These people were also Irish,West Indian and endured the same slum conditions in the 60’s/70’s they didnt move out , they couldnt . All this cobblers about how great it was with community spirit rubbish . All these all start with “ We” but for those who only had “I” it was horrific !
As an American may I say . . . what an amazing documentary. I love how the story was told from every economic angle, the poor, the not so poor, the people who moved from Chelsea to buy on speculation, to the Investment Banker crowd. I felt the story was told without bias, everyone was granted their say in the matter. Well done !
The level of elitism in this film is very uncomfortable viewing. Bankers must remember it was normal people who bailed them out just a few years ago. The woman who was in finance but is now in 'fashion' as well as the banker are particularly despicable.
I’ve just seen an advertisement for a house to rent in the southern end of Portland Road for £12,500 a month. The property market has gone wrong that looking at Notting Hill property prices make me sick
He's talking pish, there's a Tesco's at the end of Portland Street. And if he has a Sainsbury's club card, there's a bastardin' Sainsbury's AND a Tesco's at Ladbroke Grove, AND 3 convinience stores a 2 min walk away. He's just a lazy shit.
This is truly sad to see. Unfortunately, it's not an isolated incident., it's happening everywhere.Everyday working class people are being pushed away to the edges, replaced by the super rich, who have no history or roots in these neighbourhoods. To them, it's just an investment, a status symbol represented by a certain post code. Too sad.
FlowingZ Wer it disappears because of the greed of the landlords. They see money and go for it. The rich want the properties and have no care for the current residents. The rich expect the working class to cave into their snobbery and high flown standards.
True, but too many working class people are happy to shift the blame on to a middle class who are frequently as powerless as they are, or an illusory “elite” that aren’t really pulling the strings at all (nb, I am working class).
I used to live near Portland road and I used to talk to a guy living at number 67 every other day, he was rich but he was alright. I hope he is doing fine and I hope he is still living there.
When you watch this, in the beginning, you might get a feeling of nostalgia. You might even smile. By the end you'll more than likely have more of a feeling of anger. Who likes "YUPPIES"? We left the slums of Notting Hill in 1962 when I was 9years old. My Mum and Dad finally, after being on the (waiting list) for 13 years were offered a council house. Portobello road was known as "the lane". My mum often sent me and my sister down the lane to by spuds and other "veggies" from the market stalls. Nowhere around there was posh, not even a little bit. Portobello road was full of second hand shops and antique shops although it did have a Woolworths, not quite posh though. Horses used to bring the barrows to market and were hitched to lamp posts all day. There were muses down the "lane" where there were stables. My playground in those days were the lane, a car breakers yard at the end of our street and bombed out houses and a church that were still left over from the war. I hid in my mates back yard the day we left there, I didn't want to leave. Glad I did though. I wouldn't want to go back there. It belongs in childhood memories and nowhere else. Except here of course. The street I lived in "swinbrook road" no longer exists, the pulled em all down, (before the yuppies could get em) lol.
When I was a student in London in the 70's the local Council offered me the house I lived in in Wilesden for 6000 pounds and arranged a student loan ,,, I said no as I was Young I had no idea of 'settling' or 'investing' ,, today that house is Worth millions ,,,
One of the most moving documentaries I've seen. It's reaffirm my hate to all banking system and social segregation. Your home and your roots it's what's really important in life. Appreciate what you grew up with and make sure your children will have better life. Big up to all those who weren't born with a silver spoon up their arse!
I'm getting on a bit now, and can tell you that some of this, as far as the timeline is concerned, is a touch inaccurate. Barclays was a well established bank by 1970, and in the middle '60's, the Portabello Road (very nearby) was a highly popular area for trendies. Even The Beatles owned a shop down there, called Apple. I always think it's funny that people connect apples with computers now. Getting old is interesting from the point of view of having lived through the time, and knowing that a lot of what younger people state as fact, is just not true!
Sadly, there won't be many of us oldies left to remember before long. If my memory serves...my Dad was showing me the slum areas to be cleared for the Westway development . I recall large curving terraces of 4 or 5 storey townhouses, obviously intended for the wealthy but all with large soulless and incongruous flat-roofed foyers sticking out of the front of the now multi-occupancy buildings and adorned with bikes, bins, prams and the odd washing line. It must have left quite an impression since I still sometimes dream about it some 56 years later.
@@royfr8136 History is written by the people who can write history, lots of what we call history is more than likely inaccurate as it is one persons take on what happened, not the actual events.
You don't need to be ''Poor'' to not be able to afford a studio flat in West London. We are refugees from Richmond... I can't afford a flat there, but tragically, where we live now has become very expensive /[We got in before insane rise. I think it is so wrong that ''Buy to let'' is allowed, as the landlords buy up the places first time buyers born into the Communities would once have afforded.
my grandparents mom and 2 aunts lived on portland rd way back ...wish I could know more about were they lived ..this is about a close as I'll ever get...
At times, I even wonder if it's not worse now. For sure, everything has been going from bad to worse since the 80s. London used to be such a wonderful place in the 60s and the 70s.
I lived in Notting Hill not far from Portland Rd for the last decade. This wave of gentrification they note in the documentary has only gotten worse since 2008. The reality is, Notting Hill is so exclusive now it's far breached the "well to do" types who at least used a townhouse in a functional, day to day sense (like the Hicks's) to it's now a place where globalists store some of their wealth and spend 3 weekends a year. I evidence that by saying, walk ANYWHERE from Royal Oak tube, down to Portland Road on any given week day night at around 9pm and see how many lights are switched on - you'll be stunned at how dark Notting Hill is, hardly any one lives there permanently anymore. The 'occupancy' rate is catastrophically low, much like Mayfair and central Paris, which is why there are few shops and limited restaurants/quiet pubs. Another thing to keep an eye on is how few
3:56 The census shows my Great Grandparents James and Annie McCarthy and my Granddad Arthur McCarthy. Wow what a wonderful surprise! I know this from our family tree on Ancestry.
