The pubs were a way back to the past for these men, to what was left of everything they had ever known and they travelled miles to get there, just to find somewhere they felt they belonged. Now they would be gone too. Quite a moving film really.
I didn't expect to have tears in my eyes clicking on this video. The sincerity with which the man tells us he genuinely doesn't know what to do after they bulldoze the pub...
@@synapticburnI always think that, anyone who looks 63 + in this video was born in the 1800s and most probably contributed in the Great War and the Second World War
Always surprises me in these old interviews how well spoken everyone was, even the drunk 'working class' people seemed calmer and more reflective and self aware.
When a pub closes few spare a thought to the local community. Friends lose contact, pub teams are lost and a way of life dies. Most people had a sense of loyalty and pride to their regular pub as can be seen here. As someone whos seen three old regular pubs close I can feel for these peoples loss.
@@johngilmore697 Both the above,plus market changes and prices. Also going to the pub for a lot of people is no longer a thing, apparently a nice bottle of wine at home or healthy pursuits are quite popular these days.
Destroying whole communities , splitting up neighbours has led to the society we have today. Strangers living next to each other and having no connections. As a child I knew my neighbours they were my aunts, uncles, cousins. We looked out for the old people living on their own. I don't recall a break in or stealing from each other. The elegance of high risers didn't last long and soon local society began to breakdown old alliances broken for good.
The heart of the village. I've spent my life in boozers - to the cost of my liver and wallet - I adore pub culture, and have met so many different and interesting people in them over the decades. Sadly - just a handful now survive in my neck of the woods - but I'll keep going till the final one shouts 'last orders'.
What an ominous ending, seeing these 'distinguished and elegant' high rises and knowing just how well they are going to work out for their residents. The music at the end makes me think of the end of Blackadder goes forth.
The biggest problem, as it strikes me, is that the midcentury style of planning was overly-focused on what the project looks like when viewed from the sky. For people in planes to think "that looks nice" as they go on their holiday. There was no real emphasis on what it was like down on the ground, with poor sightlines and an unfriendly scale.
@@kaitlyn__L Plus absolutely no consideration given to continuity of community. These planner just thought they could split up centuries old communities and then move people who have never met together and it would all work out. Stalin would have been proud of them.
@@tachikomakusanagi3744 oh, certainly - but that’s a problem with these projects no matter the architectural style. Easterhouse had plenty of low-rise and mid-rise buildings too after all. The problem there was lack of activities and, as you say, different communities shoved together with nowhere for their beefs to go. But in large places built to look impressive from the sky, they were imposing and difficult to navigate for the residents regardless of whether the people wanted to be there or not. (Bearing in mind people paid a lot to live in some overbearing brutalist structures like the Barbican.) Wider social planning vs architecture in particular, yk? (Though of course Le Courbosier fancied himself a social architect as well…)
@@tachikomakusanagi3744 My auntie moved to one of those in the '60s nearer to Wigan, and it's not that the entire community was split up, many from the same streets went to the same block. It's more that as people died off lots of people from far outside the old community arrived and got flats until there was a lot of anonymity. Whereas in the old streets people's grown up kids would sometimes get a house nearby and it carried on. As it happens I live near 7 street's worth of 'workers' houses. In a different country mind, and many of the people have the same surname and know one another. So it's not all gone.
I live in Penrith, a small town of 16k people, and we have 16 pubs in the town centre. Some closed ones have reopened. You feel welcome in everyone you visit. Makes the walk home very challenging 😂
There is a huge difference between pubs when I was young and pubs now. There were no TVs but there was darts, dominoes, bar billiards and cheaper beer. There was nuts and crisps on the bar on Sundays and landlords that would occasionally give you a beers on the house. Free sandwiches were handed round when there was a league darts and dominoes night and sometimes baked potatoes too. There was often a jukebox box that allowed you to choose your own choice of music. More often than not your mates would be in there too. You would have to push through the crowd at the bar and wave a ten bob note to show the bar staff you were waiting to be served. I don’t frequent pubs these days as paying 9 quid for a pint is taking the piss
Well, my 'local' is a fantastic place - no TV, often a few free morsels to peck at, a healthy mix of clientele, and a landlord who keeps a clean and tight ship. 9 kwid seems steep? - we pay no-where near that - but yes - it is expensive I guess - but I'll happily pay for the pleasure I get - I think it's pretty good value. All the best.
"Distinguished and elegant" is not quite how I would describe the 60's obsession with decimating communities and historic architecture and replacing it all with isolating brutalist concrete monoliths.
For distinguished and elegant the zeitgeist read elitist and refined. They sought a utopian style that struck a new note of common identity but it was obviously doomed
@@thrashstronaut but the idea had been sold well. the destruciotn of communities and the creation of new ones to reshape the citizens was a purely soviet idea. it tended to falter under the tories but everyone had bought into the propoganda.
I loved my nights in the pubs, I was brought up in and out of pub life and I don’t regret that part of my life. I no longer drink alcohol, all the public houses and inns I left behind are still open, but it’s no longer has a place in my life, I simply cannot afford it anymore and the ban on smoking was the final straw for me. A wonderful archive that made me smile 👍
The smoking ban was a large nail in the coffin. I have played in bands for decades - the week the ban came into force - our audience was outside smoking - we played to an empty room. Never forget it.
Went to college in Salford, past the old docks, all gone now, turned into condo's, the odd crane left standing, like a fossil skeleton in a museum. Still, and long dead, a reminder of a world we'll never know. Shame they couldn't leave one pub standing. I guess it would remind the planners that the place once had a soul.
