I mourn the loss of my country 😔 I do not recognise it anymore, it's not my country anymore. I am glad that I grew up in a time when there was freedom and innocence for children and you knew everyone in the street.🇬🇧
How well you have summed it up to perfection. Reading your comment as sad as it was has eased my pain that there is someone out there that has the same vision of truth that I have. Thank you.
Victoria, You nailed it. Britain is unrecognizable. Kids are continually being indoctrinated into a mindset: "Diversity is good" when it is the opposite:it has taken away out lives.
Some of these photographs are from the 60s. Although times were hard until the mid-60s, there was much greater social cohesion than can be found in Britain today. In many ways, it was a much happier place, despite the poverty.
Agreed a number of these photo's are significantly later than the '50s. Also agree Britain was a much better and happier place than it is today. People knew what hardship was and got on with life. They worked hard to make things better instead of protesting and wanting everything for nothing in return.
@@tomblack6965 Now that's a blast from the past. Frannie Lee lived about 4 miles from me and was the nicest bloke you could ever meet. Occasionally used to see him in my local where he was just a great bloke you could have a laugh with.
You could leave school and easily find a job, free further and higher education for those who wanted it, buy a house after 4 or 5 years, roads safe and traffic free. The 1960's the good old days.
There were plenty of jobs before Thatcher ruined it all, all the factories mines and everything the working classes did went in the blink of an eye @@ncooper8438
i was born in 1949 and lived on a council estate all my life only had 3 professions all my life 1 of them for 45 years .i worked hard hardly had a sick day i retied better off with my pensions than working ,i loved my time growing up i was always out in the countryside with friends ,it was not till i was in my mid teens i came to realise the sacrifices my mum was making to cloth and feed us all she divorced my dad when i was 10 and we all mucked in all 7 of us , my mum was bedridden for many years and is was never a chore for us all to look after her it was our honour ,god bless you mum .
@@MiPointIs CSA are strident in pursuit of spouses paying their share as they are about benefit scroungers they add up what they are owed and at whatever point they work it will be collected ,give the CSA as much information as possible,i assume he has no access to his kids
@@rgsnr8702 Access is not a matter for working out the amount of Child Support payable. Shared custody is the only time the amount will be amended. Also the person receiving the Support (usually the Mum) has no legal requirement to account for how any of the money is spent. Things change over time, as needs become more complex but the basic tenet remains firm: BOTH parents are required to contribute to their children's care and support whatever their circumstances.
I was a child of the 1950s in a northern industrial town I got told to forget higher education my mission was to leave school and get a job any job just bring the money in and pay board and lodging to my parents
What has happened to the world? Nobody is happy anymore. Just greed, hate, selfishness and murderous thoughts. We should love and help each other. We are all from the same source.
@@gustavmeyrink_2.0 Globalism was the worst problem, and Labour was even more positive to that change than Tories. Now they are just as bad as each others.
@TheSeafordian A mere drop in the ocean compared to the £40-60 BILLION MAD Lizzies budget cost the Economy! AT least the VAST majority of MPs back THEN were competent!!!!!
I'd rather have the better medicines we have now. The right to control my own money, to work after marriage, decent birth control, central heating, legal equality for women, homosexuals and non whites.
Being a 50s kid this video wakens good memories of how our country was, Remember ice on the inside of bedroom window glass, Now its 2022 and this government returns us to those icy days due its lack of investment in UK energy, instead we pursue a net zero agenda we suffer they dont , this is madness, we are suppose to be going forward in time not backwards. Yes those days were good for children growing up and adults too, but now i just dont like what the country has become i simply do not recognise it . Our streets were safe then our borders secure , unlike now.
There was no unemployment. Young men left school and learned a trade. There was a real sense of community. We were more content with our lot and appreciated the more simple things in Life. We had a great NHS. There was still a lot of poverty that comes from social standing and stygma. I was born in 54 and I have fond memories of growing up in a small Perthshire Town in Scotland. There was so much to do, all year round.
I'm a 50s kid and only remember having a lot of fun despite shortages and housing at that time, alot of developments and regeneration was going on, and a Mars bar was the size of a brick costing three old pennies.
So am I as I was Born on Saturday December 22nd 1956 and I well Remember the 1960's and how times were tough and as a child I could play in the Street where I live and no one would touch us and we were far happier in those days
Duffle coats, Penny Arrow Bars , Old Trafford , Denis Law, Ford Anglias , Airfix Kits , Bus Conductors and of course the big decision .. Bus fare spent on a Mars Bar or walk home after school ! 😆
Multi culturalism has ruin this once great country ,makes me weep , if my father were to see this he would ask why his generation went to war for freedom
Born in 1947, I have much better memories of the 50s than this video portrays. Maybe inner cities were drab and dreary, but living in a more rural area, we had a clean and cheerful environment
The mistakes of building concrete jungles to improve our run down housing in 60,s Some cities like Birmingham having centre ripped out for cars.. left mess
The post war years were by far the happiest although ppl struggled & still on rations in the early 50s.People lived simple lives.They were content & enjoyed the peace after living thru 6 yrs of gruelling war! Children were children & played with imagination,they were not materialistic or corrupted by Tv. I'd give anything to bring that kind of life back.
No multicultural ridden divided isolated English people, booming industry, everything made here, British cars everywhere, kids playing out unsupervised, no grooming gangs, busy pubs n clubs, busy high street, everyone knew everyone, people married, bought a house, lived in it forever, worked at the factory end of the road, booming seaside resorts, no immigrants........what decade is it? 1950s? Bloody hell, my apologies, I thought it was my era, the 1980s!
Your comments in the description are very true - I know 'cause I was there! Bombed out, broke, rationed and taxed yet we didn't look for somewhere else to live, we stayed on, got stuck in and rebuilt and regrew.
I was born in 1953 and lived through many problems i.e. heating no glass in windows miles walks to shops have to catch a bus to school and walk 2 miles to bus stop. Had to play sports outside in rain snow. We lived through 15% mortgages had little fresh food, poor clothing no internet no tele. People today think they are struggling they don't know half. We struggled through hardships non of the modern people will ever see and what do the government do give us £783 a month to live on whilst people on benefits get £90,000 a year nearly £2,000 a month what sort of society do we have now in them days people helped each other now you don't even see person next door for months. Well done the British Government for taking us from the greatest nation in the world TO THE WORST
Apart from the fact most of what you said is total bollocks, why should people in this day and age have to suffer, we live in the world's 8th richest country! Could be anything to do with idiots voting tories into power could it? I'd say definitely.
I would go back to the 50's at the blink of an eye, hard yes, but wonderful compared to these days, we had nothing, but everyone we knew had nothing, and we helped each other
Not only that, it was getting better, people had optimism. Now it's getting worse, and we have seen nothing yet as it will get MUCH worse. Mostly because the "green" maniacs are ruining the ability to produce affordable energy. Also a lot of red tape killing creativity and freedom.
@@truxton1000 Quote - Also a lot of red tape killing creativity and freedom. Red tape creates jobs for thousands of people. You've only got to look at the England football team to know there's no creativity and freedom!!
@@PeterPete Well, the England team did well in the World cup, played better than France but lost, that's football. So I guess red tape would be your plan to create more jobs, you must be very intelligent...!
@@truxton1000 England never played better than France. France scored two goals from open play, England never scored from open play. The captain missed a penalty. Need I say more? Red tape creates jobs, I guess you'd have lots of people out of work just to lessen red tape. BTW, it's good Charles decided not to frack in the UK. Oh aren't they mining coal in Cumbria? Guess that shoots your green agenda ideas off goal.
@@PeterPete Looking at the stats of the match England had 56% possession, France 44%. England had 7 attempts on goal, France had 5. England played better and it of course showed in the statistics, of course it did not produce enough goals, as I said that’s football.
Remember it well.. 1944er .. football in the street ,,Hopscotch with a piece of roofing slate ,, cobbled streets (Marbles) ,, Trolley (babies pram wheels)..i remember playing marbles and my cousin ran up saying Rationing has finished we never had much as dad would swop the sweet coupons for his fags .. walk to school in all weathers ..most cloths from the church jumble sale .. those were the days .. then in 1968 i emigrated to Australia by myself .. Ten Pound Pom..