Agree 100%. I live in Brighton, just south of London. Some say London by the sea 🌊 wish they wouldn't as London is a dive of a place. Got the beach & seaside. Decent shops. Last time I went to London I couldn't wait to get back!
The scene form the movie " Turn the Key Softly " showed a very well-known actor of the day, Katherine Harrison ( the movie also starred Joan Collins, Thora Hird and Yvonne Mitchell ) who actually was a Lancastrian.
Thanks for this documentary remember Portland Road used to go up there and visit folk I knew lived there in the late eighties and mid nineties. I like Notting Hill go there all the time , Portabello Road, Westbourne Grove, Ladbroke Grove, go over to Queensway and Bayswater, cannot wait to go back. That area one of my favorite not only of London but of all time
Dusan Veselka It keeps getting worse. It seems the divide between the rich and poor not only persists, it just keeps getting wider. Something’s got to give.
7:48 Wow, now there's an insight I'm happy to have learned. It didn't occur to me...but of course they wouldn't have had underclothes! Too expensive! Fascinating. It's the little things like that that often go missing in the retelling of history, which is sad because it brings it to life. This was fascinating.
Many posting here are amazed at what they see and hear in this film. In many cases you were lucky that you were not born at this time, this is my 'Manor' but it does not make me happy, it has bought me to tears and bought on depression. I feel that l am not destined for much longer on this planet.
Same story. The working classes create a community with great atmosphere and uniqueness and culture. Then along come the rich . Socially cleanse the place and kill it off. Same as Camden,Hoxton, Hackney And most of London. 😢😤
Poverty forces people to come together and support each other. The new residents of Portland Road, for all their wealth and taste, are vile cunts who would walk on the drowning bodies of the poor to stop their shoes getting wet.
I worked all over Kensington & Chelsea for two years in 2000. I mean literally. It was an experience. Personally I couldn't wait to get out it each evening and back to North London. As much as I love and miss London I wouldn't want to live there again. It's changed too much. Btw does anyone else think how weird and suspicious it was that radio announcement, 'Germany Calling' giving warning to being bombed?
have you not seen the movie anout Alan Turin? The British spy network had a code breaker but weren't allowed to let anyone know about it. They clearly performed some ploy to save the people of an important area of london.
In another city, Toronto, the incomers are mostly Chinese... your analysis forgets the other aspects, from other parts of the world, the upper classes are buying homes for their children...
Bunch of bloody snobs towards the end of the documentary. Ah well, there's always a chance of a future revolution eh? As for that Natasha, she works in fashion? - doing what, judging people?
Yes, I agree. The man with the glasses and suit from the begining of the interview was a snop. "I would not go past that line. It is not my village." Oh, please!! It is interesting to watch the middle/wealthy class of people that moved in to the houses on Portland Street in the 1970's and 1980's. They call the wealthy who now want to buy their houses for 3 or 4 million dollars rich snobs. But have the ever considered how the people who originally lived there felt when they were told to move out to make room for them?? For example, the older woman who had to move into the basement was told to leave for these people. It is as my mother would say, "The pot calling the kettle black." It is rather hypocritical.
+mother of two But to be honest not many people really wanted to live there then or would pay much for the houses on that street.Their parents thought they were mad....it brought the street up again....but what has happened since with the Bankers and dodgy foreign money has ruined the whole area!
SweetPeach Bellini I love when people tell us they are “in fashion”. Such bs. If they really were they wouldn’t have to tell us, we could tell by looking at them.
All cities are a collection of communities and the purchase of a home requires thought and consideration on the buyers part. In the US we consider safety , schools , and shopping as a priority before buying. We learn about the area and it’s history before we drop a dime.
Imagine being under the epic misapprehension that brexit was going to start some revolution where bankers would end up getting their just deserts. Who on earth were you listening to that managed to convince you of that? What a fucking clown.
The best time to acquired property would be early in the 20th century. It's the same everywhere. I went to Michigan City, Indiana to visit a friend. Her parents live in a cottage-type home one block from Lake Michigan, and there, on the shores, people from Chicago regularly buy homes for 2 million dollars, then bulldoze them down and build something bigger. But the cottage was original, built in the early fifties. Paid for by a working class family.
He was also the only one honest enough to admit that they are all rich because of government hand outs. Anyone can "succeed" if the State is going to give you heaps of money for nothing!
18:20 I got bullied out of my 1920 building in New York last year. I lived in my car for two months because there was money to store my possessions or stay in a motel a few nights a week-not both. As for the owner, he’s raking in money. The entire neighborhood has changed in the space of two years. Now I have accommodations, but it’s temporary, month to month. When I can no longer work, I’ll almost certainly leave NY; to where? Don’t know. Maybe I’ll die before then. I used to know my neighbors, everyone in my building, most people on the block, I at least recognized. Now, I know the person with whom I have the monthly arrangement. That’s it. As for old neighbors, they’re all gone, tossed out and scattered to the wind. I can’t afford to live, yet I’m ineligible for any social assistance. BTW, that woman is a B I T C H. She wouldn’t last a week of my life, of course, the time will come when I won’t last the week of my life, either. There were three of us, now two. We’ve definitely not improved over our parents, instead, have gone far down the economic and social ladder, this despite fairly good educations, university as opposed to our mother who quit at 16 to work, father who had high school plus four years in the military.