My local is now six miles away, that doesn’t stop me, I cycle there now, so I can still have a drink with my friends from around the way, then cycle home pissed 😂
the reason the pubs were kept open was they had to continue trading untill the license was transferd to a new pub in one of the over-spill estates on the same day. my gran lived on ARCHIE ST & was shifted out to Gamsley. If this was,nt done the lisece was void & ended.
I’m from the north but moved to SE London 40 years ago. The other day I counted up at that time there were 14 pubs in the wider area we might have gone in (though some only occasionally) and 11 have now gone for ever.
Similar happened to the area in Leeds where i used to leave. Cross Green up until the late 90s had around 12 or 13 pubs, now even with a bigger population and regeneration in the area there are no pubs at all. You have to go into leeds centre for a pint. It's really disappointing but I have moved out of inner city Leeds to garforth on the outskirts. Luckily I still have 2 local pubs within 5 minutes walking distance and 7 throughout the town.
@@TheWeepingDalek and I've just realised your small, insignificant and the whole world doesn't share the same thoughts as you but thanks for the opinion anyway.
Half a crown. Another 2 pints! A big reason the new high rises - and many new housing estates - failed was the merest lip service given to replacing or even moving community centres like the good old pub. The edge of estate megapub was never quite the same.
Crazy to see all these peiple who are probably no longer here , fighting for whats theirs. Now itscall been taken away and its quiet sad actually its like taking an eraser to a history book.
@@nigellee9824 I remember when the town got its first supermarket. Everyone was panicking the town would close. It didnt, a few shops changed out overtime, they likely werent making good profits anyway - the butchers that everyone thought would definitely go under didnt, if anything they had higher demand - now they have branches in 4 adjacent towns. Supermarkets didnt kill the high street, demand simply diversified and changed. Similarly online - multiple towns near me have thriving weekly markets, and busy high streets.
@lokent6592 I think you're living in a fantasy world....high streets are dying everywhere , very few butchers exist in town centres, and fish monger are almost extinct..
My Local ? About 2 miles away and owned by A private company Don't Worry, I get to walk passed the Three closed pubs on my road in order to get there so the good times flood back
The pub closures where I live in the North East have been massive, the small village where I grew up had 4 pubs only 20 years ago they have all gone I have moved to other pubs but the atmosphere just isn't the same and if you can only go out once a week or less like I do it's hard to get into the click, sometimes you can bump into a few friends or acquaintances and have a good night other times there is nobody there who you know and you feel like an outsider, but as the old saying goes if you don't use it you lose it
I feel your pain. I go to pubs to socialise (OK - I love beer too!!) I'm lucky that I have a local (6 miles away) that I use regularly - but IF that shuts - I don't think I'll see the bulk of my 'pub chums' again. Sigh.
To be fair to Wetherspoons, you can still meet your mates there and have a good time and the drinks are well priced, just like these old pubs, but I think that's it's the culture that's changed more than anything. In fact, culture of any kind has been pretty much dead for the past 20 years. Strange time's we're living in..
@@Danceswithbugs This. Been fortunate enough that I have a god group of friends who still meet up and who I have a tangible friendship with. Know an uncomfortable amount of people that have almost entirely digital friendships. So connected but so disconnected at the same time. No wonder the world seems so glum apart from the times I'm with my boys. It's getting harder to think that things will get better.
@@Danceswithbugs internet age. people aren't as keen to go out as often now. a pub becomes the hub of the community if people are in there often. not every few weeks.
Are those tower blocks still there??! Those scenes of desolation with massive empty spaces in between the isolated pubs … shocking how the housing council moved against the will of the people.
i was involved with turning a pub into flats. forest of dean. the landlord didnt even keep any of sorts meaningful from inside. just wanted everything burning or binning. i kept a piece and have made stuff from it. things like this . pubs are very strange places as they for some reason cater to all complexities of man and woman
"Replaced by something all together more distinguished and elegant". 😅 yeah right the architects who designed the flats wouldn't have dreamed of living there themselves. "10 final stubborn obstacles".
Love how basic the pub is back then. No massive TV's belting out Sport, nothing on the walls. literally a few beer pumps and fellow pub goers for entertainment. No wonder they missed each other.
And no food, other than probably nuts and crisps. So many pubs seem to be dining spaces first, and those places aren't conducive to a good traditional pub atmosphere.
Go into a pub/bar these days and everyone is just on their phones……so difficult at times being a single person and trying to even strike up a conversation with somebody, they all look at you as if you’ve walked into a conference meeting and disturbed them all!
This is great. Reminds me of the old movies and cartoons based on the 19th and early 20th century which I enjoyed soo much. Besides The Christmas Carol, I can't remember any of the names of those films and cartoons and probably would never find them again.
7:37 The A6 on the right, straight through the roundabout. Churchill Way on the left side. with (now) Salford Shopping Centre area topside it possibly looks like.
You’ve got to love planners (🤔) Instead of improving what was there, they chose to evict everybody, raze the lot and build new, making sure that all community spirit was destroyed at the same time. It’s as deliberately destructive as the highland clearances or the pogroms in 1930s Europe. I presume the planners meant well but the outcome was cruel and brutal irrespective of their intentions.
Planners very seldom mean well. As long as they get paid, they don't really care. Most of them don't even live in the locality of their destruction, and have no local knowledge whatsoever. Where I live, a load of expensive flats were built next to a river, despite the fact that the river ran in a channel higher than the level of the first floor and garage levels. I expect you can see where this is going, can't you. A storm in the winter of 2013 meant that people woke up to find they couldn't leave their new homes, as the ground floor was under 6-7 feet of filthy water.
