West End London (1977)

Unused / unissued material - Colour material.
West End, London.
VS of signs in Chinese - presumably in Chinatown. Some signs are also in English. MS of sign for club - 'Whisky A Go Go'. There are several Union Jack flags - the time of the Silver Jubilee. VS of the street. MS of Eros statue in Piccadilly Circus. VS of the Piccadilly Circus area - Scottish football fans are in evidence. Both Eros and some other buildings are covered with scaffolding. MS signs for a Sex Shop. Shots of Red London buses. Ext of Piccadilly Theatre where the RSC (Royal Shakespeare Company) are performing. VS of large advertisement hoardings. VS of buildings. CU sign for film - 'The Story of Joanna - it is 'X' rated. Pan across Piccadilly Circus showing building work underway. VS of people walking around. LS of sign for London Underground (Tube) station.
Other material exists on PM3411.
FILM ID:3410.1
A VIDEO FROM BRITISH PATHÉ. EXPLORE OUR ONLINE CHANNEL, BRITISH PATHÉ TV. IT'S FULL OF GREAT DOCUMENTARIES, FASCINATING INTERVIEWS, AND CLASSIC MOVIES. www.britishpath...
FOR LICENSING ENQUIRIES VISIT www.britishpath...
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.britishpat...

[@garystefan8550]

I was born in 1977, I'm just about old enough to remember that London was a far more friendly place than it is now.

[@zeddeka]

Mate, I think you're looking through at that era through the naive eyes of the kid you were then. I'm a bit older than you and I can assure you that London was a very dark, seedy and often quite dangerous place back then and all through the 80s. The West End was notorious for organised crime, corruption and had a serious paedophile problem. Piccadilly Circus was so full of runaway lads who ended up working as 'rent boys' to make money that it got the nickname 'The Meat Rack'. There were several paedophile scandals around that time, including the 'Playland' scandal where paedophiles were picking up kids in an arcade, and another one in 1986 when it turned out that some bloke was brazenly pimping out young lads from the window of Wimpy in Piccadilly Circus. You also couldn't pass through any of London's train stations without seeing groups of kids involved in prostitution. It was not a nice era.

[@idiocrat8425]

Could be the day after England v Scotland (Home Championship) on 4/6/77. Thought I saw a piece of crossbar bobbing near Piccadilly Circus...

[@tonelemoan]

Must be it! Unless they just came down to piss on the Jubilee :p

[@maxwellfan55]

This was my stomping ground, I also helped cleaned the streets and bogs at 4am. Never once harassed, robbed, intimidated, threatened.

[@Graphicxtras1]

Interesting but pity a little more of the streets were not shown - still, always great to see

[@russefrance4869]

I was there. Flares, Ben Sherman shirt...and Saturday Night Fever🙂

[@ziauddin7948]

beautiful London in 1977 ❤❤ # i love to see London history ❤ # i have seen many times London in late 80s when i was a kid # the Wrigley chewing gum reminds me the Quaker oats i had been purchasing from market which was produced in UK #👍👍

[@ceolnaghra]

looks like allys army and the bay city rollers were down for the weekend!

[@paulcooper-n2v]

Sid vicious was there also.

[@Veni_Vidi_Vortice]

I really fancy a few Watneys and a punch up with some Scotland fans now.

[@canman5060]

They started from Soho Chinatown.

[@rixster808]

When you could drive and park without paying a fee!

[@fishtherapy100]

You obviously didnt spot the parking meters in the footage

[@rixster808]

@@fishtherapy100 iam a 70s child i wouldnt have known what a parking meter was

[@fishtherapy100]

@@rixster808 Im sure you might not know what a lot of things are. Thats your business. Re-Watch the video. There is a parking meter in the footage. 😄

[@spidyman8853]

In the video, there was a Parking Meter to be fair. It seemed back then, that certain places in central London had parking meters which did not cost the earth. However, most places in London (inner and outer) you could park for free. We now live in a greedy society that sees the public as cash cows. So you end up with Council boroughs competing with each other seeing who will get more money out of the drivers. Add to that the penalty notices, the congestion charge, the ULEZ. Need I go on.........

[@fishtherapy100]

@@rixster808 I am a child of the 60’s. I know what a parking meter is. You must have the IQ of a goldfish

[@72ecwc]

I went to Soho in 77, was 15. Paid £5 for my hole, was amazing.