No 🔪 crime ,no ethnic minority guilt trips ,just people doing their best to carry on after the second world war And hoping for a better world and standard of living
You are spot on with your comments, the whinging brigade, wouldn't last 2 minutes, no central heating, double glazing, ect, I was born in 53, and things didn't seem to improve till the mid 60s, although both my parents worked full time, food in particular wasn't as cheep as it is now, by comparison to wages.
Dixon of Dock Green would be furious at these comments about crime. 🤣🤣😂🙃🤣 You should have had a better history teacher. I'm from this era ..you guys wouldn't survive one jot in the area I came from. These people who rebuilt the ruins after the war many came from overseas and Ireland..from countries some would argue we shouldn't of been there in the first place. So these wonderful pictures are a blessing and a curse that helps formulate unbalanced comments. I love the old movie pictures people send in of old London and the 'Oh look how clean it looks and people look so proud of their appearance' ....Brigade. comments that continue to make me smile and cringe at the same time.
I was born in 1946 when my dad came back from Stalag Luft 3 (he was not on the great escape wing.) One of my earliest memories is the air raid shelter in the back garden of the rented house that was home to 4 adults and 3 children. In 1952 the king died and 1953 on my birthday they had Lizzys coronation with a huge number of RN ships in the solent and the firework display was amazing. We stood in Oakhill road and watched for ages. 70 years later the house is still called Braeside.
@@Gunnar_Gunnarson 50 of the 73 that were recaptured were shot on hitlers orders (according to wiki) but it goes beyond that because as the germans retreated the prisoners were forced to "the long march" and if you didnt keep up for whatever reason you were executed an the spot. The experience gave him a "lust for life," make the most of the time left cos you never know when you will be pushing up daisies.
Forget the sombre music. I was a child in the 50s, there were people everywhere, children playing in the streets, pubs full of people talking and singing. We had less of what doesn't matter and more, much more, of the things that DO matter. Boy, I have some fond memories of that wonderfully HUMAN time. Forget the sombre music, it tells the wrong story.
lt comes back to me, playing in the streets of liverpool , almost dock side, mams, aunties , uncles and cousins, hard working families trying to survive, the rationning still on, and bombed out buildings to play in. The security of common spirit and background, and who wouldnt want a pint at the end of the day.
My family and myself all grew up in the South end of Liverpool Terry, just off the Dock Road. My Mum witnessed the Bombing raids on the Docks. I grew up in the 60s and 70s, times were hard but what Lovely people we had around us. My Auntie is 95 next year, she is as sharp as a Razor and I love listening to her tales of growing up with My Mum and her other sisters. I think you would have savoured the little things in life, like a hot Dinner when you came home off The Docks or a Pint at the end of the day as you say mate 🙏
@@stephensmith4480 "Thank you" Stephen for your comment of actually "being there" & having first-hand experience of what it was really like !!! Now I don't have to "imagine" what it was like.
Men just back from a war that made them grateful for what they had both in family life and the Brotherhood of war. Material things did not matter, respect for one another and looking out for one another was at the forefront of life in those days. Good old Blighty ,when we were all one family and our borders and doors were still closed .Then they opened up our door to all and sundry, and what you see and hear today is the result of that happening. We have no country that's our own today.
Blimey! I have just seen my growing years again - Magical! Takes me way back to my early days in my home city of Leicester. Born 1950, and all those scenes have just taken me way back in a happy, loving way - Thanks so much for posting!
@@Gunnar_Gunnarson We would be taken out at school to take car numbers and when we got back to school we looked up the registration to see where the car came from
BUT for those of us who had lived through the War ,this was freedom! No bombing ,no blackouts ,yes rationing still for some things but not so many Government restrictions . Why do you think think so many of the people in the photos are happy and smiling? You need to compare these pictures with some during the previous decade . I know what I am talking about , born in 1938 , I remember those times
I agree. I was born in SE London 20 years later than you. I remember the blackout shutters still on the windows, and the gasmasks still on the cupboard. But everyone was happy that the bad times were over. It was a time of hope and joy.
One of the pictures in the video was of a boy in a pedal car. I had one just like it. My dad salvaged it from somewhere. He fixed it up and painted it. He even gave it personalised number-plates ("SG1" white on black). One of the best Christmas presents I ever got. Being poor doesn't mean being unhappy.
Gill, Thank you for this comment. I have to confess that I cannot relate to those ideas of blackouts and rationing. It seems such a strange world. Where did it go? Your comment certainly made me think.
@@Gunnar_Gunnarson I was just 20 months old when the War started so for me as a young child there was nothing else .When the end came in 1945 it was like a different world but that came only gradually. I do remember visiting relatives who lived just outside London( as it then was) and being terrified when civilian planes came over. I suppose I was about 8 then .And sweets( candy) ! In the War years our pocket money went on fizzy lemonade and crisps, neither of these two were rationed ,I suppose the sweet coupons were used by my mother on something else .
I remember a massive firework display at Croydon Airport, but I think this was after VJ Day as my father was there, and he didn’t come back from India till after VE Day. I remember meeting him off a returning troopship in Guernsey where families had gone to meet them as they got back. He was dreadfully thin and haggard
I was born in 55. We did not have a lot but we were happy. There was much more of a community spirit, back then, people helped each other out. We really appreciated everything we had. I still have some of my childhood books to this day and my old teddy bear!
All we tried to do building this country back up after the war. Now kids just throw everything back in our faces, look at what has happened to what was once a lovely country.
@@juliawigger9796 I think you will find that the tories have been in power more than the others, therefore it's the tories that made this country the mess it is now!
@@chrisgray4651 hmm its been going on alot longer than that. The globalists were rubbing their hands in glee when Blair got in for 2 terms. He signed so many treaties behind our backs, changed our laws, allowed sex education for primary school children, the Syrian debacle opened up the flood gates , the globalists got a firmer grip on the UK , even selling private contracts for hospitals...................
@@juliawigger9796 the war had been over more than 50 yrs before Tony Blair was elected with a 160 seat majority you silly woman! Globalist? Do you mean people that aren't little englanders?
The 1950s were my formative years living in Oldham, Lancashire and it was an era where children could play outside without being accosted or abused. 👍🥳
Well, I was born & brought up in Werneth and there was plenty of child abuse going on except it was behind closed doors and not talked about plus there's the more obvious case of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, the Moors Murderers in Saddleworth.
@@andrewkitchenuk I think the fact we still recall the Moors murders is because it was so rare - compared to nowadays when each year we have reasons for yet more "safeguarding" training & specialist police initiatives.....
Pubs with me on the step with a arrow route biscuit and lemonade whilst my wonderful dad had a beer at the bar with no need to keep an eye out because England full of English was a very safe place to be.
Me them days were the best we may have not have had much money when I was a kid in the 1950s but was always happy don't like the britain it gas become today
Just goes to prove that you can be happy with those simple things in life. Families were families then, parents were proper parents with proper parenting. They knew where their children were and what time they were to be in. People looked out for one another, friends were true friends. Britain will never be as great as it was back then, even throughout the struggles!
Born in 47, childhood was great, we all had very little so there wasn’t envy & influence as there is today. You had a sense of community & often shared things with your mates. People seemed much happier than today. No central heating or double glazing & ate what we could afford. Far less mental health problems with youngsters & no obesity because you mainly walked everyday to school or work etc.
I was born in the early 50's in a 2 bed council house, slept with my sister until 7, parents couldn't afford school meals we came home for lunch, usually a fried egg and 5 chips. No car, everywhere by bus, the house had one coal fire and was freezing in the winter, no holidays, same food every week etc etc. Only this week I heard one of my neighbours telling the other that because of inflation they were cutting down to 2 foreign holidays, shame eh? Every local house has at least 2 cars and everyone is fat, yep times are hard lol.
The 2 Bed house should have been designed with the chimney up the middle (some were) with back bolier in the coal fire for hot water. Efficient for distribution of heat from the coal burning. I think it would be the single glazing and being only one brick thick (some were cavity), that lost the heat quickly, your valve TV would keep a corner warmish though. With Terraced houses even if no chinmeny up middle if the living room ones were back on the heat should still rise through the chimney to the bedroom. This will work with gas fires as well as other solid fuel ones, far less so with electric
In the 50s I asked my dad why we didn't lock our backdoor. His response was if they are so hard up as to want anything from our house they can have it!
@@jimmydempsey6857 hello, you think you had it hard ? Even the mice in our house went out begging. We once had a kipper for christmas dinner, we all had a lick of it then my dad resoled his work boots with it.🤣🤣
I was 5 - 15 years old at the time. I remember it well. Parks to play in while 7 years old and your parents knew that you were safe. A bygone era. My back pages.
