely to see ❤

[@robnewman6101]

20th Century Law Enforcement Police Officers.

[@johnadams3730]

England.

[@simonworman7898]

Plenty of Policemen

[@robnewman6101]

Constabulary. Police.

[@bernadettekelly8165]

Shame cars were ever invented ! Horse and trap much better ....