[@buriburizaemon1711]

which hole u r talking about?

[@72ecwc]

@@buriburizaemon1711 Her minge.

[@buriburizaemon1711]

@@72ecwc ohh nice I m 19 didnt experienced a hole till now....was she is elder than u at that time?

[@72ecwc]

@@buriburizaemon1711 of course, I was only 15😁

[@buriburizaemon1711]

@@72ecwc 😁 naughty lil boy at that time

[@horrortackleharry]

6:16 The RSC's 'Wild Oats' had Jeremy Irons and Zoe Wanamaker in the cast. Bit of pointless info there....

[@dhalsim-1]

Who directed it?

[@davidbottomley8672]

Shockingly bad dull footage. Can't believe this is British Pathé!

[@highpath4776]

presumably it is 16mm. Pathe acquired a lot of film archive over the last 30 years so may not have been their camerawork

[@ashleyscottthomas6633]

I see eros is boarded up the England Scotland football match 😳

[@jdm65]

6:07 Neil from The Young Ones

[@tonyclifton265]

LOL he was appalled by all the negative vibe merchants

[@chrisr5499]

Where were the Punks, Teds and Rastas

[@highpath4776]

Teds had gone, Punks were more around Traf Square (but hiding fearing a kicking from the Scotland supporters still in town. Rastas would be Brixton/Notting Hill

[@luvuforeverjames]

Could of done with audio?

[@tonelemoan]

This is B-roll stuff so would have added unnecessary expense at that time. Would have been used as supplemental with a V/O. It clearly says it was unused to this was all discarded.

[@lewisner]

1.19 "Shanghai Beauty Salon" yeah right..............

[@tonyclifton265]

defo knocking shop or at least "rub & tug" parlour.

[@ianritchie1323]

Not a good time for London with a large chunk of Piccadilly torn down and the London Pavilion closed for refurbishment. Why spend so much time at such a rotten location?

[@fishandchips9033]

I was born in 1970.

[@maheerraja3012]

Me too!

[@tonyclifton265]

thanks for the info, pal

[@rosedarylify]

I thought it was china at first with all the scripts

[@AtheistOrphan]

Chinatown in Soho.

[@highpath4776]

@@AtheistOrphan that block of flats - are they still their - featured in an episode ot the professionals (drugs/illegal chinese and some other storyline in it that would have dated from the same time. Odd if 1977 that no Silver Jubilee Routemasters got filmed.

[@AtheistOrphan]

@@highpath4776 - If you can give me a time stamp I’ll check it out. As for the Routemasters, they were only a handful (out of many hundreds) that were painted in the silver jubilee colours.

[@johnobrien8398]

How many. Genders were there then. I bet only two

[@wrightvcx2249]

Made from the loot of colonies.

[@acptelford1307]

And?

[@maxwellfan55]

And still waiting for the colonies to repay the billions they acquired.

[@JofromItaly]

Such bad quality for 1977. I was 18 ,cinema and TV were much better than this.

[@highpath4776]

Probably taken for backscene , infill or to use up a film reel, poss to for newsreel voice over Eng v Scotland match or queens silver jubilee

[@geminijune5173]

My dad got b7rnet

[@Bereadyalways123]

I was born and raised in London, now like most TRUE/REALL LONDONERS, have left LONDONSTAN , thank god ..

[@JofromItaly]

Bit racist? I'm a Londoner born and bred too, but...

[@Bereadyalways123]

@@JofromItaly oh Jo and person states the truth there jumped on and that good old RACIST card flicks out, now this is where you are going to caught like a Rabbit at night in a cars headlights..are you sitting ? GOOD my wife is Asian, and she agrees with me. Your move J , any other cards you want to show me, mmm.I thought not, jesus you silly people...

[@JofromItaly]

@@Bereadyalways123 You say Londonstan. That's a racist comment if no further context is given. How was I supposed to know your wife was Asian (which makes me see your comment in an entirely different light)?

[@The_wolf2885]

“Londonistan” translated in English would just mean Land of the Londoners you thick idiot 😂😂

[@Bereadyalways123]

@@The_wolf2885 Oh Mr Wolf translated in English would just means "DOG" how very appropriate, you thick idiot..