18:20 I got bullied out of my 1920 building in New York last year. I lived in my car for two months because there was money to store my possessions or stay in a motel a few nights a week-not both. As for the owner, he’s raking in money. The entire neighborhood has changed in the space of two years. Now I have accommodations, but it’s temporary, month to month. When I can no longer work, I’ll almost certainly leave NY; to where? Don’t know. Maybe I’ll die before then. I used to know my neighbors, everyone in my building, most people on the block, I at least recognized. Now, I know the person with whom I have the monthly arrangement. That’s it. As for old neighbors, they’re all gone, tossed out and scattered to the wind. I can’t afford to live, yet I’m ineligible for any social assistance. BTW, that woman is a B I T C H. She wouldn’t last a week of my life, of course, the time will come when I won’t last the week of my life, either. There were three of us, now two. We’ve definitely not improved over our parents, instead, have gone far down the economic and social ladder, this despite fairly good educations, university as opposed to our mother who quit at 16 to work, father who had high school plus four years in the military.Read more Show less I m sooo interested in your storyMine is not dissimilarEmigrated to FranceFinally found a gorgeous little flatAfter some time ..electricity problemsGot WORSE and worse Landlady never repaired shitGot homeless ;survived "temporary" emergency accomodationwaiting for social housing year after yearHELPgetting depressed won t greatly helpMe too ; university education and shit...write to mehleeck@gmail.com
I grew up a stone's throw away in Ladbroke Grove. My family were not pretentious, not interlopers, not the nouveau riche or the oligarchs who live there now. This story has played out across London (as the rest of this excellent series covered) but perhaps Notting Hill was the first of the grand Victorian and Edwardian areas to fall into decay before gentrification took it beyond the means of the locals. What Rachman did in the 50's Foxtons is doing today.
Henry Mayhew? Descending from THE Henry Mayhew? wow. I was impressed to see how he had enough strength to pull away from superficial people and lifestyle. People like him are amazing. And that last scene where he washes outside. Wow. I would spend a month in the woods with him anytime.
I hate to burst your bubble but the fact is that people who come from real money like that can easily pull out of the rat race with the backing of the many “family” trusts. Not really a mark of any special character. They are often disarmingly frank to speak to and appear sometimes in that way to have more sympathy and more understanding of “common” folk than someone like Natasha (the very epitome of upper middle class) but make no mistake (and I say this even though like you I found him to be likeable) but they are very different from the average Joe in ways that are just not as obvious at first. In short, no I don’t think he would want to hang out with the likes of us in his family trust woods. :)
This is a fantastic documentary. We don't associate Notting Hill with poverty, but goes to show the extent of determined gentrification in London. There will be a similar doc on Peckham and Dalston soon enough, though in those instances they remain nasty.
Clapham is soon to be there. Had a family member who had a house there and it was just a regular area with working class people in the 90's. I'm not in the uk and checked the area recently on google maps and did a bit of searching and shocked to learn thats its now a well to do area...I was floored. The house I stayed/ family member owned at the time was a Victorian/ terrace house...full 3 floors and unseparated up in the 90's. I checked the house is now separated flats with each valued at 500,000 each.
Hi gail your talkin sense and im just go na get right to the point gentrication started at the end of the 60's and if your talking about the deptford doc ues its heartbraking how they condemmed the houses and a whole community (watch the geezer thats family ran the markets talkin down a side road about where hes family used to live )
I could hear the song "Gold Rush" by Death Cab for Cutie during this whole show: Digging for gold in my neighborhood For what they say is the greater good But all I see is a long goodbye A requiem for a skyline It seems I never stopped losing you As every dive becomes something new And all our ghosts get swept away It didn't use to be this way
How prophetic that the first posh folks sent their kids to the school around the corner with the criminal classes and one of them turned out to be a banker. The school obviously set him up for the job just nicely.
Really good documentary. I had a boyfriend in this road for a while in the 1970's. Did not seem posh then...but maybe it was just beginning to be...he owned his place.
Brilliant!. i came from a council estate in London.worked bloody hard and we did well for ourselves. and own a lovely home. but you do not make old friends happy doing well and being successful. its human nature the poor hate the rich! no matter where you came from,
I know people get up in arms about the poor being forced out, but had the neighborhood continued as it was much of the housing would need tearing down. The homes are lovely now. Even the people who lived there prior to the renovation state that it was a slum....that they loved, but a slum nonetheless. Now it can carry on....reinvented but then, as the one man said, ‘change is good’.
These are well made social docs. Some of the houses are just simple Georgian row houses. ...the Street is georgous though. I love the flat iron dividing the street. Through most of it I kept thinking of portobello...oh I know why because a similar thing happened there but now as ridiculous....and its close by I felt really dirt watching at the middle point, not because of the squalid poor, but at the perverted rich. At least the one rich banker guy laid it out for what it is. And people would of knocked these down within a blink of an eye until the end of 1960's without even thinking about it. Now anyone will kill for stuff even in the 1930...we live in a world of brainless idiots who cant think for themselves Reminds me of what happened to Manhattan and Greenwich village.
A very enlightening and informative documentary, never knew that the area was slum . It goes to show who really owns the property market. Here in Australia property prices are going through the roof and for many people, buying a house is only a dream
The footage of the children and small business owners looked much happier and community-spirited than the wealthy ppl who have moved in. It's happening in usa too, sadly. I cannot afford to live where i grew up. Wages go down for the common worker, and housing is increasingly unaffordable.
the damage of bottomless greed is just so appalling: bullying away from their homes hundreds of hard working, honest and deeply connected families, eliminating them like cockroaches, destroying a whole community, it's disgusting. I'm not impressed with bankers who get up at 4.40 to work like animals till night comes to afford the whole circus, now dance to the music you put on!