Exactly. Why not make improvements to the area instead of destroying the lot and displacing a whole community. It must be profit motivated to do this. It's so wrong.
Community and a common culture were valued and recognised back then. They know where they feel they belong. This video is a gem. We could all learn from it. Nowadays easy to dismiss these men as close minded and lacking the ability to adapt. In reality they know where they are safer and valued, amongst their own kind from their locale, from their background and from their status.
They probably were a lot happier and lives had more meaning too! Compared to now where 'anything is possible' and we are told we can be and do anything we want if we work for it (not true)
@@Londonechoes I dunno about happier, but simpler I can imagine. They generally worried about their own lives, work and the immediate community. Now every kid has the whole word in their phone. It brings different pressures and confusion.
Terribly sad. They lost their way of life. I feel the same way to a certain extent; my generation grew up in the pub - we were teenagers and young adults in the late nineties and early 2000’s and everybody went to town as a soon as they could get in. You could go to one of your ‘locals’ straight after work and be guaranteed to see some people, play a bit of pool, etc. Now, I don’t even think young people go to the pub, never mind people my age.
I've been playing in bands for decades - in the day the boozers we played were always busy - great crowds - great atmosphere. Slowly, attendance has dwindled - I'm a crusty old git now - but still playing in boozers - sadly the amount of punters about has dwindled - and very few youngsters - I guess new generations socialise in a different way - on their phones?
Sad for those fellas, and true that far fewer pubs remain, but pub culture still exists. I've moved around a bit and I've always become a local in a very short time.
Although I recognise the importance of community which we have lost in modern times, we in the UK have also lost the will to make big infrastructural changes as are seen here which in the long run help improve everyone’s lives. So we lost both the cost and the benefits of what is seen here.
They weren't asking for much were they? A small bar modestly furnished with basic facilities where they could enjoy the company of people similar to themselves.
The accent here is Manchester/Salford, it's not the Lancashire accent of Bolton, Rochdale, Oldham, Bury and other towns in the area. Salford borders Manchester (the dividing line is the River Irwell). Manchester and Salford have always had a completely different accent to the surrounding areas and continue to do so, I'm from Newton Heath, North East Manchester and have lived in area nearly all of my lfe, I'd say the first landlord'a accent is typical of the area.
Because it needed to go. You’re used to all the houses you see being fundamentally fit for living in. That’s not because people have only built houses fit for living in, it’s because during the 20th century there were systematic campaigns to clear the slums. In some cases the tower blocks that replaced them had serious problems, it certainly turned out that community spirit was lost in the transition, but they gained things like plumbing and heating and insulation.
@@HALLish-jl5mo : You say "slums", I say "affordable housing".. something we're lacking right now. It was never about getting rid of slums, more making the slums even more slummy by packing more poor people into a smaller space by building upwards. What's better, a 2 up/2down house, where you have an actual house, or a crappy bit room in the sky?
@@billybollockhead5628 You fundamentally don’t understand my point because these schemes were so successful. In the UK there are no houses as bad as those that were demolished, so your perception of what a house is has been set by that. Seriously, these houses had no plumbing in most cases, maybe a single tap if you were lucky. Certainly no bathroom. Electric lighting might have been retrofitted if you were lucky. No central heating just a coal fireplace. No insulation to speak of. You’ve never seen a house this bad because it would be completely illegal to build, completely illegal to rent, and you’d probably loose your kids if you tried to raise them in one. The singular advantage over an apartment (at least as a building, there were other social advantages) was the garden. But don’t think you could relax in it; that was for the outhouse and for hanging up washing.
the town i live, in the north of england used to have 9 pubs in the 1980s, 8 of them have closed now, & have either being converted to houses or flats, with 2 that were next door to eachother now both derilict, but apparently they too are going to be converted to flats, the only one pub remaining apparently struggle,s to stay open, its a shame because once they are gone, they are gone for good, never to reopen again,
Pub culture has gone. Societal change, generational change, things like the smoking ban, drink-driving far more frowned upon, perhaps the cost of beer - the list goes on. It's a crying shame.
In my area of Rotherhithe in London there used to be 10 pubs within a few minutes of each other....now there is 1!! I do miss meeting up with friends at my local pub but it's gone now like so many others.😐
This is an Amazing history of regular good humans, who worked, rested and lived their lives best to their knowledge. Really inspiring to see in 2024. Keep up with the good archived footage BBC because your current existence is sad.
SO sad..... our past...our history being killed....for what...????? Greedy property developers who's NEVER ever lived in a old decent community in there lives.... What has parts of London been left with...Glass office blocks... CRIMINAL!!!!!
English and British communities in general were ripped apart when our industry was sold off and privatised. We once had communities and friendship. Now we are all fractured and unhappy.
Not allowed to be like that anymore not allowed to share an opinion or have a different point of view unless it fit's with the absolute extremists and crazies of today.
@@UXB-p5uI completely disagree. There were nice elements to this old drinking culture. Connections, community, identity. The shot with the pubs being the only thing left tells its own story.
Social engineering & brain washing the youth into thinking they’re being rebellious when in reality they’re not pushing back against the system they are system…’rainbow flag anyone,🌈
It's really sad, their history wilfully destroyed, their familiar neighbourhood gone, ive seen quite a few little docos on whole housing estates in england being levelled, really bloody sad.
