1970s London | Living in London | Life before television | Report | 1975

Saxophonist Benny Green take a look what Londoners use to do for entertainment when money was tight and television had not invaded the living room.
These extracts are taken from a Thames TV documentary report - LONDON - NOT QUITE THE PLACE IT WAS
First shown: 09/09/1975
If you would like to license a clip from this video please e mail:
[e-mail]
Quote: VT60293

[@george52066]

It’s amazing that back in the 70s people were expressing concerns of London not being what it was. If those people were still alive/or are, they’d be horrified

[@Ballinalower]

I was a Thames Producer in the 70's and all I could think about watching this was "How the heck did they get the bean counters to shell out for that expensive crane shot at the beginning?"

[@patrickcrowther9195]

The film segment might have been lamenting the loss of community and childhood freedom in the television age, but watching it nearly 50 years on makes me lament the decline in standards of journalism and programme-making in the present day. A beautifully-written script delivered to camera at a perfect pace. Gorgeous camerawork with each shot given the time it needs to take effect. As a whole it succeeds in conveying more in a few minutes than a contemporary programme would in an hour. The creative people involved back then understood that the right space and pacing allowed the viewer to fill in the gaps in the story and form an impression of the issues being discussed without being condescended to. It was a pleasurable thing watching this stately kind of programming; nowadays one feels like someone is force-feeding you visual and sonic confectionery until the onset of nausea.

[@hellfirepictures]

It's not quite the place it was because it has an additional 3 million people, millions of cars, and the demographic has changed from 93% White/White British to around 53% White and White British (36%). The communities we had were intentionally torn down and ripped up, eg Deptford, by the illegal and unnecessary actions of the local council that razed it to the ground under the lie of 'unsafe housing' when it was just that they received massive backhanders from building contractors. All of those people - my family included - dispersed out to other areas, breaking up the long-establlished community. TV was never the reason for the changes in London. Governments, councils, bribery, and excessive immigration that broke up the long-established (hundreds of years) communities were.

[@stratac30]

When you could walk the streets of London and the everyday language spoken was English, today you feel like you're in Eastern Europe, the Middle East or parts of Asia.

[@adriankingdon3055]

Nostalgically watching someone being nostalgic about nostalgia.

[@presidentxijinpingspoxdoct9756]

London looks more like Cairo nowadays.

[@lindsayives4915]

I do miss the old England

[@jcs3330]

I was a youngster in the 70's. Playing in Adventure playgrounds (built out of wood and rope - our local one was called 'The Tarzan Park, next to the old Convoys factory). Building go-karts out of old pram wheels, bikes races with no brakes,, playing in dumps and making camps, removing led from derelict buildings and taking it down the scrap yard for cash (illegal now!), going to saturday morning cinema and spending my summer holidays down at Dymchurch. We all have our childhood memories and nostalgia. No doubt every generation will also.

[@FRANKMUSIKOFFICIAL]

So sad at the end as it was so poignant and true for today’s world.

[@Wearethewingmakers]

I absolutely love these old reels. Its the closest thing to a time machine we have. ❤

[@Highland_Moo]

I feel so bad for kids that grow up in cities. I was born in the late 70s in a tiny village in the Scottish highlands beside the sea. We grew up playing in the hills and we learned to swim in the sea. Our mums would chuck us out in the morning and we’d only come home for lunch then we’d be out til dark. We’d swim out to the wee islands or build dens in the hills. I still live in the same village and my kids are all grown up and have left home. They grew up doing the same as we did and weren’t allowed a mobile phone or iPad until they were in high school. I’ve been to London many times and the change over the years has been insane…..not just the new buildings, but the population too. My granny was from the east end and moved up here when she married my grandad from the Isle of Skye after they met in the RAF. Any time I hear a person from the east end I can’t help but smile…..they remind me of my nanna and her wicked sense of humour.

[@unchattytwit]

Superb - beautiful reportage and film. 'A day at the cricket is still one of the cheapest pleasures available to a Londoner' - until the moneymen came and took entertainment and sport away from the lower classes, extracting yet another freedom; local and cheap cinemas another case in point; communities, etc. Though a pleasure just to watch and listen to Benny for a few minutes - wise words at the end.

[@OllyO-gt8pg]

i was born in '72 in wirral, and we played out everyday from 8am until 6pm never came home once, had cuts bruises from climbing and fights etc...all from being a normal child, the 70's were my best years im 51 now and still reminisce.

[@stephennoonan8578]

Oy gevalt !

[@sharonkay8638]

Loved Benny Green, an intelligent an erudite man. Great Jazz aficionado too.

[@primalconvoy]

What an amazing piece of television. The whole thing was slickly made, wouldn't seem out of place today. I loved the wry humour of the presenter ("Children have lost their sense of enterprise by not not trying to enter the cinema without paying").

[@UKGeezer]

I seriously miss the 70s, although a lot of that is probably because I was a young kid without a care in the world. Thanks mum and dad.

[@nickycatton7882]

Wonderful film and evocative for me. My grandparents lived in a council house on Avondale Pk Rd, just off Holland Park, where my grandmother was a dinner lady at Holland Park Primary School. Benny Green looks and sounds like all my Dad’s relations and friends. I can remember in about 1969 when I was 6, a rag and bone man came by the house with his horse and cart. First and last time I ever saw one!

[@richardsharpe2966]

Benny Green was a great story teller and a good broadcaster and musician as well