And it all changed when Blair was pm, but it’s a change for the worse, and major didn’t change anything when he was in office either, it’s just got worse as every pm since Blair hasn’t had a clue
I could cry when I see what has become of our once beautiful country - Im 60 and have concluded there is no turning back thanks to those idiots who let mass immigration get out of control. Technology has also played a part in the change - But by far the worst is the sheer numbers of people who have no love for our culture or our way of life.
Good effort, but some of the photos are not of the 1950s - the minskirts, hairstyles, and the movie theater showing Carry on Constable (released Feb 1960)
In those days you could borrow some flour or sugar from your next door neighbour these days you would be told were to go, thats if you knew your neighbour.
also knocked down homes (instead of renovating them) split up families in different areas, lots and lots of different factors that split the working classes of this country up.
How I wish we could go back to those days, yes, we didn’t have a lot, everyone was in the same boat, all had keys on bits of string through the letterbox because we had nothing to steal, but the fun us kids had, out all day, just running in at dinner time, which was at 12 not like in the evening now, rushing out again, and back in later for tea. I lived in London, in a very deprived area, in Ladbroke Grove, just up from the Portobello Rd market, but look back on those days with much fondness
I grew up not too far from you off Westway, in the shadow of White City stadium ( where we had our annual school sports!). Mum and dad were both born in Paddington & North Kensington, so our grandparents and most of our aunts, uncles and cousins lived around Portobello Road, Golborne Road, Ladbroke Grove. Of course, as kids in the 1950s, we didn't realise we were poor. In 1960, under a government policy of slum clearance, we were offered a new house and guaranteed jobs for mum & dad, in Swindon, Wiltshire ... 70 miles from home ... the same happened to our cousins and aunts, but they went to 'new towns' in different directions, so the extended family broke up forever. I now live in Australia and carry an Australian passport. I've been back to the UK many times over the years but find no pleasure in it any more ... I'm better off where I am, but like you I still recognise my London from these photos, with fondness.
@@branscombeR we may have passed each other in the street 😀 I went back a few years ago with my brother and sister, I couldn’t believe how the house we lived in, shared with 3 other families had been done up. We took a walk down Portobello Market, but it just wasn’t the same. Hope you have a good life in Australia, you really wouldn’t like what Britain, and most of our major cities have now become. I got out of London 15yrs ago, best move I ever made
Such memories of me as kid in the fifties growing up. Everything seems so simple and straightforward unlike the mayhem and aggression of today. I yearn for those days everybody seemed so much nicer. Thankyou for these videos
Yes I was born in early 40s , recall that we were given a Prefab , two bedroons to eventually house 5 of us , we were considered to be underdogs because of our plight in housing ; but we had the benefit of our own front door , our own garden , on all sides , our own letter box , which is what those living in rented accomodation , we collected horse dung , mum used it fo use it on her garden ; we were taught how to be first on scene , before other locals got to it first ; we had free school meals , owing to dads low erratic income ; mum was at home bringing us up , cooking meals , washing our clothes ; generally lking after us all ; Dad as well as he was a War Wounded fella ; we walked about a mile to /from school each day of the week ; crossed them roads on the way ; felt safer then than I do now ; ah well ; oh TV was b/w but we used to visit family who had a TV , pulled the curtains to make room dark ; cripes
I am saddened how much some people blame everything on immigration on what has happened to this country. Never any gratitude for the help they gave to help to put this country back on its feet. Doctors, nurses, surgeons, care workers, bus drivers many who were asked to come here in order to help after the war and beyond
What you never had you never missed ,that’s just the way it was !anything like a seaside holiday or the weekly comic was something to look forward to ,in this day of mass communication in every way possible opens the door to life on the other side ,what we didn’t know didn’t bother us!
In was a teenager in the fifties and joined the Merchant Navy in 1960. The population of our country then was about twenty five million less than today. People were happier than today where we live in constant fear of being scammed, unable to see a doctor being called a racist for expressing love of your own culture as it disappears etc.etc.
Sorry I clicked before I’d completed my post. Unemployment was very low, the NHS and state pensions had pulled millions out of a miserable olde age; the only drugs were tobacco and alcohol; police were respected and respectful in return; the nation in general was much fitter than today; we were smarter; children got outside and played; and society in general had far more cohesion.
@@markshrimpton3138 If you muck something up Mark you can click on the three dots to the right of your comment and edit it. (you can't do anyone elses, only your own).
Mini-skirts and mod scooters in the 1950's? I think not. ! was born in 1949 and grew up in South London - just off the Old Kent Road. In an area that was not just a place on a map, but a thriving community. People were born, grew, and died on its streets in the knowledge that, should they need it, help was just outside their front door. We had NEIGHBOURS, not strangers. Often generations of the same family had lived in those houses, giving aid, help, and humour where required. The local pub was more of a community centre. A place where news was exchanged and support given. We didn't have such a thing as a bathroom. We used to use the local public baths. Outside toilets weren't unknown. Playgrounds were the 'bomb sites' left over from WW2. Everyone kept an eye out for everyone else. None of my friends had fathers who were out of work, they were either on the railways, the Royal Mail, or the London docks. Not anymore. Now the whole area is one huge 'green space'. Its's called Burgess Park. Look on any modern map, it's easy to see. Heck, you could probably see it from space! But what you won't see is a community - of any sort, because so few people live there anymore. The house I grew up in is gone and the land is now the changing rooms for a football pitch. We used to save our pocket money to buy a Greenline bus ticket to go out of London for a days fishing. Now you can walk around the lake that sits next to my old primary school, and ask anglers what they've caught today. The soul of the area was ripped out when the compulsory purchase orders started flying. I haven't been to London for over 50 years, nor will I. I wouldn't be able to see anything through the tears shed in memory of a time and place long gone. The GLC succeeded where the Luftwaffe failed.
As an expat I returned to the UK for a visit after 50 years, stayed with family in a community of 24 houses. I was shocked that people didn't know neighbours or their names. One of the neighbours ran a child minding service and treated all strangers as if they were predators. The fly tipping and rubbish was a shock. The obnoxious behaviour on public transport made journey's stressful, shuttered stores after dark made one fearful of some unlit spaces and the absence of sheltered shop doorways were explained away as too dangerous. Being told not to walk in certain places and take a cab after dark in later pm was disconcerting. I found although there are beautiful places still and outwardly friendy people were wary and sometimes edgy.
We had one power point and one bulb socket in each room in our house. Dad came home for lunch on his motorbike. We were not well off but we had enough clothing and food and plenty of coal. What more does one need? Oh yes. A loving family.
I was brought up in Coventry directly after the war and remember it all too well. Ration books, bomb shelter in back yard, no bathroom, outside toilet and yet got through like so many others. Family had a pet dog and cat and chickens in the back yard. Ah, memories, memories.
I grew up in the 50s and have glorious memories of living with my Aunt and Uncle because there weren't enough houses yet built. We were financially poor but so happy with each other around us. My toy was playing for hours with my Uncle's folding wooden tape measure and my cousin trapped rabbits for many stews - until 'Mixing-me-toes-up' (as we children called it) soon put a stop to that. Sadly, when the 60s started, everything went to pot and most of us lived in fear of a nuclear war between the US and USSR. Has anything changed, really? But no-one will ever take those wonderful childhood memories away! Not rose-coloured glasses, BTW, just a warm loving family sticking together.
The 1950s has to be the best decade of all. There are too many reasons for me saying this and it would take too long. That tells you how much I loved the 1950s, along with all the lovely comments I have read here.
Growing up in the 50's was the best years of my life, we didn't have much but I was never cold or hungry, two loving parents, my dog, we kept a few chickens for eggs and Christmas, guy Fawkes night, playing in the street they were Halcyon days, I've watched a steady decline into todays selfish depressing and evil times...
I was born in 1956 and lived through 'the best of times' great music and society was more cohesive and happier. I left school at 15yrs old in 1971 and had the choice of 3 good, career jobs. Unheard of now
My favourite decade without a doubt. I was so happy as a child. I remember my Mother wearing dresses like the ones shown, it was the best ever fashion, so vibrant.
Although for many we had to age to realize nostalgically although times weren't always the best of times for so many looking back and reflecting, we appreciate more and more these were "the good old days!"