As for why they all congregate back to the same place, for modern people who don't get it think of it like social media. Would you leave Facebook, X, TikTok, Snapchat to go to a brand new network and you only have one contact there? No, you wouldn't, you stay in the same social media site 'cos all your contacts and friends, your history, posts and pics are all there still shared. This is what caused my family to break up and go their separate ways. I come from 5 generations of those born in the East End of London, dockers and workers. They said the same thing and did the same things, smashed communities, broke up fmailies and scattered people in the new "utopia". My parents left London at the end of he 70s and we moved to the Midlands. I moved back to just outside North London and I work in the city but my parents and grandparents family and firends were just scattered and fragmented, our roots decimated and destroyed. I'm probably far more wealthy and have more opportunities that i would if I was still living in the East End and I guess the sacrifices had to be made, but it still stings several generations later.
Tragic to watch the government destroy these historic pubs and a community like this. A sense of community for everyone is so important and I think this demonstrates how little the government care about the taxpayer, hard workers etc. Those men were all funding the developers and didn't want it. It's wrong.
I am unsure how local my local is - it only takes 5 mins to walk there but somehow it takes 25 mins to walk home.
The difference is staggering!
:-)))))))))
Ha ha! Boom boom !
Weyyy
😂
Brilliant
The pubs were a way back to the past for these men, to what was left of everything they had ever known and they travelled miles to get there, just to find somewhere they felt they belonged. Now they would be gone too. Quite a moving film really.
@delong8998when you say you are known to the rest of the villagers, could you please explain how and why? Thanks.
I take it you are Black so see British life as a Black person who wants to change the British world so that it is as your wish it to be
I didn't expect to have tears in my eyes clicking on this video. The sincerity with which the man tells us he genuinely doesn't know what to do after they bulldoze the pub...
@secondchance6603 certainly a wild opinion haha, no football boxing or races? pubs would go broke
Agreed 100 %
You can really feel the sadness of the landlord in the first pub when he speaks, it's such a shame the community was broken up
And that guy was definitely older than 63, so it means he was born sometime in the 1800s!
@@synapticburnI always think that, anyone who looks 63 + in this video was born in the 1800s and most probably contributed in the Great War and the Second World War
Always surprises me in these old interviews how well spoken everyone was, even the drunk 'working class' people seemed calmer and more reflective and self aware.
Yes, correct Internet tv and media brain washing everyone. The youth have no chance today, I'm afraid.
yes i agree, it’s really a shame how gradually each generation has gotten less articulate!
@@ghenny69420 *become less articulate
@@ghenny69420 It is a shame, yet even this comment features an Americanism (gotten) that has crept into modern British English
@@HordleJohn deez nuts. Gottem 😂
Those brand new tower blocks were pulled down in 2014.
Where abouts was they? Road name etc? Would love to look at the area now.
@@JakeP-bb5hh I believe it's around Pendleton in Salford
@@ilikethiskindatube I saw after I watched the video. It’s very different now Thankyou.
Some are still there. But yeah, they lasted 40yrs.
Good!
When a pub closes few spare a thought to the local community. Friends lose contact, pub teams are lost and a way of life dies. Most people had a sense of loyalty and pride to their regular pub as can be seen here. As someone whos seen three old regular pubs close I can feel for these peoples loss.
@@johngilmore697 Both the above,plus market changes and prices. Also going to the pub for a lot of people is no longer a thing, apparently a nice bottle of wine at home or healthy pursuits are quite popular these days.
Destroying whole communities , splitting up neighbours has led to the society we have today. Strangers living next to each other and having no connections. As a child I knew my neighbours they were my aunts, uncles, cousins. We looked out for the old people living on their own. I don't recall a break in or stealing from each other. The elegance of high risers didn't last long and soon local society began to breakdown old alliances broken for good.
The heart of the village. I've spent my life in boozers - to the cost of my liver and wallet - I adore pub culture, and have met so many different and interesting people in them over the decades. Sadly - just a handful now survive in my neck of the woods - but I'll keep going till the final one shouts 'last orders'.
My grandad Billy McMahon at 3.50, thanks for posting this ❤
Stop lying that’s my granddad
Are you related
@@doomain6769 yeah he’s me grandaddy, I call him papi.
Why would you lie? It is FazsterHQ's Papi, u lying scum
woo-hoo, great!
Feel very sad at how they were effectively erased. What a loss.
What an ominous ending, seeing these 'distinguished and elegant' high rises and knowing just how well they are going to work out for their residents. The music at the end makes me think of the end of Blackadder goes forth.
The biggest problem, as it strikes me, is that the midcentury style of planning was overly-focused on what the project looks like when viewed from the sky. For people in planes to think "that looks nice" as they go on their holiday. There was no real emphasis on what it was like down on the ground, with poor sightlines and an unfriendly scale.
@@kaitlyn__L Plus absolutely no consideration given to continuity of community. These planner just thought they could split up centuries old communities and then move people who have never met together and it would all work out. Stalin would have been proud of them.
@@tachikomakusanagi3744 oh, certainly - but that’s a problem with these projects no matter the architectural style. Easterhouse had plenty of low-rise and mid-rise buildings too after all. The problem there was lack of activities and, as you say, different communities shoved together with nowhere for their beefs to go.
But in large places built to look impressive from the sky, they were imposing and difficult to navigate for the residents regardless of whether the people wanted to be there or not. (Bearing in mind people paid a lot to live in some overbearing brutalist structures like the Barbican.)
