The holidays are upon us, so I’ll let the pics do most of the talking. These were found across the length and breadth of the Internet. If possible, the area they were taken in is identified, along with the year. The photo above looks like Belgravia or some other area of West London, taken in 1973. But let’s organize this a bit and start chronologically. Oh, and do click on these to enlarge them, old boy.
Old Kent Road, Southwark, 1947. Trams were still running in London, but that would not last much longer.
Not falling down, for once. Postcard taken in the early ’50s.
Soho, West End, 1955.
Constitution Hill, mid-’50s. Nice Jowett Javelin…
Late ’50s — no idea where, to be honest.
Whitehall, late ’50s
East End, early ’60s
Fleur-de-Lys Street, Spitalfields, mid-’60s
The famous Carnaby Street in the mid-’60s, with a very nice Vauxhall wagon.
I’m sure I’ve been there, but I cannot say where this is! Late ’60s photo…
Trafalgar Square, late ’60s
Skoda! Earl’s Court Road, 1968
Pelham Street, South Kensington, 1970
Camelford Road, North Kensington, 1970. Fancy that, a late model Citroen Traction Avant… And a smashed up Jaguar MkX.
Whitechapel, early ’70s. Drawing a blank on convertible. Anyone got any ideas?
Piccadilly Circus, early ’70s. The reign of the Capri is just starting…
Westbourne Grove, Notting Hill, 1972
Regent Street, 1975.
West Norwood, Lambeth. First time we’re seeing a Saab.
Trafalgar Square, 1976.
Somewhere in the East End, sometime in the mid-’70s… Only fools and ‘orses live there, guv.
Edison Road in Crouch End, North London, 1976. Orange Beetles, Renault 4s, Cortina — the ’70s outdo themselves.
Piccadilly Circus again, but with a more late ’70s vibe.
The Strand, 1977. Her Maj’ was celebrating her silver jubilee, so some Routemasters were painted like this that year. I recall seeing some golden ones when I visited in 2003.
Haymarket, West End, late ’70s. Is that an AC Invacar hiding behind the ADO16 on the right?
Brixton, circa 1980. Hard to recognize without the burning cars…
Bromley, mid-’80s. Still a lot of British cars in car parks then. By the early ’90s, things were a bit different. But let’s not go there. Let’s end it here instead. See you in a couple days for another destination!
“Whitechapel, early ’70s. Drawing a blank on convertible. Anyone got any ideas?”
Looks like a 2nd-generation Plymouth Barracuda to me. With right-hand drive!
Beat me to it on the Plymouth Barracuda. Stock 14″ wheel covers, same as offered on the Valiant, which it is under the skin.
Side marker lights indicate the Barracuda is a ’69.
My work took me to London several times in ’79 – ’82 period. I remember being surprised by the number of American cars I would see; they seemed utterly inappropriate for those narrow streets.
Great photo archive. In the late 70’s to the early 80’s, my school used to finish at lunchtime on Fridays so my parents would often take me to London for the afternoon. I too remember seeing plenty of American cars. Lots of malaise era stuff that seemed so exotic to a child at the time.
Wow, a guy has got to be fast on this site to be the first to answer a “what kind of car is this?” question.
Or even second.
Or even third.
Outstanding pictures – everyday street scenes from the past a truly mesmerizing, even for those of us who have never been to places depicted.
One little detail I’ve never noticed before is how common fender-mounted rear-view mirrors were in the UK at the time.
And in the spirit of holiday sharing, here’s a 1978 picture from here in Northern Virginia that I came across recently — our area has always had an interesting combination of domestic and imported cars, and this scene is no exception. Can’t quite match London’s charisma, though…
What a contrast between the tidy Fox and the obese bottom-of-line Chevy Brookwood clamshell wagon!
Is that a Simca 1100 or 1200 to the left of the Beetle? Rare find indeed!
Wow — good carspotting! I’m far from an expert on these, but I think it’s a Simca 1100 3-door. Here’s another shot with a better view of it.
