Hackney in 1979 - Documentary about London's working class district 

This is how I’d like to remember London, I grew up there in the 60’s/70’s.

That was my mum being interviewed at 5 mins. I would have been 7 so was probably off playing somewhere.

Grew up in Hackney in the late 70s. Over time saw Hackney Library sold, opposite the Town Hall on Mare St. Saw Homerton library gradually dissolve. These were the only places for silent study if you were trying to prepare for exams.

What a great bunch of people. We need to rediscover this sense of community. It's needed now more than ever. Love that poetry 💞

Love watching these old documentaries about London

2021....Community spirit now only lives in the archives. Nice to revisit 1979 where people and especially children, had safe environments to explore, learn and inject their creative styles into their communities.

Some great footage of Clapton Park Estate back in the days, including some of an old neighbour! I remember the Free Form art group. Cheers for the upload

I went to that Cinema many of times. Played on the adventure at Kingsmead ,Hackney marshes. Went to school in Dalston and Mum n Dad got married @ Hackney town hall. The end of the 70's was a good time for a 8 year old. Felt safe and loved.

Wow! The nostalgia I felt watching this was quite overwhelming. I was a kid in London in the 70s and loved the community arts of that time. I used to go to Action Space at the Drill Hall in Goodge Street and the team were Incredible. Later I became a playworker in the 80s working at play-centres and would team up with the city farm in Hackney. In those days there was recognition of the need from councils to provide kids with play centres and youth centres. In the mid 90s the funding decreased and eventually the adventure playgrounds were turned into playgrounds without staff. Now kids find their entertainment through computer games. It's such a shame.

Nothing of it left now lovely hackney my home

Thank you so much for uploading

Intelligent, and civilised, I do miss those days 😢

Wow.. what a document to have of the borough i grew up in. Thanks so much!

Really interesting time-capsule. Great to see people's attitudes and ideas back then. Some really positive things happening.

You get a great sense on community and belonging when you watch this film. Sadly this doesn't seem to exist much these days..

I went to Caribbean House with my school several time back in the 80's, it was brilliant

Ah, 1979....the last year before Buying Stuff became the most important thing in people's lives.

Heartbreaking to see what it’s become

This is great to doc to have. I was blown away when I seen the silk screen posters for the RAR gig in Victoria Park. Amazing.

I grew up in Hackney. I was a child of the 1970’s. Just moved out a few years ago. I Still have fond memories of playing in Hackney Downs, Clissold Park, Springfield park. I loved Hackney so much I couldn’t move to far away, to a neighbouring borough. I love the diversity in London. I wish there were more of these initiatives today to bring communities together.

People seemed far more intelligent back then...

OMG, such incredible scenery. Love 70s folk.

I would've been in my final months at primary school before secondary when this was shot. Still recognise the areas shown here, even though it has changed a hell of a lot over the years. Memory total recall.

Amazing ! From the Rio Cinema

Brilliant !!! Great memories !!

The Hairstyles haven't changed much in Hoxton .Thanks for uploaading!.

When east london was east london. I was born and raised in hackney in the 80's/90's and it was a great place. Sadly its unrecongnisable these days and ive since moved away. My mum still lives there and its so so different now days. And not for the better..

Occult Floor Symbol there 2:05 There is now Occult Witchcraft Classes for Kids in the Hoxton, Shoreditch, Brick Lane area now

The irony is, that if we weren’t huddled over interweb devices in the ‘sanctuary’ of homes we could still have communities & associated activities

You get the impression there was more genuine freedom of speech and expression at this time, because people were more patient and understanding in listening to other people's point of view, without shouting them down if they said something they didn't agree with.

Wonderful I miss those times.. We need to learn and get back to art creativity community spirit and supporting each other! 💜

Great video, I was brought up there and have some fond memories. Yes it has changed but everything does.

I worked for a community arts organization back in the 1990's - however, in the early naughties, they had the budget slashed, and then continued to limp on in some form, to almost a whisper now.