Wider social planning vs architecture in particular, yk? (Though of course Le Courbosier fancied himself a social architect as well…)
4:18 that kids only sixteen, tough times
@@tachikomakusanagi3744 My auntie moved to one of those in the '60s nearer to Wigan, and it's not that the entire community was split up, many from the same streets went to the same block. It's more that as people died off lots of people from far outside the old community arrived and got flats until there was a lot of anonymity. Whereas in the old streets people's grown up kids would sometimes get a house nearby and it carried on.
As it happens I live near 7 street's worth of 'workers' houses. In a different country mind, and many of the people have the same surname and know one another. So it's not all gone.
That landscape is just extraordinary.
My dad said he didnt go to pub just to get pissed, but to socialise with his mates relax for abit. I think thats a big problem nowadays.
100% it was community
You’re both acting like you still can’t do this lol. Support your local and socialise!
Yes it was always about the Banter happy days
Still is, its just people have stopped going because alcohol is so expensive
Wow Julian Pettifer is 89 in a couple of weeks
I used to watch him on TV back in the early 70’s
Great Journalist
🏴🏴🏴❤️❤️👍 👍
The authentic voice of Lancs.
I'm going to have to open a new "Druid's Rest." What an excellent name.
I live in Penrith, a small town of 16k people, and we have 16 pubs in the town centre. Some closed ones have reopened. You feel welcome in everyone you visit. Makes the walk home very challenging 😂
Sounds like a good night, a pint in every pub!
Carlisle here, first time I've seen Penrith mentioned on UA-cam!
@@Revex08 Hi Carlisle. I'm a newbie to Penrith, moved up from the south in 22. Great part of the country.
My Dad always went back down to Salford for a pint. We moved to Little Hulton in 1966. I would of loved to of seen him in this video.
There is a huge difference between pubs when I was young and pubs now. There were no TVs but there was darts, dominoes, bar billiards and cheaper beer. There was nuts and crisps on the bar on Sundays and landlords that would occasionally give you a beers on the house. Free sandwiches were handed round when there was a league darts and dominoes night and sometimes baked potatoes too. There was often a jukebox box that allowed you to choose your own choice of music. More often than not your mates would be in there too. You would have to push through the crowd at the bar and wave a ten bob note to show the bar staff you were waiting to be served. I don’t frequent pubs these days as paying 9 quid for a pint is taking the piss
"Half-a-crown which equals 2 pints" - that's 15 pence a pint!
And there was conversations, everyone is on their smart phone these days.
Well, my 'local' is a fantastic place - no TV, often a few free morsels to peck at, a healthy mix of clientele, and a landlord who keeps a clean and tight ship. 9 kwid seems steep? - we pay no-where near that - but yes - it is expensive I guess - but I'll happily pay for the pleasure I get - I think it's pretty good value. All the best.
@@Martin-se3ij Half a crown was 12 and a half pence, so just over 6p per pint!
@@oldmodelarmy You are mistaken, Half-a-crown was 30 pence. (Two shillings and six pence)
I didn't expect to be quite so heartbroken on the behalf of these pub-goers who are probably all dead by now... 😢
*The reporter is a typical Lancashire man. He can be trusted to tell it like it is.*
I was 11 years old when this was filmed, and I still miss that word
4:20 is that you?
and the letter "L" on your keyboard?
They want to hang out with their old friends. That's why they come back
The Pub was the hub of the community.
was....
not anymore. shame really
@@nmoore1988 people aren't desperate to get out the house now
@@sacred1827 And the expense of things nowadays isn't helping matters either.
Sounds depressing if that was the case
@@SK-kh2rs how? pubs are great
Well, that's my heart broken for another night.
Glad I watched it.
Heart breaking ❤
"Distinguished and elegant" is not quite how I would describe the 60's obsession with decimating communities and historic architecture and replacing it all with isolating brutalist concrete monoliths.
For distinguished and elegant the zeitgeist read elitist and refined. They sought a utopian style that struck a new note of common identity but it was obviously doomed
@@pgs1796 they're now back in charge of the country
@@johnmurray5573 Tories were in 57-63 when most of this happened.
@@thrashstronaut but the idea had been sold well. the destruciotn of communities and the creation of new ones to reshape the citizens was a purely soviet idea. it tended to falter under the tories but everyone had bought into the propoganda.
@@DominicExcedol Never the Tories fault is it.
bring back this artistry please, BBC
Behave, they are too busy abusing children!
I loved my nights in the pubs, I was brought up in and out of pub life and I don’t regret that part of my life. I no longer drink alcohol, all the public houses and inns I left behind are still open, but it’s no longer has a place in my life, I simply cannot afford it anymore and the ban on smoking was the final straw for me.
A wonderful archive that made me smile 👍
The smoking ban was a large nail in the coffin. I have played in bands for decades - the week the ban came into force - our audience was outside smoking - we played to an empty room. Never forget it.
It's almost as if town planners never learn from their predecessors' mistakes.
No, they have learned. Thats why they do it.
No mistake - they just don't give a monkey's
"And this is their dream...something altogether more distinguished and elegant" *cuts to a soulless Orwellian concrete monstrosity*
You're making an essential mistake, the pain isn't the passenger, it's the point.
Brown envelopes stuffed with cash is never a mistake.
“Believe you me” I haven’t heard that in years.
That was a common expression in eastern Canada when I was a kid.
It’s the people that make the pub, regardless what looks like.
Went to college in Salford, past the old docks, all gone now, turned into condo's, the odd crane left standing, like a fossil skeleton in a museum. Still, and long dead, a reminder of a world we'll never know. Shame they couldn't leave one pub standing. I guess it would remind the planners that the place once had a soul.
