(first posted 1/22/2017) Today we travel back in time and to London, and check out the streets and cars of the 50s, 60s, and 70s. We’ll do it chronologically, and this terrific shot from the 50s of a Rolls Royce gives us an idea of both how little traffic there was then, and how splendid cars like this were still very much in regular use there and then.
Traffic? What traffic?
Two American cars; are they connected? Maybe the Ford wagon is the luggage wagon for the wealthy party in the Cadillac.
Two women and their dumpy Austin A30. they look like they might have come into the city from a little village in it.
Parking problems in London? Not here.
There’s several foreign cars here.
What an awesome bus!
Another classic Rolls Royce parked at the Palace of Westminster. One of the Lords’?
Now we move into the 60s.
And this is my favorite shot of them all, a girl in a mini dress using the brightly polished radiator as a mirror. Old meets new.
Carnaby Street, where fashion was revolutionized around this time.
Same area.
No. 10 Downing Street with a minister-level Rover.
I can’t ID it right now, but I’m sure someone will.
The bike looks to be a WW2-vintage Harley Davidson WLA. Robert Kim did a superb write up of its story here.
This bike is decidedly English.
A rather battered old Jag XK-140. And a svelte Lotus Elite across the street.
Foreign cars were making lots of headway already in London. I see a Honda Civic, Datsun F-10, Renault 6, VW, and a Mercedes W116 coming the other way.
No foreign cars permitted at this pub.
More foreigners.
And folks still dressed nicely for the train in the 70s?
Two hatchback rear ends.
Looks like this might be parking for a garage. A Mercedes SL 190 getting painted.
Most of these came from vintage.es, from the following galleries:
London 1950s London 1960s London 1970s
The very first photo is a photobomb par excellence.
What a wonderful collection!
“Look Left/Look Right” is something that Continentals and those from across the Pond need to constantly keep in mind (and not learn the hard way) when a pedestrian in Great Britain, Ireland, Hong Kong, Japan, Oz, New Zealand. The first “encounter” can be scary!
Great collection. Not too many. Cadillac’s in London, then or now. It was probably the US Ambassador- or one of the Kray brothers!
The odd blue and white three-wheeler is an A C Petite – A C didn’t only make sports cars.
Exactly what I was about to write, Uncle Mellow, you beat me to it.
Single cylinder 350cc Villiers engine; 4000 made from 1953 to 1958. There’s a guy who wrote an entertaining COAL-type page about owning one, worth a read. http://www.ventnorradar.plus.com/AC.htm
Thank you for the link. Interesting spec, which I knew little about – most three-wheelers were Bonds or Reliants with which I was more familiar.
Thanx ! .
I was wondering if it was some Bond model I’d never seen before .
Notice it has a SUN ROOF in spite of being a ‘ penalty car ‘ .
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Pops direct imported a 1937 Bentley St. James FHC in the late 1950’s, I loved riding in it and still love and own some LBC’s ~ I was working on one yesterday getting the driver’s window lift replaced before the rains came .
-Nate
I like that picture of the girl using the Rolls’s grille for a mirror. The older men just kept going their way and the three younger chaps – uhmmm – should cheer up a little bit!
I’d like to see some pictures with the mk1 Fiesta.
I always notice in old pics of London how dark and dirty the buildings are (the ones which aren’t painted).
On her last visit here in 1990, my mother commented on how all the major buildings had been cleaned up: “All those old films weren’t in black and white, you know. London in the 1950s was a uniform dark grey.”
Before the Clean Air Act of 1956 there was little point in cleaning buildings as the air was full of sulphurous coal fumes, a large proportion from coal fires. It didn’t take long before cleaning up started. This July 1962 picture of Charing Cross Road, near Trafalgar Square shows the top part of Lyons Corner cleaned. The whole building was clean by the time Dad photographed next it on the occasion of Churchill’s funeral in January 1965.
Sometimes when watching English TV shows they will show stone or brick houses in the country, and similarly they look dark and dirty, although the surrounding countryside appears lush. Then when the scenes move to the inside of the house, the interiors are clean and modern looking. It’s a strange contrast.