It is kind of mad how people think of 'the west' as this utopia luxury paradise. Up until the 1900s, more or less 80% of people were working class with zero rights. People dropped dead from starvation in workshops and factories. Factories sometimes did not even pay. People were economically driven into the new cities to work in industry. It was not uncommon to walk past dead people in the street. Industrial pollution in some places was so intense, there was no daylight and the air was black. The Midlands area of England is still commonly called: The Black Country today, for this reason. The mid north west, Midlands and North east and south east ( around London ) were the most intensely industrialised. Non industrialised areas ( a lot of the south west and east ) became quite poor during the industrialisation. Many people could not afford a bed for the night after working. Child slavery was a common practice. Child remains have been found inside old ship hulls for example. Children died cleaning chimneys. Then the first world war. Then post WW2, there was I think 15 years of rationing of food. So, while every likes to rave on about 'Colonialism' these days, it is an old topic in Britain and the corporate world already had 'Colonised' the people in Britain . . .
Technology may solve a problem but it resolves nothing, creating only the circumstances for still greater problems to develop that require still more complicated and expensive solutions in their turn. That sums the rise and fall of Britain from the 50's very well. There was poverty and whilst there was greater respect there was also rancorous bitterness and envy between the classes. There was also joy in the simplest things, in community, in shared rationing. There were social problems, ex-servicemen with PTSD turned meths drinkers. There was a profound appreciation of the cultural differences between the regions and countries comprising the Unite Kingdom, from 'Bonnie Scotland' to 'Devon, Glorious Devon'. Above all, there was industrious hope for a better future. The Road to Hell is paved with good intentions...
3 місяці тому+1
Great collection of photographs of an age never to be seen again. In a few decades it won't even be remembered except in videos like this.
I was born in 1952, we were all just real folk that could get on with the life we had, what's happened during my lifetime is totally down to greed...politicians, big business and the lack of common sense..so sad.
Born in 48,..the 50s i loved...brings me back to my school days, happy carefree days. and friendly people where ever you went,...no blinking mobile phones...you could have a conversation with a stranger....Belfast.
Yeah, the thing about 50s Britain was that everyone was in Black and White, having slowly emerged from the sepia-tone of the 20s and 30s. I was born near the start of the 60s and I recall everything fairly quickly moving into colour, although a few older people weren't too keen. By the end of the 60s, Flower Power was getting us past the pastel stage. Then we had glam rock and everything got really vibrant, but Thatcherism put a stop to that and, over the last forty years, we have been devolving into a sort of fridge-light blue, washed out monotone with day-glo highlights.
@@george11419 Not so much in the UK. But I was making more of a metaphysical point than a factual one. I remember the early 60s as feeling black & white; then flower power seemed to bring in a lot of colour. The glam rock of the early 70s added a lot of glitter. Then punk came along and we were back to black again, except for the odd bit of red plaid and snot green. The Eighties were dreadful pastels and the Nineties were utilitarian blacks, greys and khakis. The 2000s were kind of like that early cheap 'colour' they did in 1940s movies and with the 2010s we went back to the black and white of austerity with the occasional techie blue. That's just the way I perceived it.
I mourn the loss of my country 😔 I do not recognise it anymore, it's not my country anymore. I am glad that I grew up in a time when there was freedom and innocence for children and you knew everyone in the street.🇬🇧
Since covid its changed.And I dont like what I see....
How well you have summed it up to perfection. Reading your comment as sad as it was has eased my pain that there is someone out there that has the same vision of truth that I have. Thank you.
Victoria,
You nailed it.
Britain is unrecognizable.
Kids are continually being indoctrinated into a mindset: "Diversity is good" when it is the opposite:it has taken away out lives.
@@briannewman6306 There are many of us who think this way. Chin up Brian :0)
@ChorltonM21 Thank you sir for your support. It is much appreciated.
Some of these photographs are from the 60s. Although times were hard until the mid-60s, there was much greater social cohesion than can be found in Britain today. In many ways, it was a much happier place, despite the poverty.
The picture early on of people in a club has to be early 70s. There's an older man with long hair and mutton chops. Very '71-'74 I reckon.
If you remember the time, think of the Frannie Lee the footballer
Agreed a number of these photo's are significantly later than the '50s. Also agree Britain was a much better and happier place than it is today. People knew what hardship was and got on with life. They worked hard to make things better instead of protesting and wanting everything for nothing in return.
@@tomblack6965 Now that's a blast from the past. Frannie Lee lived about 4 miles from me and was the nicest bloke you could ever meet. Occasionally used to see him in my local where he was just a great bloke you could have a laugh with.
@@philyew3617 what a great era of football too. I still have the theme from "The Big Match "with Brian Moore playing in my head. Cheers.
You could leave school and easily find a job, free further and higher education for those who wanted it, buy a house after 4 or 5 years, roads safe and traffic free. The 1960's the good old days.
@Wallace Carney the UK government wanted them and still do, they can't or won't close the doors.
There were plenty of jobs before Thatcher ruined it all, all the factories mines and everything the working classes did went in the blink of an eye
@@ncooper8438
I always say that left school at 15 start a job straight out of school ,pack it in walk straight into another job😊
@@ncooper8438it’s the elites wanting to rule all over again. Everything we fought for destroyed by politicians.
@ncooper8438, Unfortunately, never to been repeated, I miss the 60's.
i was born in 1949 and lived on a council estate all my life only had 3 professions all my life 1 of them for 45 years .i worked hard hardly had a sick day i retied better off with my pensions than working ,i loved my time growing up i was always out in the countryside with friends ,it was not till i was in my mid teens i came to realise the sacrifices my mum was making to cloth and feed us all she divorced my dad when i was 10 and we all mucked in all 7 of us , my mum was bedridden for many years and is was never a chore for us all to look after her it was our honour ,god bless you mum .
Well said
@@MiPointIs CSA are strident in pursuit of spouses paying their share as they are about benefit scroungers they add up what they are owed and at whatever point they work it will be collected ,give the CSA as much information as possible,i assume he has no access to his kids
@@rgsnr8702 Access is not a matter for working out the amount of Child Support payable. Shared custody is the only time the amount will be amended. Also the person receiving the Support (usually the Mum) has no legal requirement to account for how any of the money is spent. Things change over time, as needs become more complex but the basic tenet remains firm: BOTH parents are required to contribute to their children's care and support whatever their circumstances.
What a lovely thing to say❤
I was a child of the 1950s in a northern industrial town I got told to forget higher education my mission was to leave school and get a job any job just bring the money in and pay board and lodging to my parents
What has happened to the world? Nobody is happy anymore. Just greed, hate, selfishness and murderous thoughts. We should love and help each other. We are all from the same source.
It’s driven by the media.
And it was all given away without a single bullet fired
Yeah but Tory donors made a LOT of money from the giveaway and apparently that is all that matters.
@@gustavmeyrink_2.0 And Labour sold our gold reserves on the cheap.
@@gustavmeyrink_2.0 Globalism was the worst problem, and Labour was even more positive to that change than Tories. Now they are just as bad as each others.
Your Michelle Mone benefited from the giveaway.
@TheSeafordian A mere drop in the ocean compared to the £40-60 BILLION MAD Lizzies budget cost the Economy! AT least the VAST majority of MPs back THEN were competent!!!!!
We feel we are living in a foreign country now. Things have really deteriorated so much.
@totoroiddo one you little prick
yup, and not even a nice foreign country but a third world shithole with high crime
I never saw our country so filthy dirty ,as if it's a third world country.
They !!!the invaders brought there ways to our land ???
One tiny year later and is disgustingly worse….
Britain destroyed lots of countries.
NOT ALOT OF MONEY ABOUT, BUT ALOT OF DECENT, RESPECTFUL PEOPLE, EVERYONE JUST TRYING TO MAKE THE BEST OF THINGS.
and none of those people you and hitler loathed ....
I thank God I was brought up then and not now.
Me too, still write with a fountain pen, respect everyone, and do my very best at all times, 50s style.
I say the same thing now
@stevenpotter3812 Me too. I was born in 1949, it was very hard but much less complicated and a lot more fun than today.
Oh England ...my England 🏴 what has happened to it ... destroyed by those traitors in Parliament !
And yet people keep voting for treacherous tories.
They aren't traitors, they are serving their masters well.
@@folksurvival yeah, WEF PuPpeTs.🤮
Your so right
Wtf does that even mean I wonder?.....
Great times when you could play in the street ,boys playing football and cricket ,girls skipping and playing rounders.Yes please take me back.