My local is now six miles away, that doesn’t stop me, I cycle there now, so I can still have a drink with my friends from around the way, then cycle home pissed 😂
Go well 😂
Me too!! But I cheat a bit - got an electric bike - awesome. Way out in the country though and can get home across fields - if I can stay on it......
The area of Hanky Park was demolished in the 1960s and replaced by high-rise flats. Sadly, only a few of the old buildings were saved.
Where did you hear this?
@@ElvayProductions i google it
The grapevine
the reason the pubs were kept open was they had to continue trading untill the license was transferd to a new pub in one of the over-spill estates on the same day. my gran lived on ARCHIE ST & was shifted out to Gamsley. If this was,nt done the lisece was void & ended.
The Loco and the Concert in Openshaw Manchester, rest in peace.
I’m from the north but moved to SE London 40 years ago. The other day I counted up at that time there were 14 pubs in the wider area we might have gone in (though some only occasionally) and 11 have now gone for ever.
☹
Similar happened to the area in Leeds where i used to leave. Cross Green up until the late 90s had around 12 or 13 pubs, now even with a bigger population and regeneration in the area there are no pubs at all.
You have to go into leeds centre for a pint. It's really disappointing but I have moved out of inner city Leeds to garforth on the outskirts. Luckily I still have 2 local pubs within 5 minutes walking distance and 7 throughout the town.
@@kylereed9309 because people realised wasting money on what is essentially poison is dumb and stupid.
@@TheWeepingDalek and I've just realised your small, insignificant and the whole world doesn't share the same thoughts as you but thanks for the opinion anyway.
@@kylereed9309 then why are so many pubs closing. Why are the younger generations moving away from drinking
Half a crown. Another 2 pints! A big reason the new high rises - and many new housing estates - failed was the merest lip service given to replacing or even moving community centres like the good old pub. The edge of estate megapub was never quite the same.
These blokes effortlessly took a full pint in a single gulp.🍺
Crazy to see all these peiple who are probably no longer here , fighting for whats theirs. Now itscall been taken away and its quiet sad actually its like taking an eraser to a history book.
Back then 40quid a week was a good wage for a family of 4 or more to live on.
The audio quality is really great
I wish life was this simple today.
Just goes to show that change without community is a slow death. Decline in morale and morality followes.✌️☘️
I remember when the first supermarket opened near where I lived in the early 60s, and within a fortnight all the local shops were closing….one by one…
how is it not? Go to work, pay your bills - eat - family - done.
@@nigellee9824 I remember when the town got its first supermarket. Everyone was panicking the town would close. It didnt, a few shops changed out overtime, they likely werent making good profits anyway - the butchers that everyone thought would definitely go under didnt, if anything they had higher demand - now they have branches in 4 adjacent towns. Supermarkets didnt kill the high street, demand simply diversified and changed. Similarly online - multiple towns near me have thriving weekly markets, and busy high streets.
@lokent6592 I think you're living in a fantasy world....high streets are dying everywhere , very few butchers exist in town centres, and fish monger are almost extinct..
My Local ?
About 2 miles away and owned by A private company
Don't Worry, I get to walk passed the Three closed pubs on my road in order to get there so the good times flood back
My grandad worked in Hanky Park, he was an iron moulder at Hodkinsons foundry. Ewan McColls father worked there at the same time.
RIP, my old local is now a 'Community Centre'
The pub closures where I live in the North East have been massive, the small village where I grew up had 4 pubs only 20 years ago they have all gone I have moved to other pubs but the atmosphere just isn't the same and if you can only go out once a week or less like I do it's hard to get into the click, sometimes you can bump into a few friends or acquaintances and have a good night other times there is nobody there who you know and you feel like an outsider, but as the old saying goes if you don't use it you lose it
I feel your pain. I go to pubs to socialise (OK - I love beer too!!) I'm lucky that I have a local (6 miles away) that I use regularly - but IF that shuts - I don't think I'll see the bulk of my 'pub chums' again. Sigh.
Wetherspoons is a local with its soul kicked out.
To be fair to Wetherspoons, you can still meet your mates there and have a good time and the drinks are well priced, just like these old pubs, but I think that's it's the culture that's changed more than anything. In fact, culture of any kind has been pretty much dead for the past 20 years. Strange time's we're living in..
@@Danceswithbugs This. Been fortunate enough that I have a god group of friends who still meet up and who I have a tangible friendship with. Know an uncomfortable amount of people that have almost entirely digital friendships. So connected but so disconnected at the same time. No wonder the world seems so glum apart from the times I'm with my boys. It's getting harder to think that things will get better.
Wetherspoons has saved a lot of historical buildings from being demolished
Ive always called Wspoons the mcdonalds of pubs
@@Danceswithbugs internet age. people aren't as keen to go out as often now. a pub becomes the hub of the community if people are in there often. not every few weeks.
Are those tower blocks still there??! Those scenes of desolation with massive empty spaces in between the isolated pubs … shocking how the housing council moved against the will of the people.
Someone mentioned in a comment that those tower blocks were demolished not long ago.
@@buckodonnghaile4309I think the area is Pendleton, lots of the flats are still there
1963 the year I was born 😊
i was involved with turning a pub into flats. forest of dean. the landlord didnt even keep any of sorts meaningful from inside. just wanted everything burning or binning. i kept a piece and have made stuff from it. things like this . pubs are very strange places as they for some reason cater to all complexities of man and woman
Worst days work ever done for Walkden and Little Hulton , poor folk mustve wondered what hit them, and probably still do.
"Replaced by something all together more distinguished and elegant".