Ahh when Britain was British yet still diverse.

I grew up on the island, east London was great back then, I thought we was skint until I joined the British army and met lads from up north and Wales, 21 in 1979, oh how my country has changed, not for the better!

Wish this was still the East End instead of the island of insufferable hipsters it has now become.

Anyone know who did the intro music it’s first class as is the documentary

Britain was really good at this pioneering activity, going out to communities and bringing them alive through art. It created a whole new colourful landscape and gave a lot of artists jobs. Long live community art.

2024 /wow to look back without a mobile in sight x nostalgic x

I was brought to London as a child in summer 1978 or 79. I had never seen black people in real life before - it was a novelty for me. We were able to walk down Downing Street and get our picture taken across the street for No. 10's door. It was the height of summer, yet not over-run with tourists. We could stay cheaply in a 4 star hotel in Kensington ( The Tara Towers Hotel ). But we walked on average over 10km a day, which for a 7 year old and a 9 year old was a bit much in the hot sunshine.

Brilliant and depressing all at the same time... wonder what that lady who did this project is doing now?

Seems like a lifetime ago I guess it was! Thanks for this

Fantastic documentary. Lovely soundtrack, I wonder who the guitar player was?! Hate to be that person but you really don't see the same type of community these days, but social media would make it so much easier to do more things!

When you could talk to your neighbours , and people were friendly

So lovely before Blair and mandelson fucked it all up

Community was stronger then because they got involved with local events and families didn't move house every year. It just seems so much healthier back then. RIP old days x

A Time of change for "Times are a Changing" a wonderful moment in history for self empowering, Power to the People.

In 70s Bristol a double decker bus decked out as an art workshop in summer. I remember printing a tshirt. This is pretty much the same sort of thing. Was this an organization that was set up around the country?

Yes, Hackney in 1979 was still British society coloured with diversification in community strata. When I first came to Britain in 1980, for my college education. Spent 5 years in UK, first two years in England ( in King's Lynn, a market town in Norfolk county) then further three years in Edinburgh, Scotland. Those five years from 1980 upto 1985 were good and everlasting memory for me.

My dear old mum was born in Hackney.

Free form come to my street in the 80’s where we all built a rockery and a few tiled pictures on the walls. Free Form we’re great! 👍💪 Thank you Free Form

that was good i am scouser from toxteth Liverpool i can relate

@17:03 - Frig me ! That girl's glasses are like re-entry shields !

I really don’t know where this intelligence has gone in today’s society..? Seems like everyone now needs to be told what to do..It’s scary....☮️🇬🇧

1979 was a BRILLIANT year. Trust me. It was incredible.

I have kept the family home in Hoxton while everyone else moved away and I have observed so many major changes for the past 60yrs . Our family lived in the area since 1922. The demise of local street markets and social habits of going to the pub most nights was instrumental in killing off traditional close knit communities and their spirit. The markets/pubs were meeting places as well as service providers. But nothing stops evolution and everything changes. My area was run down poor and grubby, but families knew each other and helped each other. Now, long gone are the asbestos ridden rows of pre-fab maisonettes and run down council estates with poor lighting and parks you were scared to use. The old factories have turned into modern flats and Shoreditch park is a pleasure to visit. But the markets are dead or in their death throws, the indigenous locals pushed out by the the lack of homes or affordable housing to make way for a younger middle class. I actually like how things have changed so much and become modern. I still nostalgically harp back to how much fun it was in the old days around here with dodgy deals and skulduggery going on, but as I said, nothing stops evolution. p.s South Hackney is still classed as " bandit country " no matter how much money they throw at it.

Legz Akimbo.

I was living at Brentwood at the time, and when I saw Hacking in 1985, thought it dump then, still a dump in 2022, looked like nothings going to change that much, tarted up Hackney Central, I still feared being mugged, as a dodgy area.

If I went on holiday to Cornwall after only ever living in Hackney I doubt I'd ever want to return to Hackney.