Skipping rope right across the street. Hopscotch numbers on the pavement 😊
Catch the girl kiss the girl, u always went for the looker 😂😅
kids now would rather smash your windows and blame the drugs they took as a game.
Yes made yer own fun, 😊
@magirusdeutzjupiter223well said but true .
It was tough but compared to today’s complete mess I’d return to those hard days in a flash.
I agree.
Me too.....👍
No. I
I'd rather have the better medicines we have now. The right to control my own money, to work after marriage, decent birth control, central heating, legal equality for women, homosexuals and non whites.
Count me in...if you find a way to get back there.
Being a 50s kid this video wakens good memories of how our country was, Remember ice on the inside of bedroom window glass, Now its 2022 and this government returns us to those icy days due its lack of investment in UK energy, instead we pursue a net zero agenda we suffer they dont , this is madness, we are suppose to be going forward in time not backwards.
Yes those days were good for children growing up and adults too, but now i just dont like what the country has become i simply do not recognise it . Our streets were safe then our borders secure , unlike now.
no
Yes I remember ice on the windows we all survived the winters big coal fire in living room and lots a warm food all made from.scratch we all survived
There was no unemployment. Young men left school and learned a trade. There was a real sense of community. We were more content with our lot and appreciated the more simple things in Life. We had a great NHS. There was still a lot of poverty that comes from social standing and stygma. I was born in 54 and I have fond memories of growing up in a small Perthshire Town in Scotland. There was so much to do, all year round.
@Stanly Stud Blairgowrie
@Stanly Stud where, near Stirling?
I was born in Glasgow. By the way, it’s in Scotland!
@@george11419 No kiddin. Glasgow's in Scotland. Yer gonay tell me Glesgies on the Clyde. 😆
1954, Glasgow born. Played outside all the time. Glad to know I won’t have to live much longer. It’s all utter madness now.
England then was another country and by Christ I'm homesick.
Stanley
Me too
I'm a 50s kid and only remember having a lot of fun despite shortages and housing at that time, alot of developments and regeneration was going on, and a Mars bar was the size of a brick costing three old pennies.
My weakness was Crunchies at 3d 🙃
Before they completely stuffed it up. Look at the shit it is now.
So am I as I was Born on Saturday December 22nd 1956 and I well Remember the 1960's and how times were tough and as a child I could play in the Street where I live and no one would touch us and we were far happier in those days
Duffle coats, Penny Arrow Bars , Old Trafford , Denis Law, Ford Anglias , Airfix Kits , Bus Conductors and of course the big decision .. Bus fare spent on a Mars Bar or walk home after school ! 😆
@@vstafford4761 sounds an easy choice although these days I might take the bus🙃
Multi culturalism has ruin this once great country ,makes me weep , if my father were to see this he would ask why his generation went to war for freedom
For who?
@@davidsherbourne3161 so true so would my father I’m happy I left the UK 44 years ago best thing my hubby and me did.
Agreed.
I left 7 years ago,I don't recognise the country I left ,both governments should be charged with treason.
Born in 1947, I have much better memories of the 50s than this video portrays. Maybe inner cities were drab and dreary, but living in a more rural area, we had a clean and cheerful environment
I was born 1941. I agree. My memories are cleaner and more spacious.
The mistakes of building concrete jungles to improve our run down housing in 60,s Some cities like Birmingham having centre ripped out for cars.. left mess
The post war years were by far the happiest although ppl struggled & still on rations in the early 50s.People lived simple lives.They were content & enjoyed the peace after living thru 6 yrs of gruelling war! Children were children & played with imagination,they were not materialistic or corrupted by Tv. I'd give anything to bring that kind of life back.
I just remember our dads being home after the war and just getting on with their lives. The backbone of this country now being kicked in the face .
No multicultural ridden divided isolated English people, booming industry, everything made here, British cars everywhere, kids playing out unsupervised, no grooming gangs, busy pubs n clubs, busy high street, everyone knew everyone, people married, bought a house, lived in it forever, worked at the factory end of the road, booming seaside resorts, no immigrants........what decade is it? 1950s? Bloody hell, my apologies, I thought it was my era, the 1980s!
In a nutshell.
Your comments in the description are very true - I know 'cause I was there! Bombed out, broke, rationed and taxed yet we didn't look for somewhere else to live, we stayed on, got stuck in and rebuilt and regrew.
Did them bluedy Geermans bomb your chip shops too?
Unless you were one of the millions that emigrated to Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Rhodesia or Canada!
I was born in 1953 and lived through many problems i.e. heating no glass in windows miles walks to shops have to catch a bus to school and walk 2 miles to bus stop. Had to play sports outside in rain snow. We lived through 15% mortgages had little fresh food, poor clothing no internet no tele. People today think they are struggling they don't know half. We struggled through hardships non of the modern people will ever see and what do the government do give us £783 a month to live on whilst people on benefits get £90,000 a year nearly £2,000 a month what sort of society do we have now in them days people helped each other now you don't even see person next door for months. Well done the British Government for taking us from the greatest nation in the world TO THE WORST
Well said
Er, people on benefits are getting 90 grand A YEAR?????????? Not the ones I know, they're not!!!!!!!!!!!
Apart from the fact most of what you said is total bollocks, why should people in this day and age have to suffer, we live in the world's 8th richest country! Could be anything to do with idiots voting tories into power could it? I'd say definitely.
You forgot to mention living in a cardboard box int middle of road, 😂
@@wivaquif luxury!
Bliss, no diversity, no inclusion, no gender nonscense. No WEF, no 15 min cities.
Just native in a harmonious society.
Memories.
Photos don't say much but memories.
Tnx for sharing.
It was much better than it is now .
Typhoid/polio and outside bogs in the fog? Yeah right
@@SunofYork Defending your mass immigration?
@@JohnSmith-ei2pz I wont defend that if you don't defend Saudi bribes, Fascist salutes, 34 felonies and porn stars. Is that a deal ?
Took me back to my childhood, thanks.😀
I would go back to the 50's at the blink of an eye, hard yes, but wonderful compared to these days, we had nothing, but everyone we knew had nothing, and we helped each other
Not only that, it was getting better, people had optimism. Now it's getting worse, and we have seen nothing yet as it will get MUCH worse. Mostly because the "green" maniacs are ruining the ability to produce affordable energy. Also a lot of red tape killing creativity and freedom.
@@truxton1000 Quote - Also a lot of red tape killing creativity and freedom.
Red tape creates jobs for thousands of people. You've only got to look at the England football team to know there's no creativity and freedom!!
@@PeterPete Well, the England team did well in the World cup, played better than France but lost, that's football. So I guess red tape would be your plan to create more jobs, you must be very intelligent...!
@@truxton1000 England never played better than France. France scored two goals from open play, England never scored from open play. The captain missed a penalty. Need I say more? Red tape creates jobs, I guess you'd have lots of people out of work just to lessen red tape. BTW, it's good Charles decided not to frack in the UK. Oh aren't they mining coal in Cumbria? Guess that shoots your green agenda ideas off goal.
@@PeterPete Looking at the stats of the match England had 56% possession, France 44%. England had 7 attempts on goal, France had 5. England played better and it of course showed in the statistics, of course it did not produce enough goals, as I said that’s football.
I born in 1949 into a working class family. We were the luckiest generation in history and it will never be repeated.
Same here - we certainly were lucky. Just hold on to your memories...
Remember it well.. 1944er .. football in the street ,,Hopscotch with a piece of roofing slate ,, cobbled streets (Marbles) ,, Trolley (babies pram wheels)..i remember playing marbles and my cousin ran up saying Rationing has finished we never had much as dad would swop the sweet coupons for his fags .. walk to school in all weathers ..most cloths from the church jumble sale .. those were the days .. then in 1968 i emigrated to Australia by myself .. Ten Pound Pom..
@Behwyelzebub I was also born in 1949. London, Peckham.
Christine - it was a good Year! I was born in Woking, Surrey x
@@marie-ctunnicliff513 Our birth year, got the best of the 60's, I am still looking for a portal to go back there.
No 🔪 crime ,no ethnic minority guilt trips ,just people doing their best to carry on after the second world war And hoping for a better world and standard of living
Exactly in every respect john
Almost my Generation
You are spot on with your comments, the whinging brigade, wouldn't last 2 minutes, no central heating, double glazing, ect, I was born in 53, and things didn't seem to improve till the mid 60s, although both my parents worked full time, food in particular wasn't as cheep as it is now, by comparison to wages.
