Came over from Ireland to work in London in 1983, caught the train from Crofton Park to Elephant and Castle then changed over to the tube every morning for a year. I used to be my records in a little music shop just inside the lower level of the shopping centre , drank a few pints now and then in a little Pub over by the taxi office (can't remember it's name now) . great times!. Wouldn't go back now though, London isn't the same .. it isn't English anymore.
My grandparents were from lambeth and I still remember as a kid my nan and grandad doing the lambeth walk at family events. My uncle remembers these streets and had a tear in his eye when I showed him this video. Sky's aren't blue, the grass ain't green it hasn't got the Mayfair touch, but that don't matter very much
You can hear where Lionel Bart got his inspiration for many a song from the 1960's musical film Oliver. 1920 -30's music still sounding fresh after 100 years, who'd have thunk it ?
Oh, the tobacconists: Players Weights, Capstan Full Strength, Blue Book, Sobranie Black Russian, Benson and Hedges Turkish Ovals, the cigars, snuff and the pipe tobaccos. Sheer Heaven and real taste especially Turkish, Sobranie, and Egyptian. Actually Russian and Cuban too. I smoked Black Russian and B&H Turkish Ovals until B&H discontinued theirs and some dodgy international (Chinese) company took over the rest filling them with cr*p 'Virginia' made in Roumania. Sigh...
It might be one of the first viral dances too… people all across the at the time developed world did the “Lambeth walk”… since they showed the movie in cinemas
Lies. I went there last week. I arrived at approx 18.00 and nobody was doing the Lambeth Walk. I asked some youths what time the Lambeth Walkers would be passing by and they just looked puzzled. I asked them again and they thought I wanted to buy drugs. When I made it clear that I was not seeking drugs. I merely wanted to witness this cultural phenomenon, they said "F**k off, you posh peedo". I departed, shouting back that I was born on a council estate and wasn't a peedo. My conclusion is that there is no Lambeth Walk. It's just lies. Next week - Leith Walk. They're bound to have a dance. The Proclaimers, Francis Begbie, Hogmanay, Easter Road. Yeah.. After that, over to Los Angeles U, S of A dude, south central, long beach, Compton to check out the crip walk. No matter how bad it is, it's better than the Lambeth Walk.
This brought back so many memories. I worked for Horatio Myer & Co Ltd (Myer's Comfortable Beds) in Vauxhall Walk from 1966-69 and spent many hours wandering down Lambeth Walk in my lunch hour with my mate Geoff Wright. Apart form the bomb damage there appears to have been little change from the 1930s, even many of teh shops and even the eating house (Baby's head anyone?) were the same, though what it is all like now I don't know as I have lived in NZ since mid 1969.
i've heard this is an american song by origin picked up by londoners during the war. my family are fro canning town. i would love to go back in time and experience the pub scene with the knees up and community spirit. i grew up in essex as my family was bombed out of caning town. but every time i went to east london as a child i was drawn to the area over essex. home is home! shame now that there is no spirit in London or anywhere anymore!
The song comes from Me and My Girl, which is a musical written by three Brits that had its premiere in London's West End in 1937. A film based on the musical was title "The Lambeth Walk" in America (although the film was also a British production) which is perhaps what you are getting the american connection from?
Oh, London as it used to be. It had its drawbacks - poverty being one at that time - but it had a tightly-knit community of people who truly loved their city and who helped each other through tough times. All gone now with people who care nothing for London but only what they can get out of it.
I got out of London (Ealing) 15 years ago and have never been back - too painful. I have London ancestors going back to the 1700s and the likes of Blair and his immigration policy drove me out. A pox on him and that twisted load of political activists who ruined countless lives. Elderly people who had gone through the Blitz ending up living in a community of strangers. Too sad for words.
The Brits have so many things right (except their decision to join the EU and let every down on their luck foreigners into their lovely realm) and the right way to have and conduct oneself in a pub. In America watering holes seem to always end up as a saloon. Todo aquesqueroso, smelling like yesterday's fish catch, using foul language like they get a free drink for every F bomb they drop. Very common.
I looked this up under Google maps and the whole street in Streetview has a kind of purple sepia tinge everywhere you look. Is this a glitch in the maps or is this a feature of the coverage of Lambeth Walk in the maps.I wanted to see the actual buildings in street view but it's damn impossible!