I go to London every year for vacation, its so much cleaner now than you see if these old pics. And there are A LOT more cars.
The blonde woman on the motorcycle is probably Nico, who was in England just before she went to NY where she met Andy Warhol, who put her in the Velvet Underground.
Also, here’s a link to the “Picadilly Show” of Francoise Hardy, which features her romping around 1965 London, w/several scenes of London traffic:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=l6x5d7viKIs
Re oldest pics, while I’m not personally familiar with London, the only time I can see traffic being that light is on a bank holiday or the like.
The “awesome bus” in the eight picture is a Duple Elizabethan coach body, probably on a AEC Reliance chassis (engine under the floor), an early UK design (1953) with the door ahead of the front axle. Following behind it is a Bedford TJ, introduced in 1958. The Bank of England is in the RH background.
Knowing that junction, the Austin A35 and Ford Anglia 100E are probably waiting for the next set of lights to change.
That Rover at #10 Downing Street looks like it has Torque Thrust wheels on it. Well, they look like them anyway.
Rostyles, from the British Rubery Owen firm.
Thanks. They sure look good on that Rover !
Those wheels mean that it is the Rover 3.5 (P5B) with the V8. Though they went out of production in 1973 those Ministerial P5Bs were used into the early 1980s.
I could just imagine ‘Arfur’ Daley from Minder pulling up in his Jag in the second last picture. Checking in on one of his little schemes that Terry will help him get out of. If you can ever find the early series of Minder, watch it for a laugh. Better than the stuff on TV now.
Too many things to comment on! For example: ‘No foreign cars at this pub’ – the Freemason Arms, Hampstead. Possibly, (but I’m not even sure if it’s true any more) the only pub left in London where you still might see traditional London Skittles being played.
The Roller at the Palace of Westminster? The Series I Land Rover next to it would just as likely be the wheels of one of their Lordships too!
Blooms Restaurant – ‘Mazeltov to Her Majesty’? Probably 1977 when ERII celebrated 25 years on the throne.
There are some fascinating videos on YouTube of London streets throughout the 20th century. This one from the early/mid 1950’s has great colour and atmosphere, and lots of cars despite the relatively thin traffic.
New video link. The fact that it’s silent makes it almost dreamlike.
That night segment with no street lighting, only shop lights, and traffic moving with only parking lights is eerie.
The night time sequence looks to be later than the daytime shots as several of the buses are the later Routemaster and most taxis are FX4s, suggesting mid-1960s. The daytime scenes are the latter half of the ’50s though.
The streetlights are those groups of three round lights visible in some parts of the film, as in this photo: https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/piccadilly-circus-at-night-gm839948976-136809797
@Robadr :
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*very* nice video, thanx .
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It’d be nice if someone who knows just where these streets were, could copy it to – day .
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-Nate
What a great series of old photos…though I’ve never been to London. Would love to make it there one day (my wife spent about 8 months there at university for a study abroad program, so I regularly hear about her time there!)
The photo of the girl using the Silver Cloud grille as a mirror is absolutely classic!
Marble Arch, behind the Cadillac, was erected by George IV in front of B Palace, but Victoria moved it when she put up the fourth (front) side. She was stronger than she looked. In the 3rd photo with Nelson’s Column, the original Scotland Yard, when if was just a courtyard of sprawling Whitehall palace, was on the right side of the street.
On his ’47 midshipmen’s cruise, my dad was standing on the pavement when the future Queen was driven by. Somewhere, we have some slides he took on the trip. His tall, blond, and handsome roommate for 4 years was invited to the Palace garden party the day her engagement to Philip was announced and shook their hands. He became Brigade Commander, but unlike my career dad, he left the Navy as soon as he could for Esso and an heiress.
I’m surprised there are so few taxis visible.
Does anyone else think the little blue and white three wheeler (that I see some people earlier in the thread IDed as an A C Petite) looks a little like the car Homer Simpson test drove at Crazy Vaclav’s Place of Automobiles? “Put it in H!”
It totally does.
Thanks for the great photos! I was in London a couple of times in the early ’70’–brought back many, many memories.
The VW Kombi in the 11th pic reminds me of the one on the cover of the magazine at the end of this post.