😅 yeah right the architects who designed the flats wouldn't have dreamed of living there themselves.
"10 final stubborn obstacles".
live on the streets then
Love how basic the pub is back then. No massive TV's belting out Sport, nothing on the walls. literally a few beer pumps and fellow pub goers for entertainment. No wonder they missed each other.
And no food, other than probably nuts and crisps. So many pubs seem to be dining spaces first, and those places aren't conducive to a good traditional pub atmosphere.
Go into a pub/bar these days and everyone is just on their phones……so difficult at times being a single person and trying to even strike up a conversation with somebody, they all look at you as if you’ve walked into a conference meeting and disturbed them all!
Amazing video! Thanks for sharing this look into the past
I wish I had been born in the year 1963 when classic Dr Who started on bbc1, and also had I been born in 1963 would now be aged 61 instead of aged 55.
I always associated the style and sound of the piano music near the end with London culture and cockney environs of the time.
This is great. Reminds me of the old movies and cartoons based on the 19th and early 20th century which I enjoyed soo much. Besides The Christmas Carol, I can't remember any of the names of those films and cartoons and probably would never find them again.
what a brilliant vid what a vid
I like that they travel with no fear of the consequences of drink driving 😂
7:37 The A6 on the right, straight through the roundabout. Churchill Way on the left side. with (now) Salford Shopping Centre area topside it possibly looks like.
If you want to enjoy the atmosphere of the pubs in this film, come along to the King’s Arms, Ravenstone (children in the lounge only, please)
That’s what I call Community SPIRIT.🍻
You’ve got to love planners (🤔)
Instead of improving what was there, they chose to evict everybody, raze the lot and build new, making sure that all community spirit was destroyed at the same time.
It’s as deliberately destructive as the highland clearances or the pogroms in 1930s Europe.
I presume the planners meant well but the outcome was cruel and brutal irrespective of their intentions.
Planners very seldom mean well. As long as they get paid, they don't really care. Most of them don't even live in the locality of their destruction, and have no local knowledge whatsoever. Where I live, a load of expensive flats were built next to a river, despite the fact that the river ran in a channel higher than the level of the first floor and garage levels. I expect you can see where this is going, can't you. A storm in the winter of 2013 meant that people woke up to find they couldn't leave their new homes, as the ground floor was under 6-7 feet of filthy water.
Exactly. Why not make improvements to the area instead of destroying the lot and displacing a whole community. It must be profit motivated to do this. It's so wrong.
@@brianartillery They should be held accountable for their dumb decisons.
Nice try.
The planners saw the numbers and that's all that matters to them, not the people.
Community and a common culture were valued and recognised back then. They know where they feel they belong. This video is a gem. We could all learn from it. Nowadays easy to dismiss these men as close minded and lacking the ability to adapt. In reality they know where they are safer and valued, amongst their own kind from their locale, from their background and from their status.
But when other people do this it's a problem 🤔
They probably were a lot happier and lives had more meaning too! Compared to now where 'anything is possible' and we are told we can be and do anything we want if we work for it (not true)
@@Londonechoes I dunno about happier, but simpler I can imagine. They generally worried about their own lives, work and the immediate community. Now every kid has the whole word in their phone. It brings different pressures and confusion.
@@sacred1827 Very true
@@leonpalmer2429 yeah when its foreigners in our country
Terribly sad. They lost their way of life. I feel the same way to a certain extent; my generation grew up in the pub - we were teenagers and young adults in the late nineties and early 2000’s and everybody went to town as a soon as they could get in. You could go to one of your ‘locals’ straight after work and be guaranteed to see some people, play a bit of pool, etc. Now, I don’t even think young people go to the pub, never mind people my age.
I've been playing in bands for decades - in the day the boozers we played were always busy - great crowds - great atmosphere. Slowly, attendance has dwindled - I'm a crusty old git now - but still playing in boozers - sadly the amount of punters about has dwindled - and very few youngsters - I guess new generations socialise in a different way - on their phones?
Sad for those fellas, and true that far fewer pubs remain, but pub culture still exists. I've moved around a bit and I've always become a local in a very short time.
The ending is like a Wes Anderson film
Although I recognise the importance of community which we have lost in modern times, we in the UK have also lost the will to make big infrastructural changes as are seen here which in the long run help improve everyone’s lives. So we lost both the cost and the benefits of what is seen here.
Have a look on a map and you can still find streets and streets of terraced house, some old, some new(ish).
yup .. I grew up through this ...Very Sad, but Fact even though I was a Yorkshire Lad from Sheffield - Rotherham
Amazing camera work. Even if the filmmakers copied the whole intro and outro from Tati's "Mon Oncle"!
They weren't asking for much were they?
A small bar modestly furnished with basic facilities where they could enjoy the company of people similar to themselves.
Surprised by how Lancastrian their accents are, amazing how much the Mancunian accent has spread
Me too. They sound like my 73 year old dad.
The accent here is Manchester/Salford, it's not the Lancashire accent of Bolton, Rochdale, Oldham, Bury and other towns in the area. Salford borders Manchester (the dividing line is the River Irwell). Manchester and Salford have always had a completely different accent to the surrounding areas and continue to do so, I'm from Newton Heath, North East Manchester and have lived in area nearly all of my lfe, I'd say the first landlord'a accent is typical of the area.
What a zoom out! And did he really have a wireless microphone in 1963? And so powerful zoom lenses?