No crime? Ffs
Dixon of Dock Green would be furious at these comments about crime. 🤣🤣😂🙃🤣 You should have had a better history teacher. I'm from this era ..you guys wouldn't survive one jot in the area I came from. These people who rebuilt the ruins after the war many came from overseas and Ireland..from countries some would argue we shouldn't of been there in the first place. So these wonderful pictures are a blessing and a curse that helps formulate unbalanced comments. I love the old movie pictures people send in of old London and the 'Oh look how clean it looks and people look so proud of their appearance' ....Brigade. comments that continue to make me smile and cringe at the same time.
I was born in 1946 when my dad came back from Stalag Luft 3 (he was not on the great escape wing.) One of my earliest memories is the air raid shelter in the back garden of the rented house that was home to 4 adults and 3 children. In 1952 the king died and 1953 on my birthday they had Lizzys coronation with a huge number of RN ships in the solent and the firework display was amazing. We stood in Oakhill road and watched for ages. 70 years later the house is still called Braeside.
In some respects he was lucky. Many of the great escapers did not return.
@@Gunnar_Gunnarson 50 of the 73 that were recaptured were shot on hitlers orders (according to wiki) but it goes beyond that because as the germans retreated the prisoners were forced to "the long march" and if you didnt keep up for whatever reason you were executed an the spot. The experience gave him a "lust for life," make the most of the time left cos you never know when you will be pushing up daisies.
I WAS BORN IN 1941 REMEMBER THINGS FROM 1945 THAT WHEN MY LIFE TOOK OFF
I left school in 53 and was 16. 2 years later I went to France Germany holland and Luxembourg in my Morris minor convertible.
Is that Oakhill Road, London SE20? KCS in Melbourne
Forget the sombre music. I was a child in the 50s, there were people everywhere, children playing in the streets, pubs full of people talking and singing. We had less of what doesn't matter and more, much more, of the things that DO matter. Boy, I have some fond memories of that wonderfully HUMAN time. Forget the sombre music, it tells the wrong story.
Love those old photos..
Life seemed more relaxed
Easy going... less crime
Would love a time machine
They were great times not liike broken Britain today
And it WAS OUR !!!!°COUNTRY
Oh you saw a non-white ? How sad for you...jeez !
lt comes back to me, playing in the streets of liverpool , almost dock side, mams, aunties , uncles and cousins, hard working families trying to survive, the rationning still on, and bombed out buildings to play in. The security of common spirit and background, and who wouldnt want a pint at the end of the day.
My family and myself all grew up in the South end of Liverpool Terry, just off the Dock Road. My Mum witnessed the Bombing raids on the Docks. I grew up in the 60s and 70s, times were hard but what Lovely people we had around us. My Auntie is 95 next year, she is as sharp as a Razor and I love listening to her tales of growing up with My Mum and her other sisters. I think you would have savoured the little things in life, like a hot Dinner when you came home off The Docks or a Pint at the end of the day as you say mate 🙏
@@stephensmith4480 "Thank you" Stephen for your comment of actually "being there" & having first-hand experience of what it was really like !!! Now I don't have to "imagine" what it was like.
"Thank You" Terry for your RICH comment & your experience of actually having "lived there !!!"
@@doloressimpson7456 You`re Welcome Dolores 😊
@@stephensmith4480 WASN'T THE DINGLE WAS IS STEPHEN ?
Men just back from a war that made them grateful for what they had both in family life and the Brotherhood of war. Material things did not matter, respect for one another and looking out for one another was at the forefront of life in those days. Good old Blighty ,when we were all one family and our borders and doors were still closed .Then they opened up our door to all and sundry, and what you see and hear today is the result of that happening. We have no country that's our own today.
Blimey! I have just seen my growing years again - Magical! Takes me way back to my early days in my home city of Leicester. Born 1950, and all those scenes have just taken me way back in a happy, loving way - Thanks so much for posting!
I need to find something on Leicester
I sat on a wall with my mate with a notebook and pencil collecting car numbers.
On a good day we got six.
Car spotting? I have heard of train spotting!
@@Gunnar_Gunnarson We would be taken out at school to take car numbers and when we got back to school we looked up the registration to see where the car came from
I can remember Sambo on the Snoopy cartoons and thought he was odd, now theres millions of them in the UK 😁
Lovely compilation! Great images and an excellent choice of music.
BUT for those of us who had lived through the War ,this was freedom!
No bombing ,no blackouts ,yes rationing still for some things but not so many Government restrictions .
Why do you think think so many of the people in the photos are happy and smiling? You need to compare these pictures with some during the previous decade .
I know what I am talking about , born in 1938 , I remember those times
I agree. I was born in SE London 20 years later than you. I remember the blackout shutters still on the windows, and the gasmasks still on the cupboard. But everyone was happy that the bad times were over. It was a time of hope and joy.
One of the pictures in the video was of a boy in a pedal car. I had one just like it. My dad salvaged it from somewhere. He fixed it up and painted it. He even gave it personalised number-plates ("SG1" white on black).
One of the best Christmas presents I ever got. Being poor doesn't mean being unhappy.
Gill, Thank you for this comment. I have to confess that I cannot relate to those ideas of blackouts and rationing. It seems such a strange world. Where did it go? Your comment certainly made me think.
@@Gunnar_Gunnarson I was just 20 months old when the War started so for me as a
young child there was nothing else .When the end came in 1945 it was like a different world but that came only gradually. I do remember visiting relatives who lived just outside London( as it then was) and being terrified when civilian planes came over. I suppose I was about 8 then .And sweets( candy) ! In the War years our pocket money went on fizzy lemonade and crisps, neither of these two were rationed ,I suppose the sweet coupons were used by my mother on something else .
I remember a massive firework display at Croydon Airport, but I think this was after VJ Day as my father was there, and he didn’t come back from India till after VE Day. I remember meeting him off a returning troopship in Guernsey where families had gone to meet them as they got back. He was dreadfully thin and haggard
I was born in 55. We did not have a lot but we were happy. There was much more of a community spirit, back then, people helped each other out. We really appreciated everything we had. I still have some of my childhood books to this day and my old teddy bear!
All we tried to do building this country back up after the war. Now kids just throw everything back in our faces, look at what has happened to what was once a lovely country.
That's because people keep voting tory!
@@chrisgray4651 woke lib dems and liebour
@@juliawigger9796 I think you will find that the tories have been in power more than the others, therefore it's the tories that made this country the mess it is now!
@@chrisgray4651 hmm its been going on alot longer than that. The globalists were rubbing their hands in glee when Blair got in for 2 terms. He signed so many treaties behind our backs, changed our laws, allowed sex education for primary school children, the Syrian debacle opened up the flood gates , the globalists got a firmer grip on the UK , even selling private contracts for hospitals...................
@@juliawigger9796 the war had been over more than 50 yrs before Tony Blair was elected with a 160 seat majority you silly woman! Globalist? Do you mean people that aren't little englanders?
The 1950s were my formative years living in Oldham, Lancashire and it was an era where children could play outside without being accosted or abused. 👍🥳
Well, I was born & brought up in Werneth and there was plenty of child abuse going on except it was behind closed doors and not talked about plus there's the more obvious case of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, the Moors Murderers in Saddleworth.
@@andrewkitchenuk I think the fact we still recall the Moors murders is because it was so rare - compared to nowadays when each year we have reasons for yet more "safeguarding" training & specialist police initiatives.....
Before the Asian sub continent became established in that part of Lancashire.
@@philipshakles760 curry's good tho. Murghi Masala anyone?
Unless they lived in the North West and came across Myra and Ian!
Pubs with me on the step with a arrow route biscuit and lemonade whilst my wonderful dad had a beer at the bar with no need to keep an eye out because England full of English was a very safe place to be.
Me them days were the best we may have not have had much money when I was a kid in the 1950s but was always happy don't like the britain it gas become today
Arrowroot
I loved the 50s great memories.
Just goes to prove that you can be happy with those simple things in life. Families were families then, parents were proper parents with proper parenting. They knew where their children were and what time they were to be in. People looked out for one another, friends were true friends.
Britain will never be as great as it was back then, even throughout the struggles!
Born in 47, childhood was great, we all had very little so there wasn’t envy & influence as there is today. You had a sense of community & often shared things with your mates. People seemed much happier than today. No central heating or double glazing & ate what we could afford. Far less mental health problems with youngsters & no obesity because you mainly walked everyday to school or work etc.
