1976: COCKNEY accents | Word of Mouth | Voice of the People | BBC Archive 

The young lad speaking at 9:20, this is basically the genesis of MLE caught on film. How he says 'they're more themselves', with a 'D' overriding the 'Th' - a Caribbean influence. But in the next sentence at 9:23 it's a strong cockney 'aatspoken'. You can literally hear the influences starting to mix together to form what we have today in London. It's a fascinating document.

I’m from the East end and sadly cockney is a rare accent in London with so many different accents. When you hear cockney you have to turn around to see who talking to marvel, it’s lovely to hear.

Back in the day when the local pub was the heart of an actual community and everyone knew each other. Nowadays? London is full of strangers who don’t want to talk to anybody and who’ve got neighbours they’ve never said hello to.

My grandad was a cockney. I loved his accent. He used to say phrases like, turn it up, sharpish, it’s a buns. The slang was funny. Cockneys were such nice people.

I’m from the Scottish highlands and my grandparents met when they did national service in the RAF. My grandad was from a wee village here on the Isle of Skye and my nanna was from the East End of London. Anytime I hear that accent it reminds me of her - I love it!

Seeing this made me realise how language gradually changes over time. For example, I used to say "wotcha" for "hello". Just realised that I haven't said "wotcha" to anyone for years!

I would have been six years old when this was filmed. We lived near the Rotherhithe tunnel entrance and I went to St Marys and St Michael's school on Commercial Road. This voices are so cosy to me. Though the language you would have heard on the street was changing rapidly our parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts all spoke like this. I moved out of London in my 20s but not before my German wife had picked up enough Cockney to shape her version of spoken English. Give me half an hour back in the city and a couple of pints and you'll hear me rapidly devolve my accent to late 20th century Cockney. You never lose it really.

I live in California and when I was young in the 1980s I had a friend who's family lived in SE London - Penge, Sydenham, Crystal Palace. Her parents and brothers spoke with a very similar accent to the people in this video. She spoke with a more standard London accent since she worked in an office in "The City". Her parents laughed and said she fancied herself a cut above the rest of her family. But yeah, when I hear that accent I think of that welcoming, friendly family I met when I was in England. Makes me smile.

Del Boy was well out of his manor driving past Whitechapel Station 2:33

In the 1980s, I could tell which part of London someone came from; South London, North West, East and down in Kent.

That copper who sussed out the criminal was quite pleased with himself 😂

I love how the guy describes the codewords for how they fence stolen goods in the pub and everyone starts shooshing him - and still they broadcast it on the BBC!

Language evolves. It’s constant. Even the BBC no longer have BBC accents.

I heard a cockney accent the other day in London when in the street somewhere. It was so unusual it was lovely to hear the traditional London tongue.

"I don't think being a cockney is a handicap" - Great quote from another lovely piece of social history.

Really love the bit from 7:54 as a black londoner. Really interesting.

I'm an Aussie but grew up loving the Sweeney and the Minder. This clip reminds me of those shows. Really interesting.

My aunt and Unc were Cockneys and they'd end every sentence with "Ya?" or "Innit?" I loved other little phrases like "Let's be havin ya.", "Bob's yer uncle", or talking about family, they'd refer to "Our Terry, or our Cindy". On a cold day it would be "Come in lad, luv, and have a cuppa." People on the street that were being shunned were "Sent to Coventry". "Crikey, look wots the cat dragged in! Ha ha! Nice bit of kit yer wearin, wher'd ya nick it from, then, eh?" But mostly what I remember was how warm they were, never put on airs, always welcomed in the elderly neighbor ladies for Sunday tea, or Christmas pudding. A good loving family, they were.

I am an American, and I loved this video. The people. The place. The unique English. Truly a marvelous people, and it makes me a little sad to think a lot of this culture has died out since this video was made.

You have to travel out to Essex and East Anglia now to hear this accent lol language is always changing and evolving as it absorbs the new sounds and influences around it. Fantastic little slice of a London that has migrated to large extent...

My mums family all came from the deptford/Greenwich area, so south of the river and not true cockneys but almost the same accent. This video made me sad remembering my grandparents and uncles and all that has been lost. I miss this England.

Man, I'd LOVE to be in that pub right now. Better times for sure.

I'm from Tyneside and the last time I was in London about 3 years ago, I noticed most accents were French. I actually spoke to a Cockney when I asked a passerby for directions. It was lovely to hear a real cockney accent and I think he enjoyed hearing my Geordie accent!

Although this is ‘76 it still misses the point that there is a different accent within cockney for every area, a guy from Rotherhithe sounds completely different to a man from Poplar.

Yer man with the brown coat … is the image of Arthur Daley 😂😊

Thank you for another little gem from the BBC archive. Those men were a dying breed. I don't suppose there are many (if any) true Cockneys left in Bethnal Green. The houses are worth a fortune now and probably lived in by the bankers who work in Docklands.

I was born in the London hospital in 63 and lived for my first 30 years in the Bethnal Green end of Vallance Road. Happy days.

Born and raised in 84 east london right near the Docks. Yes i am cockney and proud. And i still talk like that, maybe not as strong or thick but its there. And if the lads get together yeah we may go full cockney for old times sake.