At least Cookes Pie and Mash is still going strong.

I am 16 years old great times 😊

Freeform Arts Trust did some great work for nearly forty years, despite very little funding or interest from councils or government. Then it was gone, and nobody much cared. They put up a parking lot, and people said, "Ok".

Cool

Just hearing these people talk I can tell the people of hackney changed today

My grandparents were born in Hackney in the 1890s, my parents in the 1920s and myself in the 1950s. I dont recognise much of this film being about the Hackney I knew. Glad to say I moved out in 1990.

Who else thought the Jake the Pake 3 handed silkscreen board at 0:33 was freaky?

What's with the Dutch flag 8:12 ?

Wow! Traffic actually stopping at a zebra crossing!! A totally different age!

I wonder what happened to the woman talking five minutes in. I hope she is a successful politician! I am usually quite cynical, but she really made me feel all change is possible!

Few old cockneys going down the rubber dub

I was in Hoxton in 2006, and the hipsters hadn't arrived en masse yet. I wonder where those posters are now. They would make a great exhibition.

Would be knife dodging lessons these days

And then ...

Life seemed to have a vibrancy back in the 70s/80s. I can still feel it when I think back. Today seems to be so sterile & numbed.

They had shops in those days. Unlike today. Modern town centres are a disgrace.

The good old days....diverse but not overwhelmed and lost !

The zeitgeist has spooked us all out of countenance

Totally unrecognisable now thanks to new labour opening the flood gates in 1997-2010..

Now it's full of smashed avocado on sliced toasted soda bread hipsters.

Filmed mainly in Dalston and Hoxton areas. The council/social housing estate is De Beauvoir Estate, Hoxton.

Not a single mobile phone in sight when people used to enjoy each others company

Big up Mabley Street

I WOUNDER WHERE THEY ARE NOW AND I WOUNDER IF ANY OF THEM GOT JOBS WITH THE COUNCIL IN THE 1980S

Era of interesting cars

Isn’t this Ragga Twins place of birth..?

I HEARD YOU GOT TO HAVE A FEW BOB, TO LIVE THERE NOW

Used to get my pie and mash every Saturday there as a nipper

It's a million miles from Star Wars released in 1979

@16:27 - Good to see Elton John getting involved in the community.

The year Thatcher the milk snatcher came to power.

Am a geordie but still found a nostalgia buzz from this, Sweeney, OnlyFools and Minder gave me a feeling for this people in this time.

8:01 Kingsmead Primary School - I was 5 in 1979 and have lived opposite it for 46 years now! My little part of the world! The teachers I remember were Miss Bouncle, Mr lewis, Miss Smith (she punched me in the back for not finishing my greens one lunch time, very tough old bird)😂. Wow that was a long time ago!

37:34 Jamie Oliver was actually quite funny back in the day, wun`ee..😂

Those were great times for us posh people who came in to get council funding - we got some parties and the kids got loads of activities and murals. Like the lady says - the adults never got into it in a big way and it is a success that they came along just for the kids anyway. All the miserable comments here about hipsters moving in with avoidocardo? I've still got my rusty old 'Keep Hackney Crap' badge! It was crap, and fun. Now it's hip, expensive, and has entryphones on stainless condos for the fintech imperialists. The crap has just got monetized.

Hackney was a fantastic place to live in the 1970s moved to Dagenham in the early 1980s I was never the same

I lived 30 minutes away in Hounslow as a young child and teen in the late 60s and 70s and at that time I just thought it was COOL and GROOVY and FAB but looking at this it's like I'm looking at Victorian times LOL and I'm feeling about 269 years old after seeing this HAHAHA Funny how time changes your perception ... Or maybe it's the way it's been filmed and presented with all the OLD folks trolling down the high streets !! ... And HERE WE ARE :) Greetings from Middle Earth

this is great - so of its time :))

Oh England, how we lost our way; our voice; our soul; our strength in community .

Community Arts

then thatcher came along and destroyed communities