Quite shocking that 50 years later, in 2018, 157 Portland road sold for £2,750,000 making the Hicks couple £2,738,000 profit Typical of all Kensington and Chelsea housing
I am so glad I'm not rich. It must be a horrible existence having to choose clothing, house, cars, according to how it'll appear to other people. It would be a nightmare to have more money than I needed and to just go out and buy whatever I wanted without the pleasure of saving up and shopping around. I am not joking. I'd *hate* to be rich. Life would be meaningless.
in the past life we lived poorly dident have much of anything compared to what we have now (2019) but we had each other (people around us ) more than we will ever have ... we were happier more than we will ever be ....now a days we have everything but theres not much happiness ...all these materialistic things that found there way in our homes have caused nothing but trouble greed and misery....these are the worst times were living in now ....back then were happier times with happier people that cared and loved one another
Astounding at how many people of the past grew up with nothing but are still nostalgic of a happier past, food for thought, very lovely watching this,
These people are the real British,they're known as the salt of the Earth.
These people were also Irish,West Indian and endured the same slum conditions in the 60’s/70’s they didnt move out , they couldnt . All this cobblers about how great it was with community spirit rubbish . All these all start with “ We” but for those who only had “I” it was horrific !
As an American may I say . . . what an amazing documentary. I love how the story was told from every economic angle, the poor, the not so poor, the people who moved from Chelsea to buy on speculation, to the Investment Banker crowd. I felt the story was told without bias, everyone was granted their say in the matter. Well done !
Thank you from the Anglophile your prodigal sons love and esteem you.
@@danielray6689 cringe
yes its a classist society just like America which of course has no class.
They’re the best at what they do.
Greetings from Denmark
The level of elitism in this film is very uncomfortable viewing. Bankers must remember it was normal people who bailed them out just a few years ago. The woman who was in finance but is now in 'fashion' as well as the banker are particularly despicable.
welll said Dylan
This is one of the best series the BBC has ever done
shush
I love how Waklin and Mayhew end up in trailers in a field.
Gypsies at heart
I’ve just seen an advertisement for a house to rent in the southern end of Portland Road for £12,500 a month.
The property market has gone wrong that looking at Notting Hill property prices make me sick
16 shops and you can’t get a paper or pint of milk.....who are these shops for..there’s no one in them. Ha! Priceless!
the butler does papers milk and bread etc....
I thought that bless him!
I couldn't have said it better.
I love that. He took the words from my mouth.
He's talking pish, there's a Tesco's at the end of Portland Street. And if he has a Sainsbury's club card, there's a bastardin' Sainsbury's AND a Tesco's at Ladbroke Grove, AND 3 convinience stores a 2 min walk away. He's just a lazy shit.
This is truly sad to see. Unfortunately, it's not an isolated incident., it's happening everywhere.Everyday working class people are being pushed away to the edges, replaced by the super rich, who have no history or roots in these neighbourhoods. To them, it's just an investment, a status symbol represented by a certain post code. Too sad.
It's too sad. The vibrancy that attracts them to these areas disappears the minute they move in.
it happens with cars .....a house, like a car may be an investment, but if you buy it for that sole purpose ......wheres the pleasure?
Many very wealthy people behave as if they are immortal.
FlowingZ Wer it disappears because of the greed of the landlords. They see money and go for it. The rich want the properties and have no care for the current residents. The rich expect the working class to cave into their snobbery and high flown standards.
True, but too many working class people are happy to shift the blame on to a middle class who are frequently as powerless as they are, or an illusory “elite” that aren’t really pulling the strings at all (nb, I am working class).
Give that banker his own documentary spilling the beans on what happens “on the inside”.
I used to live near Portland road and I used to talk to a guy living at number 67 every other day, he was rich but he was alright. I hope he is doing fine and I hope he is still living there.
shush
@@tahaohanok6001You have no life. Sad pathetic person all you can say is shush on everyone's comments. Sad twot
Man poor people were TOUGH!!! They had to be... it was a very hard life. But a good woman, couple kids, a pint on Friday....and life was good.
"Are" tough. The cycle continues
Life was terrible, you idiot.
When you watch this, in the beginning, you might get a feeling of nostalgia.
You might even smile.
By the end you'll more than likely have more of a feeling of anger.
Who likes "YUPPIES"?
We left the slums of Notting Hill in 1962 when I was 9years old.
My Mum and Dad finally, after being on the (waiting list) for 13 years were offered a council house.
Portobello road was known as "the lane". My mum often sent me and my sister down the lane to by spuds and other "veggies" from the market stalls.
Nowhere around there was posh, not even a little bit.
Portobello road was full of second hand shops and antique shops although it did have a Woolworths, not quite posh though.
Horses used to bring the barrows to market and were hitched to lamp posts all day. There were muses down the "lane" where there were stables. My playground in those days were the lane, a car breakers yard at the end of our street and bombed out houses and a church that were still left over from the war.
I hid in my mates back yard the day we left there, I didn't want to leave.
Glad I did though. I wouldn't want to go back there. It belongs in childhood memories and nowhere else.
Except here of course.
The street I lived in "swinbrook road" no longer exists, the pulled em all down, (before the yuppies could get em) lol.
shush
What a great documentary.
shush
When I was a student in London in the 70's the local Council offered me the house I lived in in Wilesden for 6000 pounds and arranged a student loan ,,, I said no as I was Young I had no idea of 'settling' or 'investing' ,, today that house is Worth millions ,,,
Stephanie Murray do you regret not taking up the offer
now...UK...spek...good....pand....m....
good...now...spek....pand....m......maneajar.....wll....good...I....wll....
Give me the original London characters from a century ago over the modern day arrogant nouveau- rich obnoxious greedy bankers any day!
Same here, anyday
I’m laughing because I live here- they’ve edited everything here to make everyone seem like villains. This is actually laughable
One of the most moving documentaries I've seen. It's reaffirm my hate to all banking system and social segregation.
Your home and your roots it's what's really important in life.
Appreciate what you grew up with and make sure your children will have better life.