God bless BBC Archive. These videos are so special ❤

I wish the uk was still like this 😢

Absolutely fascinating.

Love the cockney accent 💚💚 I’m a cockney so may be slightly biased 😂 born in Mile End in the 80s and moved out to Essex in the 00’s, lots of cockneys out my way now, keep it going 🥳💚

I remember growing up in the early 80s in hackney and my father was a propa cockney. But he came here in the early 70s from pakistan. He would say stuff which would go straight over my head. And hackney was proper diverse back in the 80s/90s. You had the Bengalis move into brick lane and the Jewish communities moving on. Stamford hill became the new Jewish residence which is the same till this day. You had a lot of afro/carabinan people in hackney. Lots of Turkish people around stoke Newington and green lanes etc. And a lot of indigenous white British people of course and we all went to school and my group of friends would play football in the hackney marshes and it was like an international team with vietnamese white black etc. I went to a school called homerton boys/ homerton house and I never faced any racism growing up. Because it was so diverse back then in the east end because you were seen as working class commoner and the ethnic people were literally thrown into the poor parts of London which have now become expensive, only when I used to leave the east end go to some plush areas you would see a more traditional London and they had proper clean English and felt like fish out of water because you was the only ethnic person there and poor to be honest. I remember going up north to Manchester for the first time in the late 90s and everyone was calling me cockney. Also growing up I remember the street language changing from cockney to a more slang which had carabinan twang cockney and mixture of American culture that became the new street language. Back then if you weren't from the ghetto estates no one could actually understand what you was saying until the internet made alot of street language possible to understand. Now London has had alot of people out from the sticks moved in top jobs well groomed I mean hackney seen as a middle class area and me growing up here thinking my house price will never go up lol. Now everyone speaks like some champagne socialist middle class English. Very soft spoken tidy and clean. I drive a cab at the moment I pick up a customer they straight away say was you born here? How was London when you was young you have a very east end accent. I may have the accent but not the terminology my dad used to doh I remember him buying fruits and vegs as a kid and he would talk to people down the street and in shops he would say something in cockney slang and I used to look at my brother like what did he just say? I think if you go more towards Essex Basildon Chelmsford you still get that old school cockney. In London it's very gentrified I found it difficult finding a job as most people in top firms nowadays prefer that clean well spoken English compared to cockney which has always been seen as the commoners working class English.

Even black kids spoke like cockneys in the 70s - that’s why when you meet black people in their 60s and 70s today who were born in London they still talk like that. There was no division in those days, except that which the press tried to create . You’ll be lucky to find a black person under 45 in London nowadays though who doesn’t sound like Ali G - knaaah wat ah meeeeen?

I'm a Scotsman from Glasgow (Glaswegian) and have lived in London for most of my life and absolutely love the cockney accent and London overall for it's culture heritage and customs, long may it live.

I grew up in the 1970’s, by the newly installed Bow flyover. It wasn’t all laughs but I got a chuckle out of this.

I love imitating this accent, it's so friendly. I'm just like one of those managers in the last section. I love this accent, but my mother was from central London tho.

5:36 Jack Dash sounds exactly like Alan Ford. I wish I was a cockney, it would be great. I'd go about the place doing people up like kippers, with my cockney powers.

This is lovely. The kind of diversity that should have been kept and respected.

Always found this accent amazing.

This reminds of my great grandparents and grandparents ☺️ My great grandad was the potman at the blind beggar, all my family come from East London. I was born in the Royal London to the sound of the bow bells at 11pm on a Sunday in 1982. I still use certain words and phrases now and so do my parents and siblings. My husband just thinks Chas and Dave being a man of Kent 😬

7 mins in the fella has turned into Bricktop (Alan Ford) from Snatch. Bless him, we need to keep the accent going.

That guy who really, really looks like Arfur Daley - wow....uncanny

*BEST ACCENT EVER*

“Character is formed in industry….” Well, the industry is gone.

When I listen to Squeeze's song Cool for Cats, I hear a very clear Cockney accent, singing, really talking, the lead vocal.

It’s strange growing up in London all the kids spoke in cockney. It was the immigrant parents who barely spoke English. Kids don’t see colour or differences. They just see their mates.

The youngsters have lost this accent know a days. They all speak Jahfaken or Roadman. I live in a seaside town in Essex and the kids even try to speak like it too. You can understand inner-city kids speaking like that, being brought up around different ethnic minorities and picking up accents, but kids living in the countryside are just impersonating the London kids because they think it's cool.

The cockney accents, and all the different variations, are great to hear. But also as a younger viewer I'm amazed to hear the BBC presenter speaking so posh! Of course, they have to speak "correctly" and do today, but it's interesting how that has changed to in 46-odd years...

I do love BBC Archive!

My parents still enjoy a cuppa Rosie with a slice of holy. Told us (my brother and I) to shut the Rory, there’s a George. Moaned when it was taters in the winter. It’s 2022, they still speak like that.

I can say cockney is still alive and well in places like Watford and Bushey, St. Albans and Bricketwood.