There was a Chrysler/Plymouth dealer a few blocks away from where this picture was taken, and that dealer sold Simcas back in the 1960s… though to have one still on the road in 1978 when this picture was taken was certainly unusual.
“at Chesapeake Bay Seafood House, get all the seafood you can eat!”
That jingle’s gonna be in my head all day now…
I love it! Thank you for putting this together. This collection contains some of my favorite memory joggers. Renault 4, Renault 16, Ford Capri, VW Beetle, Mini, Jaguar S-Type.
I am a bit puzzled by the hood of the blue car on Edison Road. It opens forward, but I don’t think it is a BMW.
That’s a Renault R8.
I know coz I have an R8S
Merci, Rammstein!
Great photos. Nice to see all the saloons and vans of the eras.
The photo titled “East End early ‘60’s” is later than that judging by the Cortina MkII wagon, and probably by the Honda(?) step-thru.
Fascinating stuff, thanks. The popularity of the Capri in the 1970s is hard to miss in these photos. The 1976 picture of Trafalgar Square has a Renault 5 in the foreground amongst many older RWD three-box Fords. Ten years later, most of the cars would be FWD 2-box designs like the Renault.
East End early 60’s is Whitechapel Road at the corner of Greatorex St. Not far from my manor, guv.
Also is that a mark 2 Cortina wagon far right which would make it post October 66 at the earliest.
I love these pics. My childhood era the 60/70s. Thank you for all your efforts and Merry Chistmas T87!
That photo also shows how late ‘Mr.Therm’ (on the North Thames Gas showroom) lasted. I remember him from our local NTG shop in Green Street.
https://www.flickr.com/groups/1397294@N22/
I love that little round porthole window on the North Thames Gas building
Yep, looks like a mk4 zephyr in front of the cortina, so definitely post ‘66
Mmmm, so much, much familiar too. Still searching on the location of the 6th picture with the clergy crossing the road, but the coach in one of the BEA 4RF4 deck-and-a-half jobs in the colours used from 1957 to ’65. Also the van in that isn’t a Morris Minor but the larger Morris Cowley van – no ‘pod’ on the front wing for the headlight. The coachbuilt pantechnicon is a gem.
That photo of Haymarket with the Alfa – and yes, it is an Invacar – also features central London’s very first Macdonalds, which I think opened in ’75.
Love vintage snapshots, and these are great! Thanks for sharing.
50s London Bridge, and again on Constitution Hill, the van with open sliding driver’s door is a Bedford. Biology teacher at my school had one 30 years later
Yes, the Bedford CA, the original 1952 split-screen, short wheelbase version, produced in updated form until 1969. The ‘Transit’ of its day in the UK. Very commonly used as ice-cream vans which were still about, in reduced numbers, at the turn of the Millennium.
These were great fun to drive with the door open in summer.
I notice the Triumph Herald in the first photo has a missing rear numberplate a good way of attracting the attention of the boys in blue….
Great pictures, a real trip down memory lane! So great to see those cars, some of which were just about still in service when I was growing up in the very late 70’s / early 80’s here in the UK. Thanks for sharing
Polar opposite of the dystopian hellscape of earth colored appliances it is now.
In the 1968 Earl’s Court Road, which car is the Skoda?
The red one to the right of the light green mini van, outside the shop named ‘FANNY’ (and the pile of plastic milk crates). Early ’60s Skoda Octavio Combi, I think. Interestingly the dark blue 105E Anglia is a base model with the small, non-chrome grille also used by the Thames van version.
Those stripper Anglias with the small grill were very rare – surely only companies bought them ! Ford were really mean with their “base” models – only one sun visor, no lid for the glove box, you were lucky if there was a windscreen wiper on the passenger side ! No private buyer would want to appear so tight-fisted to his neighbours.
And those ’60s Skodas were easy to spot at night, because their tail-lights weren’t quite red – more of a purple colour.
These are great pictures , thanks so much
In the first picture of Piccadilly Circus the movie playing at the theater is Death Race 2000 , which came out in 1975.