Big up to all those who weren't born with a silver spoon up their arse!
shush
Lol😊
That shop with al the tat in it was like Harry Enfield's "i saw you coming" shop. The rich will buy any old shite as long as it costs a lot.
"The price is the product"
@@mickeythompson9537
//-))
That is so funny I was thinking the same thing I saw u coming lmao!!!
fugggit I am a patron of I saw u coming shop I agree Ms anzanitta-brown- pissflaps
@@mariafelices8000 LMAO!!!
I'm getting on a bit now, and can tell you that some of this, as far as the timeline is concerned, is a touch inaccurate. Barclays was a well established bank by 1970, and in the middle '60's, the Portabello Road (very nearby) was a highly popular area for trendies. Even The Beatles owned a shop down there, called Apple. I always think it's funny that people connect apples with computers now. Getting old is interesting from the point of view of having lived through the time, and knowing that a lot of what younger people state as fact, is just not true!
Full of inaccuracies, my dear. Glad I'm not the only person to see that.
Thats the strange thing about getting old...you realise history is mostly BS
Sadly, there won't be many of us oldies left to remember before long. If my memory serves...my Dad was showing me the slum areas to be cleared for the Westway development . I recall large curving terraces of 4 or 5 storey townhouses, obviously intended for the wealthy but all with large soulless and incongruous flat-roofed foyers sticking out of the front of the now multi-occupancy buildings and adorned with bikes, bins, prams and the odd washing line. It must have left quite an impression since I still sometimes dream about it some 56 years later.
@@royfr8136 History is written by the people who can write history, lots of what we call history is more than likely inaccurate as it is one persons take on what happened, not the actual events.
@G GThere's 34,555 signatures to stop all our monuments from being torn down. Thanks for sharing the link 👍 100,000 signatures needed
26:02 “ordinary people will not come back” it quite painful to hear that
I'd love to buy a place their I have the cash, Judy need to get English citizenship. I am American.. I was born in the WRONG COUNTRY..
Nothing has changed in London, the rich own the place and the working poor cannot even afford a flat.
You don't need to be ''Poor'' to not be able to afford a studio flat in West London. We are refugees from Richmond... I can't afford a flat there, but tragically, where we live now has become very expensive /[We got in before insane rise. I think it is so wrong that ''Buy to let'' is allowed, as the landlords buy up the places first time buyers born into the Communities would once have afforded.
money talks, but it don't sing and dance and it don't walk.
"I'd much rather be forever in blue jeans"
Money doesn’t talk, it swears.
such a great song, a fave Neil Diamond:)
my grandparents mom and 2 aunts lived on portland rd way back ...wish I could know more about were they lived ..this is about a close as I'll ever get...
Why don’t you ask them about it?
Excellent documentary. The class system is still alive and well in the UK.
well there are rich and poor people which amounts to the same thing.
Really? People can all the money in the world and no class. I know one.
At times, I even wonder if it's not worse now. For sure, everything has been going from bad to worse since the 80s. London used to be such a wonderful place in the 60s and the 70s.
You've obviously met my neighbour!
WRONG
Its faded a great deal.
eg- the prime minister is a vicars daughter - not a millionaires daughter.
Thanks for uploading our homework.......
I lived in Notting Hill not far from Portland Rd for the last decade. This wave of gentrification they note in the documentary has only gotten worse since 2008. The reality is, Notting Hill is so exclusive now it's far breached the "well to do" types who at least used a townhouse in a functional, day to day sense (like the Hicks's) to it's now a place where globalists store some of their wealth and spend 3 weekends a year. I evidence that by saying, walk ANYWHERE from Royal Oak tube, down to Portland Road on any given week day night at around 9pm and see how many lights are switched on - you'll be stunned at how dark Notting Hill is, hardly any one lives there permanently anymore. The 'occupancy' rate is catastrophically low, much like Mayfair and central Paris, which is why there are few shops and limited restaurants/quiet pubs. Another thing to keep an eye on is how few
This was super interesting. Ive always been fascinated and drawn to the history of this country. Charming people.
3:56 The census shows my Great Grandparents James and Annie McCarthy and my Granddad Arthur McCarthy. Wow what a wonderful surprise! I know this from our family tree on Ancestry.
Just watched it again! Astonishing to see my Great Grandparents on the census!
@@suecondon1685 Wow, that's amazing 👍 I can imagine it was a wonderful surprise to see their names
This place is soulless now. Nobody could pay me enough to live there.
I live here
Agree 100%. I live in Brighton, just south of London. Some say London by the sea 🌊 wish they wouldn't as London is a dive of a place.
Got the beach & seaside. Decent shops. Last time I went to London I couldn't wait to get back!
The scene form the movie " Turn the Key Softly " showed a very well-known actor of the day, Katherine Harrison ( the movie also starred Joan Collins, Thora Hird and Yvonne Mitchell ) who actually was a Lancastrian.
shush
Thanks for this documentary remember Portland Road used to go up there and visit folk I knew lived there in the late eighties and mid nineties. I like Notting Hill go there all the time , Portabello Road, Westbourne Grove, Ladbroke Grove, go over to Queensway and Bayswater, cannot wait to go back. That area one of my favorite not only of London but of all time
"There's more to life than the Royal Bourough of Kensington and Chelsea." HA!
Mrs Jones's predicament at 19:05 broke my heart. The absolute squalor is mind boggling.
Wow..and what are prices now !! A little place with prices like that. This Mayhew is a pretty cool guy.
as of 2017, 41a 1 bedroom Portland Rd - over 5 mil. 1 bedroom!
In 2000, the price was 750k
Dusan Veselka It keeps getting worse. It seems the divide between the rich and poor not only persists, it just keeps getting wider. Something’s got to give.