The young man at 09:08 nails it. Thanks for this great upload

The guy moaning about kids using alright and y'see at the end of sentences doesn't even realise he's saying y'know all the time, at the end of his sentences.

Class. Born and bred in London. Remember my dad talking cockney rhyming slang and now I teach my dustbin lids cos it can't die out.

A proper Cockney drops his aitches at ' Ackney and picks 'em up at the 'H'angel !!

The one with the cap is a spit for Arthur daley

Reminds me of classic old British tv series like Minder, The Professionals and Prospects

You still hear it in people 50 and over, regardless of ethnicity. It's sad it's dying out but that's just life, times change, things evolve. The generic yoof accent has variations and that will morph and grow too. What we think of as classic cockney or London was just what we heard growing up, it was different before our time. People tend to get fixated on what they grew up with as being the "real" way things should be

This is so fascinating

My stepdad’s from Battersea and he speaks proper cockney; always like listening to him talk 😅

Closest thing you can find to this would be going to a pub in Basildon or Southend maybe. Lots of my mates have parents that are from the east end.

Loved the cockney builders ducking and diving mixed with the Irish builder's very well

Brilliant this, fantastic post.

our history. love it ❤

7:00 a very familiar view from the top of Latham House, Stepney looking down on the British prince pub and Bromley Street.

This is lovely

The bloke with the white hair and glasses defo is brick tops dad's

“They say hello grandfather ‘ow har you” 😁

For the most part, cockney has morphed into an estuary accent. Growing up in East London in the 60s & 70s, I remember older people speaking in cockney accents but they didn't necessarily 'drop their aitches' or pronounce th as f.

I'm Yorkshire but me pa is a cockney, so we used to grow up around his slang and rhyming slang. Good times

Love the old school cockney accent. Very rare nowadays

I speak with a South London accent, it never held me back I was a receptionist for a Architects Office in London.

1:38 looks like Arthur Daley

Awesome 👏 video

I am not from london but lived there 11 years and loved the cockney accent , dont let it die out ❤

my aunts and uncles are proper cockneys, still alive and living in Essex now.

For the people in the comments who clearly have nothing to do with London talking about “Caucasian natives”- almost ALL second/ third generation London immigrants, whether black, asian, turkish, greek, chinese spoke with the Cockney accent right up until the 1990s, when the accent shifted or became less common with ALL londoners, including white Londoners. If you want to blame anything, blame gentrification

Amazing thanks

0:59 he screws up putting the aitches back in when 'taking posh': " 'ello grandfather 'ow h-are you?"

Good stuff,could tell that plod was a merchant banker though

I feel for the young girl at the end. The way she thought that her accent would hold her back in life. So sad that she is made to feel that way. My daughter speaks very cockney as her child minder was from Hackney originally. She too feels that she wished she was not so cockney but I have always told her to never change the way you act or speak for other people. Be who you are.

Definitely moved into Essex, my old dear's a true cockney, as was her old man and they went to Basildon, then Wickford and we're pretty much all still here roundabouts. Like people have said London has evolved into something else now but the lingo still exists, it's just mixed in with posher Essex accents.

Most cockneys moved to Essex, great people 👍

Oh how Guy Richie revels on this!

Seems like the accent is not the only mark of cockney. Lots of “insider” slang that is indecipherable unless you are exposed to it for a long time.

I’m 26, Indian heritage, but born and raised in the UK. Grew up around Wiltshire and Hampshire areas. Have often been told I sound quite posh. Yet I still code switch if I’m in a rougher area, like some pubs, or the odd corner shop, as a kind of social camouflage you could say. It’s cool how we have accents “stored” inside us for future use. Ties well into broader theories about the desire for social inclusion. And that we show different facets of ourselves in turn

So charming!

Sadly this is now gone, I am a 70 year old cockney and the last of my tribe

Just saw del boys dad reg in the pub i love it,jack dash sounds like brick top from lock stock 💯👌

Brilliant 👏

1:35 It's Arthur Daley!

A really interesting point that the guy near the end makes, that 'Cockney' is simply seen as common, not an bona fida accent. We grew up in Surrey and it was definitely scorned upon to talk 'London'. 'You weren't brought up to talk like that'. Ridiculous.

The good old days. Anyone saying I'm looking back with rose-tinted specs probably wasn't there.

Lovely. Thank you, RU-vid.

Love this and to think my parents only were still in the infancy, love a cockney..east end all the way!

This makes me miss my grandad. I'd walk in the room and he'd greet me "alright girl, where's your boy at" speaking about my son. I remember being in a pub for lunch with him and he laughed at someone who walked through the bar and apparently "his syrup looked like it was on backwards", if you know, you know😂 we have a lot of South and East London where I live now because of the factories that opened in the 60s here but now their grandkids sound like they're off TOWIE, it makes your ears bleed listening to a fake mockney 🤬

Note the Graffiti on the shop wall "George Davis is innocent OK" immediately followed by the copper explaining the expression 'marking somebody's card' this must have been filmed in 76 ?

10:39 - 'you won't end up on the board of directors' - dad of the year...

Love the british accents and manner of speaking.