I will spend a lot of time looking at these today,
11th picture down
“I’m sure I’ve been there, but I cannot say where this is! Late ’60s photo…*
It’s the junction of Northumberland Avenue and the Strand, coming into Trafalgar Square. The big, curved Victorian(?) building is still there, though cleaned up, of course. Note the advertising on it at the time ‘MORRIS’ and ‘ASHAI’ for example. My Dad used to work just a short way along the Strand and bought a Pentax camera in the 1970s; could it have possibly come from the shop below the latter sign?
The fintail Mercedes is being chased by an RM on route 9 that has adverts for Kubrick’s ‘2001: a space odessey’ released in 1968.
The roads run a little differently round Trafalgar Square since the North side (National Gallery) was closed off.
I think the East End pic is from the mid/late 60s ( not early 60s) as there is a silver Cortina Mk2 estate and possibly a Mk4 Zephyr/Zodiac parked in front of it….
That Barracuda convertible is also interesting as a few of these were sold in the UK in Rhd (not conversion), manufactured in Canada. A friend had a burgundy one in the late ‘80s….
Well, I’ll be trammed. I had no idea London ever had such things. I have learnt A New Thing.
The colour pics are so reminiscent of kids books I had, with exciting title like Shopping With Mother (or possibly even A New Thing?). I loved em because I would pore over the brightly drawn images of English villages or high street shops, looking, ofcourse, for cars we didn’t get here, but also revelling in the neatness, the greenery of mother England. Huge charge of unformed half-memories flash in and out. (If my dear mum was here, she wouldn’t approve of me approving of England, but since I didn’t dare tell her then and can’t now, all is well. Anyway, she bought the books).
Other ones feel as if I grew up there, simply because most of the good television I watched as a kid – and ALL the good comedy – was English, and likely London.
And the colour pics also offer relief, as the B & W numbers do bring out the grimness and grime and damp of what was a place in long recovery from war (and is still a place of grey weather).
Most delightful stuff. The early R16 in shot 1 for me.
Great digging T87. Crashed MkX wins.
According to contemporary reports, it limped home after not quite fitting down a motorway.
Noted several Mk I Ford Capris in the photos.
Would like to back them back home in the Time Machine.
The Wikipedia page for Piccadilly Circus has several more chronological pics of that intersection (some from before cars were a thing) whose evolution is fascinating. The signage post-’70s took a direction I wasn’t expecting.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piccadilly_Circus
Great pictures! I’ve been to London once, back in 2009 with my wife and parents (I hate flying, but it was worth it). What a beautiful city!
I love the nighttime picture of Soho in 1955; look at the low-slung Healey 100 among all the (also wonderful) tall sedans of the day.
Great series. It reminds me of a remark my sister made when derKommissar Sr. took the whole family to the UK in 1978. My sister, who was nearly 13, looked around one day and innocently declared “wow, there are a lot of foreign cars here”. It should be obvious to all she wasn’t noting the presence of cars from France, Italy, etc. — her reference point was Michigan.
Nobody’s going to remark on that Robin Reliant? (or whatever that 3-wheeled thingie is) . I still don’t understand how those things don’t roll over onto their front fender if you turn too sharply…
It is indeed a 1974/5 Reliant Robin van, though I’d rather be on the top deck of the no.12 Routemaster behind it. The three-wheelers were popular because they could be driven on a motorcycle licence and the annual road tax was considerably cheaper than a regular car and unlike most other 1970s car the bodywork wouldn’t rust either. The engines in these were low mounted behind the front wheel which helped with stability; Top Gear’s rolling Robin was rigged to make it fall over. A 4-wheel versions was available for the unconvinced, the Reliant Kitten, but without the licence and tax advantages they were pretty uncompetitive. Having said that there’s an orange Kitten I’ve seen out and about but yet to capture on camera.
Robin cutaway drawing:
https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/magazine/app/uploads/2019/04/OWM_0436_Reliant_Robin_-2000×1111.jpeg