@@lostfound6819 something will. I'm just waiting.
Gumballz Hope we don’t have to wait too long.
The only thing that’s going to give is the public will give more money to those of us rich enough to not need it lol lol hahahaha
The guy around 12 minutes says "ethnic majorities" not minorities...haha... i like it (and no racist comments, ta!).
7:48 Wow, now there's an insight I'm happy to have learned. It didn't occur to me...but of course they wouldn't have had underclothes! Too expensive! Fascinating. It's the little things like that that often go missing in the retelling of history, which is sad because it brings it to life.
This was fascinating.
shush
Reminds me of my roots in Brooklyn, NY. USA Seems to be something that happens all over the world. Thank you, such an interesting film.
Many posting here are amazed at what they see and hear in this film. In many cases you were lucky that you were not born at this time, this is my 'Manor' but it does not make me happy, it has bought me to tears and bought on depression. I feel that l am not destined for much longer on this planet.
"It costs millions of pounds to be a top banker...it's very, very expensive." Brilliant.
that guy is a dick
@@oeakie3784 no he isn't - he's a CUNT!
This is and has been a great series of historical study and social entertainment
Same story.
The working classes create a community with great atmosphere and uniqueness and culture.
Then along come the rich .
Socially cleanse the place and kill it off.
Same as Camden,Hoxton, Hackney
And most of London. 😢😤
They even killed the good old British pub.
The place looks dead.
I'd rather of lived in the old Portland road community
Poverty forces people to come together and support each other. The new residents of Portland Road, for all their wealth and taste, are vile cunts who would walk on the drowning bodies of the poor to stop their shoes getting wet.
I worked all over Kensington & Chelsea for two years in 2000. I mean literally. It was an experience. Personally I couldn't wait to get out it each evening and back to North London. As much as I love and miss London I wouldn't want to live there again. It's changed too much. Btw does anyone else think how weird and suspicious it was that radio announcement, 'Germany Calling' giving warning to being bombed?
have you not seen the movie anout Alan Turin? The British spy network had a code breaker but weren't allowed to let anyone know about it. They clearly performed some ploy to save the people of an important area of london.
"Turn the key softly..." That's Keats' Ode to Sleep. "Turn the key softly in the oiled wards, and seal the hushed casket of my soul"
Wow, that banker guy was very candid, caught me off guard.
What a total and utter Merchant Banker..he was hysterical! Straight from Mike Leigh Central Casting! You couldn't make him up.
You can tell he was jaded, he knows it's all an illusion.
Yep, oh I mean Yah he seems not to have had experience of the world outside his gentlemans club. How sad...
In another city, Toronto, the incomers are mostly Chinese... your analysis forgets the other aspects, from other parts of the world, the upper classes are buying homes for their children...
Same in Vancouver. Its bloody shameful.
Boy, I am so sad for the poor bankers. Their life costs so much!
shush
Bunch of bloody snobs towards the end of the documentary. Ah well, there's always a chance of a future revolution eh? As for that Natasha, she works in fashion? - doing what, judging people?
Yes, I agree. The man with the glasses and suit from the begining of the interview was a snop. "I would not go past that line. It is not my village." Oh, please!! It is interesting to watch the middle/wealthy class of people that moved in to the houses on Portland Street in the 1970's and 1980's. They call the wealthy who now want to buy their houses for 3 or 4 million dollars rich snobs. But have the ever considered how the people who originally lived there felt when they were told to move out to make room for them?? For example, the older woman who had to move into the basement was told to leave for these people. It is as my mother would say, "The pot calling the kettle black." It is rather hypocritical.
+mother of two But to be honest not many people really wanted to live there then or would pay much for the houses on that street.Their parents thought they were mad....it brought the street up again....but what has happened since with the Bankers and dodgy foreign money has ruined the whole area!
SweetPeach Bellini I love when people tell us they are “in fashion”. Such bs. If they really were they wouldn’t have to tell us, we could tell by looking at them.
All cities are a collection of communities and the purchase of a home requires thought and consideration on the buyers part. In the US we consider safety , schools , and shopping as a priority before buying. We learn about the area and it’s history before we drop a dime.
want to have a talk about Tash? please, I implore u, believe in the shit filled communist documentary editing everyone to look like greedy slobs.
Great series this. Tells it like it is. And an antidote to the bane of TV 'History' Dan Snow and Lucy friggin Worsley!!
such a shame its not accurate...
I think Germany was more technologically advanced than UK at the time of WWI.
Sheesh !!! I hope some of those insufferable bankers are found floating in a canal somewhere after brexit .
Hate to break it to you, but after brexit those people will be cashing in. Disaster capitalism 101.
They’ll be gone before the shit h*ts the f*n.
Imagine being under the epic misapprehension that brexit was going to start some revolution where bankers would end up getting their just deserts.
Who on earth were you listening to that managed to convince you of that?
What a fucking clown.
The city of london(corp) , Panama papers, its business nothing personal 😆
Dads cousin Cedric lived at 224. Uncle Bill who lived round the corner was Postman for Porobello Rd. Nice prog. O:-)
The best time to acquired property would be early in the 20th century. It's the same everywhere. I went to Michigan City, Indiana to visit a friend. Her parents live in a cottage-type home one block from Lake Michigan, and there, on the shores, people from Chicago regularly buy homes for 2 million dollars, then bulldoze them down and build something bigger. But the cottage was original, built in the early fifties. Paid for by a working class family.
That Toff at the beginning . The class system exists in their minds and their ways
he got that right ethnic majorities.
Good for Henry Mayhew!!.......at least he knew that to be snobbish means they don't want LİFE...(or love or community et al et al)
Of course they do! No different to anybody else, stop making assumptions.
He was also the only one honest enough to admit that they are all rich because of government hand outs. Anyone can "succeed" if the State is going to give you heaps of money for nothing!
