Tuesday, January 19, 2010

London in the 1960s

A wonderful slideshow of street scenes by wasleso.

Note how many of the buildings still look modern, whereas the cars are getting to be comically old fashioned.

Thanks to @urchinette and @helenduffett on Twitter.

2 comments:

dreamingspire said...

Wonderful indeed.
The post-war rebuilding was largely complete, and much new (and not that pretty) already there. But remarkable were the still operating docks, with their cranes appearing on the skyline in several shots and the river traffic, and the still operating Battersea power station. The cars, however, were under the skin worse than old fashioned (although of course classics of design featured) - having had the task of inspecting a Morris 1300 that simply split apart in an accident that would have been survivable today, I was well aware that fashion moved quicker than substance.

Simon Titley said...

Whether the cars look comical (Triumph Herald) or not (E-type Jag), it is notable that the majority were British-made and the streets were far less congested.

I am also reminded of the 1966 film 'Blowup'. It was regarded as the epitome of 'Swinging London' at the time, but what is striking now is how grubby London's streets looked in the days before gentrification and sandblasting, and when there were still many undeveloped bombsites.