The original "Rovers Return". 🏴🇬🇧 😃😂
why did they demolish a whole suburb
edit: oh god 7:37
Squaller
Because it needed to go. You’re used to all the houses you see being fundamentally fit for living in. That’s not because people have only built houses fit for living in, it’s because during the 20th century there were systematic campaigns to clear the slums.
In some cases the tower blocks that replaced them had serious problems, it certainly turned out that community spirit was lost in the transition, but they gained things like plumbing and heating and insulation.
@@HALLish-jl5mo : You say "slums", I say "affordable housing".. something we're lacking right now.
It was never about getting rid of slums, more making the slums even more slummy by packing more poor people into a smaller space by building upwards.
What's better, a 2 up/2down house, where you have an actual house, or a crappy bit room in the sky?
@@billybollockhead5628 You fundamentally don’t understand my point because these schemes were so successful. In the UK there are no houses as bad as those that were demolished, so your perception of what a house is has been set by that.
Seriously, these houses had no plumbing in most cases, maybe a single tap if you were lucky. Certainly no bathroom. Electric lighting might have been retrofitted if you were lucky. No central heating just a coal fireplace. No insulation to speak of.
You’ve never seen a house this bad because it would be completely illegal to build, completely illegal to rent, and you’d probably loose your kids if you tried to raise them in one.
The singular advantage over an apartment (at least as a building, there were other social advantages) was the garden. But don’t think you could relax in it; that was for the outhouse and for hanging up washing.
the town i live, in the north of england used to have 9 pubs in the 1980s, 8 of them have closed now, & have either being converted to houses or flats, with 2 that were next door to eachother now both derilict, but apparently they too are going to be converted to flats, the only one pub remaining apparently struggle,s to stay open, its a shame because once they are gone, they are gone for good, never to reopen again,
Pub culture has gone. Societal change, generational change, things like the smoking ban, drink-driving far more frowned upon, perhaps the cost of beer - the list goes on. It's a crying shame.
In my area of Rotherhithe in London there used to be 10 pubs within a few minutes of each other....now there is 1!!
I do miss meeting up with friends at my local pub but it's gone now like so many others.😐
This is an Amazing history of regular good humans, who worked, rested and lived their lives best to their knowledge. Really inspiring to see in 2024. Keep up with the good archived footage BBC because your current existence is sad.
SO sad..... our past...our history being killed....for what...????? Greedy property developers who's NEVER ever lived in a old decent community in there lives....
What has parts of London been left with...Glass office blocks... CRIMINAL!!!!!
Its a Pub, it's not that deep, calm down buttercup.
Did you know what was there before? It was essentially slums
Talk for London if you like but you know naff all about Salford
@@nonono9194 it was slums tho, my family was from them
Great gran used to say how bad it was
heart Braking what the government has done to Britain this is not the place i was brought up in
English and British communities in general were ripped apart when our industry was sold off and privatised. We once had communities and friendship. Now we are all fractured and unhappy.
5:00 Jason Statham's Dad enjoying a drink, never knew he was a Northerner!
Now in the Cotswolds it all middle class metropolitans. Bar a few of us
Opening images reminds me of the start of the TV series Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads.
We must drink Alcohol to have friends 🥴🥴🇬🇧
You don't get it
No Tubbs, we must remain
LOCAL
The pub was often the last place standing in "slum" clearances. 20 or 30 years later the planner's dream would be reduced to rubble
Wonder what these guys would have thought about the potential pub garden smoking ban in England? 😢
Might as well ban alcohol too whilst they're at it. FFs.
Salt of the earth British People. What do we get now ? We are finished. 😢
There are only 5 proper pubs in my town now. Very sad indeed!
That is so sad
It's happening alover again keep your pubs keep your community
This is a local shop for local people … if you know, you know 😊
Real lads !! WTF happened to us
That generation were amazing. I do wonder, I really do.
Not allowed to be like that anymore not allowed to share an opinion or have a different point of view unless it fit's with the absolute extremists and crazies of today.
@@UXB-p5uI completely disagree.
There were nice elements to this old drinking culture. Connections, community, identity.
The shot with the pubs being the only thing left tells its own story.
@@UXB-p5u You've diverted this in a very predictably irrelevant direction
Social engineering & brain washing the youth into thinking they’re being rebellious when in reality they’re not pushing back against the system they are system…’rainbow flag anyone,🌈
It's really sad, their history wilfully destroyed, their familiar neighbourhood gone, ive seen quite a few little docos on whole housing estates in england being levelled, really bloody sad.
As for why they all congregate back to the same place, for modern people who don't get it think of it like social media. Would you leave Facebook, X, TikTok, Snapchat to go to a brand new network and you only have one contact there? No, you wouldn't, you stay in the same social media site 'cos all your contacts and friends, your history, posts and pics are all there still shared.
This is what caused my family to break up and go their separate ways. I come from 5 generations of those born in the East End of London, dockers and workers. They said the same thing and did the same things, smashed communities, broke up fmailies and scattered people in the new "utopia". My parents left London at the end of he 70s and we moved to the Midlands. I moved back to just outside North London and I work in the city but my parents and grandparents family and firends were just scattered and fragmented, our roots decimated and destroyed. I'm probably far more wealthy and have more opportunities that i would if I was still living in the East End and I guess the sacrifices had to be made, but it still stings several generations later.
Tragic to watch the government destroy these historic pubs and a community like this. A sense of community for everyone is so important and I think this demonstrates how little the government care about the taxpayer, hard workers etc. Those men were all funding the developers and didn't want it. It's wrong.
The beginning reminded me of willy nelsons "blood brothers"
I live in an overflow estate from this area, think the pubs all got torched