47: My Village is this way; their Village is that way. Thanks Romans and Scandinavians! Your spirit is blighted.
Oh my goodness their nanny looks so much like my daughter lol.
18:20 I got bullied out of my 1920 building in New York last year. I lived in my car for two months because there was money to store my possessions or stay in a motel a few nights a week-not both. As for the owner, he’s raking in money. The entire neighborhood has changed in the space of two years. Now I have accommodations, but it’s temporary, month to month. When I can no longer work, I’ll almost certainly leave NY; to where? Don’t know. Maybe I’ll die before then. I used to know my neighbors, everyone in my building, most people on the block, I at least recognized. Now, I know the person with whom I have the monthly arrangement. That’s it. As for old neighbors, they’re all gone, tossed out and scattered to the wind. I can’t afford to live, yet I’m ineligible for any social assistance. BTW, that woman is a B I T C H. She wouldn’t last a week of my life, of course, the time will come when I won’t last the week of my life, either.
There were three of us, now two. We’ve definitely not improved over our parents, instead, have gone far down the economic and social ladder, this despite fairly good educations, university as opposed to our mother who quit at 16 to work, father who had high school plus four years in the military.
18:20 I got bullied out of my 1920 building in New York last year. I lived in my car for two months because there was money to store my possessions or stay in a motel a few nights a week-not both. As for the owner, he’s raking in money. The entire neighborhood has changed in the space of two years. Now I have accommodations, but it’s temporary, month to month. When I can no longer work, I’ll almost certainly leave NY; to where? Don’t know. Maybe I’ll die before then. I used to know my neighbors, everyone in my building, most people on the block, I at least recognized. Now, I know the person with whom I have the monthly arrangement. That’s it. As for old neighbors, they’re all gone, tossed out and scattered to the wind. I can’t afford to live, yet I’m ineligible for any social assistance. BTW, that woman is a B I T C H. She wouldn’t last a week of my life, of course, the time will come when I won’t last the week of my life, either.
There were three of us, now two. We’ve definitely not improved over our parents, instead, have gone far down the economic and social ladder, this despite fairly good educations, university as opposed to our mother who quit at 16 to work, father who had high school plus four years in the military.Read more Show less I m sooo interested in your storyMine is not dissimilarEmigrated to FranceFinally found a gorgeous little flatAfter some time ..electricity problemsGot WORSE and worse Landlady never repaired shitGot homeless ;survived "temporary" emergency accomodationwaiting for social housing year after yearHELPgetting depressed won t greatly helpMe too ; university education and shit...write to mehleeck@gmail.com
I grew up a stone's throw away in Ladbroke Grove. My family were not pretentious, not interlopers, not the nouveau riche or the oligarchs who live there now. This story has played out across London (as the rest of this excellent series covered) but perhaps Notting Hill was the first of the grand Victorian and Edwardian areas to fall into decay before gentrification took it beyond the means of the locals. What Rachman did in the 50's Foxtons is doing today.
no one asked
Henry Mayhew? Descending from THE Henry Mayhew? wow. I was impressed to see how he had enough strength to pull away from superficial people and lifestyle. People like him are amazing. And that last scene where he washes outside. Wow. I would spend a month in the woods with him anytime.
+Mini R. Yes love, but ask yourself.... would HE put up with the likes of YOU for more than one minute ?
Ahahahaha....good one.
I hate to burst your bubble but the fact is that people who come from real money like that can easily pull out of the rat race with the backing of the many “family” trusts. Not really a mark of any special character. They are often disarmingly frank to speak to and appear sometimes in that way to have more sympathy and more understanding of “common” folk than someone like Natasha (the very epitome of upper middle class) but make no mistake (and I say this even though like you I found him to be likeable) but they are very different from the average Joe in ways that are just not as obvious at first. In short, no I don’t think he would want to hang out with the likes of us in his family trust woods. :)
me too!
This is a fantastic documentary. We don't associate Notting Hill with poverty, but goes to show the extent of determined gentrification in London. There will be a similar doc on Peckham and Dalston soon enough, though in those instances they remain nasty.
+Gail Spencer Peckham wasn't always nasty. At least Nunhead wasn't and still isn't that bad.
Clapham is soon to be there. Had a family member who had a house there and it was just a regular area with working class people in the 90's. I'm not in the uk and checked the area recently on google maps and did a bit of searching and shocked to learn thats its now a well to do area...I was floored.
The house I stayed/ family member owned at the time was a Victorian/ terrace house...full 3 floors and unseparated up in the 90's. I checked the house is now separated flats with each valued at 500,000 each.
PAYING ALL THAT MONEY FOR SOMETHING YOU SWING A CAT IN.THE ALUGH IS GLOBAL WARMING WILL MAKE LONDON TO WARM TO LIVE THERE.
Balham?!
Hi gail your talkin sense and im just go na get right to the point gentrication started at the end of the 60's and if your talking about the deptford doc ues its heartbraking how they condemmed the houses and a whole community (watch the geezer thats family ran the markets talkin down a side road about where hes family used to live )
I could hear the song "Gold Rush" by Death Cab for Cutie during this whole show:
Digging for gold in my neighborhood
For what they say is the greater good
But all I see is a long goodbye
A requiem for a skyline
It seems I never stopped losing you
As every dive becomes something new
And all our ghosts get swept away
It didn't use to be this way
love...b...some......65....n...b....c......l....a....s...d....
Lovely film, thank you. Anyone else spotted the ghost? go to 47.29 next immediately street in the dark, watch screen left, Ghost entering a house.
It's a smudge on the glass lol.
Yes. I saw it too.
Wow thanks for that 😄
There is about a 10 minute stop @ about 36 min to 46+ minute where tape simply stops!