I was born in the early 50's in a 2 bed council house, slept with my sister until 7, parents couldn't afford school meals we came home for lunch, usually a fried egg and 5 chips. No car, everywhere by bus, the house had one coal fire and was freezing in the winter, no holidays, same food every week etc etc. Only this week I heard one of my neighbours telling the other that because of inflation they were cutting down to 2 foreign holidays, shame eh? Every local house has at least 2 cars and everyone is fat, yep times are hard lol.
Poor poor things only two holidays abroad dear me.
@@donaldellis3609 Sadly I have an ex relative who hasn't worked for 30 years and has 4 a year, true.
The 2 Bed house should have been designed with the chimney up the middle (some were) with back bolier in the coal fire for hot water. Efficient for distribution of heat from the coal burning. I think it would be the single glazing and being only one brick thick (some were cavity), that lost the heat quickly, your valve TV would keep a corner warmish though. With Terraced houses even if no chinmeny up middle if the living room ones were back on the heat should still rise through the chimney to the bedroom. This will work with gas fires as well as other solid fuel ones, far less so with electric
😊
Poor darlings. We lived in a cardboard box at the side of the road.
In the 50s I asked my dad why we didn't lock our backdoor. His response was if they are so hard up as to want anything from our house they can have it!
I can remember my mum saying the very same thing times where hard kids of today don’t know half of it . Hard times but good times to 😀
In r house someone broke in and decorated the front room.
@@jimmydempsey6857 Lol brilliant
@@kerryquinn6218 👍
@@jimmydempsey6857 hello, you think you had it hard ? Even the mice in our house went out begging. We once had a kipper for christmas dinner, we all had a lick of it then my dad resoled his work boots with it.🤣🤣
I was 5 - 15 years old at the time. I remember it well. Parks to play in while 7 years old and your parents knew that you were safe. A bygone era. My back pages.
And it all changed when Blair was pm, but it’s a change for the worse, and major didn’t change anything when he was in office either, it’s just got worse as every pm since Blair hasn’t had a clue
Enoch Powell the best pm we never had.
Blair was bad but Cameron should have been court-martialled.
I could cry when I see what has become of our once beautiful country - Im 60 and have concluded there is no turning back thanks to those idiots who let mass immigration get out of control. Technology has also played a part in the change - But by far the worst is the sheer numbers of people who have no love for our culture or our way of life.
Good effort, but some of the photos are not of the 1950s - the minskirts, hairstyles, and the movie theater showing Carry on Constable (released Feb 1960)
Think it was 59 Mike
In those days you could borrow some flour or sugar from your next door neighbour these days you would be told were to go, thats if you knew your neighbour.
William sky. Surely there is need to borrow sugar or anything as we are all better off.
lovely old black an white photos look how all the streets were clean back in the day nnot like this pc crap of a generation
The people from the 50s are an amazing generation and have FULL respect not like the dozy, thick, and horrible lot we have today.
@magirusdeutzjupiter2234 yes agree 👍
I was born in the 50’s , how very sad to see all that community that has been lost.
also knocked down homes (instead of renovating them) split up families in different areas, lots and lots of different factors that split the working classes of this country up.
How I wish we could go back to those days, yes, we didn’t have a lot, everyone was in the same boat, all had keys on bits of string through the letterbox because we had nothing to steal, but the fun us kids had, out all day, just running in at dinner time, which was at 12 not like in the evening now, rushing out again, and back in later for tea. I lived in London, in a very deprived area, in Ladbroke Grove, just up from the Portobello Rd market, but look back on those days with much fondness
I grew up not too far from you off Westway, in the shadow of White City stadium ( where we had our annual school sports!). Mum and dad were both born in Paddington & North Kensington, so our grandparents and most of our aunts, uncles and cousins lived around Portobello Road, Golborne Road, Ladbroke Grove. Of course, as kids in the 1950s, we didn't realise we were poor. In 1960, under a government policy of slum clearance, we were offered a new house and guaranteed jobs for mum & dad, in Swindon, Wiltshire ... 70 miles from home ... the same happened to our cousins and aunts, but they went to 'new towns' in different directions, so the extended family broke up forever. I now live in Australia and carry an Australian passport. I've been back to the UK many times over the years but find no pleasure in it any more ... I'm better off where I am, but like you I still recognise my London from these photos, with fondness.
@@branscombeR we may have passed each other in the street 😀 I went back a few years ago with my brother and sister, I couldn’t believe how the house we lived in, shared with 3 other families had been done up. We took a walk down Portobello Market, but it just wasn’t the same. Hope you have a good life in Australia, you really wouldn’t like what Britain, and most of our major cities have now become. I got out of London 15yrs ago, best move I ever made
Such memories of me as kid in the fifties growing up. Everything seems so simple and
straightforward unlike the mayhem and aggression of today. I yearn for those days everybody seemed so much nicer. Thankyou for these videos
Yes I was born in early 40s , recall that we were given a Prefab , two bedroons to eventually house 5 of us , we were considered to be underdogs because of our plight in housing ; but we had the benefit of our own front door , our own garden , on all sides , our own letter box , which is what those living in rented accomodation , we collected horse dung , mum used it fo use it on her garden ; we were taught how to be first on scene , before other locals got to it first ; we had free school meals , owing to dads low erratic income ; mum was at home bringing us up , cooking meals , washing our clothes ; generally lking after us all ; Dad as well as he was a War Wounded fella ; we walked about a mile to /from school each day of the week ; crossed them roads on the way ; felt safer then than I do now ; ah well ; oh TV was b/w but we used to visit family who had a TV , pulled the curtains to make room dark ; cripes
We used to play in the old prefabs in the 60s , always come out dead itchy 🤣😄
England is becoming unrecognizable now and we all know why. Thanks, good video.
Because of Brexit.
I am saddened how much some people blame everything on immigration on what has happened to this country. Never any gratitude for the help they gave to help to put this country back on its feet. Doctors, nurses, surgeons, care workers, bus drivers many who were asked to come here in order to help after the war and beyond
Best years of my life. Parks. Saturday morning pictures, such fun we had. Wish I could go back to those innocent times
we was younga
Yes, many things were better but let’s not over romanticize how it was
What a fantastic snapshot of our great country, and not too long after WW2.
Look at it now 🥺😥
What you never had you never missed ,that’s just the way it was !anything like a seaside holiday or the weekly comic was something to look forward to ,in this day of mass communication in every way possible opens the door to life on the other side ,what we didn’t know didn’t bother us!
Yep Jeff my fav comic was the Valiant 👍
@@jimmydempsey6857 boys world ,beano and my sisters!Bunty!
@@jeffreyhodge5564 👍👍
How did we get from there to here to shit hole we become because no one stood up and said enough enough that day approaching
How ! Mass immigration
Repeatedly voting Tory. That's how...
It's called democracy. It's meant to be the best solution for electing leaders.
How did we get here? We got here because Tories gave us Brexit and Tories strangled the NHS to death.
@@countfosco8535
Brainwashed fool.
Far better world than now
Rubbish...outside bogs and polio and fog
In was a teenager in the fifties and joined the Merchant Navy in 1960. The population of our country then was about twenty five million less than today. People were happier than today where we live in constant fear of being scammed, unable to see a doctor being called a racist for expressing love of your own culture as it disappears etc.etc.
The 60's weren't that much better but as most people are saying - I'd go back to those times in a heartbeat compared with today.
But this can't be right, the BBC tell us UK was always diverse!
This country WAS NOT DIVERSE EVER
Born 1937 was teenager in fifties,great days you could leave your door open then,nobody to rob you cause we add nothing
way too many cars for it to be the fifties more like the sixties as I remember them I was born in 1948, but still some great photos
All the cars I saw was 50's cars, one photo of a 1960's motorbike.
There was good and bad. Far less crime; less traffic;
Sorry I clicked before I’d completed my post. Unemployment was very low, the NHS and state pensions had pulled millions out of a miserable olde age; the only drugs were tobacco and alcohol; police were respected and respectful in return; the nation in general was much fitter than today; we were smarter; children got outside and played; and society in general had far more cohesion.
@@markshrimpton3138 If you muck something up Mark you can click on the three dots to the right of your comment and edit it. (you can't do anyone elses, only your own).