How prophetic that the first posh folks sent their kids to the school around the corner with the criminal classes and one of them turned out to be a banker. The school obviously set him up for the job just nicely.
Really good documentary. I had a boyfriend in this road for a while in the 1970's. Did not seem posh then...but maybe it was just beginning to be...he owned his place.
From a bar to a beauty spa called the Cowshed!! How gross. Bring back pubs.
42:47 Nico and Natasha = two of the biggest tools I've ever seen in my life. Please don't let them breed! PLEASE!?
electriquephoto They did...
electriquephoto why?
***** Yeah, I kinda got that since they have a nanny.
coltsuperocean10 Because, "I'm Poor". Pure genius.
+electriquephoto Does the nanny sleep in the bathtub ?
A friend of mine said years ago they moved the "undesirables" to Uxbridge, he being one of them.
Brilliant!. i came from a council estate in London.worked bloody hard and we did well for ourselves. and own a lovely home.
but you do not make old friends happy doing well and being successful. its human nature the poor hate the rich!
no matter where you came from,
I love the recording of the colloquial talk from these guys. These words and definitions never made Oxford! LOL.
Prices in Portland Rd now between £3-4 million {November 2020}
Notting Hill used to be very run down...but it was better then...More of a Community.💕
That was absolutely facinating!
You should see the type of people who have moved into my old home. It works both ways
What type of people are they?
'those effnic majorities'!! Freudian slip as they practically are the majority
There’s a ghost at approx 47:40, anyone else see it?
Yup
Haha!
It's a smear on the window
Yes, the smudge on the door, we see it.
The same cycle occurs today. Streets go up and then down and up again.
I know people get up in arms about the poor being forced out, but had the neighborhood continued as it was much of the housing would need tearing down. The homes are lovely now. Even the people who lived there prior to the renovation state that it was a slum....that they loved, but a slum nonetheless. Now it can carry on....reinvented but then, as the one man said, ‘change is good’.
Change may be good, but pompous assholes thinking they are better than others are not.
Excellent documentary.
I grew up poor, but I didn’t know it, we were fed,clothed and kept safe, it’s only till you get older that you realise differences in society
Thanks for posting
These are well made social docs.
Some of the houses are just simple Georgian row houses. ...the Street is georgous though. I love the flat iron dividing the street.
Through most of it I kept thinking of portobello...oh I know why because a similar thing happened there but now as ridiculous....and its close by
I felt really dirt watching at the middle point, not because of the squalid poor, but at the perverted rich. At least the one rich banker guy laid it out for what it is.
And people would of knocked these down within a blink of an eye until the end of 1960's without even thinking about it. Now anyone will kill for stuff even in the 1930...we live in a world of brainless idiots who cant think for themselves
Reminds me of what happened to Manhattan and Greenwich village.
Greenwich Village IS IN Manhattan.
A very enlightening and informative documentary, never knew that the area was slum . It goes to show who really owns the property market. Here in Australia property prices are going through the roof and for many people, buying a house is only a dream
The footage of the children and small business owners looked much happier and community-spirited than the wealthy ppl who have moved in.
It's happening in usa too, sadly. I cannot afford to live where i grew up. Wages go down for the common worker, and housing is increasingly unaffordable.
so people were poorer back then yet little crime?? Now you go to these areas, you might get stabbed
the damage of bottomless greed is just so appalling: bullying away from their homes hundreds of hard working, honest and deeply connected families, eliminating them like cockroaches, destroying a whole community, it's disgusting. I'm not impressed with bankers who get up at 4.40 to work like animals till night comes to afford the whole circus, now dance to the music you put on!
Until the music stops....
"Her name was Elsie, boy. She used to sell jellied eels".
* The Mighty Boosh *
this was brilliant. the rich people didnt come off too well!
Did else anyone see the ghost @ 47.40?
"Where.?
Very strange footage indeed. Certainly looks like strange..
Lol it's a smudge on the window and the camera moving to the left
The Brothel's in Portland road.!
Lol that naked banker XD
He thought fuck this life, I'm going to go live like the savage I am.
@@mobspeak Yes!! screw the pressure of being a prisoner to the" Bankers" good for him.* Freedom.!!
Mid-life crisis right there. Taking his clothes off and showing his bum. ha ha ha ha
A complete meltdown and his wife f*cked off 😂😂😂😂
PS remember sometime ago seeing Turn The Key Softly
Quite shocking that 50 years later, in 2018, 157 Portland road sold for £2,750,000 making the Hicks couple £2,738,000 profit
Typical of all Kensington and Chelsea housing
the old peeps on portland road wow. kids just dont know how good thery have it
36:26 could that be a flying phallus on the wall?!
Well spotted, flying ducks have been replaced by flying dicks.
Courtney yes, I saw that too.
@ 12:20. First time ever on video...This guy actually says it the correct way! And it's growing bigger and bigger!
I am so glad I'm not rich. It must be a horrible existence having to choose clothing, house, cars, according to how it'll appear to other people. It would be a nightmare to have more money than I needed and to just go out and buy whatever I wanted without the pleasure of saving up and shopping around. I am not joking. I'd *hate* to be rich. Life would be meaningless.
i did not know how the house prices jumped so high so fast.
what exactly do these bankers do to make so much money id like to know
in the past life we lived poorly dident have much of anything compared to what we have now (2019) but we had each other (people around us ) more than we will ever have ... we were happier more than we will ever be ....now a days we have everything but theres not much happiness ...all these materialistic things that found there way in our homes have caused nothing but trouble greed and misery....these are the worst times were living in now ....back then were happier times with happier people that cared and loved one another
Amazing documentary, very informative but also sad. By the way a ghost was caught on camera from 47:39
Seen !
I see it
And then the bit with a witch like woman...
You have sharp eyes thank you