@@alanserjeant4947 you can’t do so on an iPad though.
left school at 15 learnt a trade still doing it today no mobile phones or computers wish i could go back
Mini-skirts and mod scooters in the 1950's? I think not.
! was born in 1949 and grew up in South London - just off the Old Kent Road. In an area that was not just a place on a map, but a thriving community. People were born, grew, and died on its streets in the knowledge that, should they need it, help was just outside their front door. We had NEIGHBOURS, not strangers. Often generations of the same family had lived in those houses, giving aid, help, and humour where required. The local pub was more of a community centre. A place where news was exchanged and support given.
We didn't have such a thing as a bathroom. We used to use the local public baths. Outside toilets weren't unknown. Playgrounds were the 'bomb sites' left over from WW2. Everyone kept an eye out for everyone else. None of my friends had fathers who were out of work, they were either on the railways, the Royal Mail, or the London docks. Not anymore.
Now the whole area is one huge 'green space'. Its's called Burgess Park. Look on any modern map, it's easy to see. Heck, you could probably see it from space! But what you won't see is a community - of any sort, because so few people live there anymore. The house I grew up in is gone and the land is now the changing rooms for a football pitch. We used to save our pocket money to buy a Greenline bus ticket to go out of London for a days fishing. Now you can walk around the lake that sits next to my old primary school, and ask anglers what they've caught today. The soul of the area was ripped out when the compulsory purchase orders started flying. I haven't been to London for over 50 years, nor will I. I wouldn't be able to see anything through the tears shed in memory of a time and place long gone. The GLC succeeded where the Luftwaffe failed.
As an expat I returned to the UK for a visit after 50 years, stayed with family in a community of 24 houses. I was shocked that people didn't know neighbours or their names. One of the neighbours ran a child minding service and treated all strangers as if they were predators. The fly tipping and rubbish was a shock. The obnoxious behaviour on public transport made journey's stressful, shuttered stores after dark made one fearful of some unlit spaces and the absence of sheltered shop doorways were explained away as too dangerous. Being told not to walk in certain places and take a cab after dark in later pm was disconcerting. I found although there are beautiful places still and outwardly friendy people were wary and sometimes edgy.
@@takata98 Welcome... to 2025.
Best Days, we were English Then.
Not G.B any more, more like Pakistan or Africa😄
We had one power point and one bulb socket in each room in our house. Dad came home for lunch on his motorbike. We were not well off but we had enough clothing and food and plenty of coal. What more does one need? Oh yes. A loving family.
Please get em back it was bloody hard but a real England with real English people who are the salt of the earth
I was brought up in Coventry directly after the war and remember it all too well. Ration books, bomb shelter in back yard, no bathroom, outside toilet and yet got through like so many others. Family had a pet dog and cat and chickens in the back yard. Ah, memories, memories.
If only we could reset to 1950!!!
Totally agree our parents had little in the way of money, but we lacked nothing when it came to love and family life. Morals etc
I wish ...
To a comfy professional middle class environment. Being stuck in a working class existence won't have been much fun.
I was born in 1956 in Birmingham . This is how I remember my childhood and I miss it . A simple kind of life . 🏴
I was born 47 great times 50s and 60s its a shame that how country as gone down hill.
I grew up in the 50s and have glorious memories of living with my Aunt and Uncle because there weren't enough houses yet built. We were financially poor but so happy with each other around us. My toy was playing for hours with my Uncle's folding wooden tape measure and my cousin trapped rabbits for many stews - until 'Mixing-me-toes-up' (as we children called it) soon put a stop to that. Sadly, when the 60s started, everything went to pot and most of us lived in fear of a nuclear war between the US and USSR. Has anything changed, really? But no-one will ever take those wonderful childhood memories away! Not rose-coloured glasses, BTW, just a warm loving family sticking together.
The world today must try and appreciate what humanity was then - people smiled and talked to each other!
Everything was so well crafted back then it seems. The clothes, the vehicles. Now everything looks industrialised.
The 1950s has to be the best decade of all. There are too many reasons for me saying this and it would take too long. That tells you how much I loved the 1950s, along with all the lovely comments I have read here.
Growing up in the 50's was the best years of my life, we didn't have much but I was never cold or hungry, two loving parents, my dog, we kept a few chickens for eggs and Christmas, guy Fawkes night, playing in the street they were Halcyon days, I've watched a steady decline into todays selfish depressing and evil times...
I was born in 1956 and lived through 'the best of times' great music and society was more cohesive and happier. I left school at 15yrs old in 1971 and had the choice of 3 good, career jobs. Unheard of now
My favourite decade without a doubt. I was so happy as a child. I remember my Mother wearing dresses like the ones shown, it was the best ever fashion, so vibrant.
We had nothing ,but we had everything .I wouldn,t change my upbringing ,for all the money in the World .
1950s/1960s was the best time of my life, money had value and there was no credit cards
Although for many we had to age to realize nostalgically although times weren't always the best of times for so many looking back and reflecting, we appreciate more and more these were "the good old days!"
fantastic thank you
It is kind of mad how people think of 'the west' as this utopia luxury paradise.
Up until the 1900s, more or less 80% of people were working class with zero rights.
People dropped dead from starvation in workshops and factories. Factories sometimes did not even pay. People were economically driven into the new cities to work in industry.
It was not uncommon to walk past dead people in the street.
Industrial pollution in some places was so intense, there was no daylight and the air was black. The Midlands area of England is still commonly called: The Black Country today, for this reason.
The mid north west, Midlands and North east and south east ( around London ) were the most intensely industrialised. Non industrialised areas ( a lot of the south west and east ) became quite poor during the industrialisation.
Many people could not afford a bed for the night after working.
Child slavery was a common practice. Child remains have been found inside old ship hulls for example. Children died cleaning chimneys.
Then the first world war. Then post WW2, there was I think 15 years of rationing of food.
So, while every likes to rave on about 'Colonialism' these days, it is an old topic in Britain and the corporate world already had 'Colonised' the people in Britain . . .
Blair let them all I . It’s changed too much.
Technology may solve a problem but it resolves nothing, creating only the circumstances for still greater problems to develop that require still more complicated and expensive solutions in their turn. That sums the rise and fall of Britain from the 50's very well. There was poverty and whilst there was greater respect there was also rancorous bitterness and envy between the classes. There was also joy in the simplest things, in community, in shared rationing. There were social problems, ex-servicemen with PTSD turned meths drinkers. There was a profound appreciation of the cultural differences between the regions and countries comprising the Unite Kingdom, from 'Bonnie Scotland' to 'Devon, Glorious Devon'. Above all, there was industrious hope for a better future. The Road to Hell is paved with good intentions...
Great collection of photographs of an age never to be seen again. In a few decades it won't even be remembered except in videos like this.
Happy day in the 1950s I was born in 1956. And loved the 60s and 70s. Turn back the clock.🤔
I was born in 1952, we were all just real folk that could get on with the life we had, what's happened during my lifetime is totally down to greed...politicians, big business and the lack of common sense..so sad.
Born in 48,..the 50s i loved...brings me back to my school days, happy carefree days. and friendly people where ever you went,...no blinking mobile phones...you could have a conversation with a stranger....Belfast.
Yeah, the thing about 50s Britain was that everyone was in Black and White, having slowly emerged from the sepia-tone of the 20s and 30s. I was born near the start of the 60s and I recall everything fairly quickly moving into colour, although a few older people weren't too keen. By the end of the 60s, Flower Power was getting us past the pastel stage. Then we had glam rock and everything got really vibrant, but Thatcherism put a stop to that and, over the last forty years, we have been devolving into a sort of fridge-light blue, washed out monotone with day-glo highlights.
It wasn't thatcher, it was globalism.
Yea, colour photography was widely available in the ‘50s.
@@george11419 Not so much in the UK. But I was making more of a metaphysical point than a factual one. I remember the early 60s as feeling black & white; then flower power seemed to bring in a lot of colour. The glam rock of the early 70s added a lot of glitter. Then punk came along and we were back to black again, except for the odd bit of red plaid and snot green. The Eighties were dreadful pastels and the Nineties were utilitarian blacks, greys and khakis. The 2000s were kind of like that early cheap 'colour' they did in 1940s movies and with the 2010s we went back to the black and white of austerity with the occasional techie blue. That's just the way I perceived it.
Lovely and homogenous and a better country
Lovely photos from a sadly-missed past. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for the kind words
I have built a time travel machine . No joke .Anyone want to go back to the fifties ?
yep me, hope it's a big one.