A clip take from Thames Television's 'Harry's out' in these extracts we hear about the life of crime in Lewisham, South East London To license a clip please e mail: archive@fremantle.com Quote: VT60284
I was born in Streatham in ‘59 and this is the London I remember from childhood. Most of the people in our street knew each other and would stop for a chat. The rag-and-bone man would come down the street and let us pat his horse and give it treats. We could play by ourselves on the local common which was clean and tidy and the only danger for us was crossing the road to get there. I went back there a few years ago… and wish I hadn’t.
The way it's panning out and with the same old political mainstream parties in power, the whole of the UK will be resembling that third world cesspit in the not too distant future.
Peter Pan Park. Haha. These estates and blocks have brilliant names like Nelson Mandela Court. In Salford there's a rough estate called Mocha estate.😅😂 @@shermanwooman8608
This is the london on which the brilliant tv series the sweeney was based. It would be people like the ones shown here who'd carry out the 'blags' on banks etc which the show was based around. And it was this that gave the sweeney its authenticity and gritty realism (you could almost expect to see regan and carter in this bar somewhere talking to their 'snouts')
Believe or not Ian Kennedy Martin got his inspiration for the Sweeney from USA series The Streets of San Francisco and talking to real life Sweeney policeman.The characters in this film would not look out of place in any episode.
Opinions haven't really changed over the years, and I doubt will do so in years to come. Mainly a them and us way of thinking. Those with money or highly educated get let off,whilst others get hung drawn and quartered for much less.
My Dad told me a story of 2 brothers with a Jaaaaag. On pay day they’d drive up to the bank, and when one came back out, they’d wheelspin off up the road 😂
@@zeddeka In 1977, there were 135 murders involving a sharp instrument including knives and broken bottles. This accounted for 33% of all murders. In 2021/22, there were 282 recorded murders using a sharp instrument - the highest number of murders using a sharp instrument recorded between 1977 and 2022.
@@zeddeka Mushroomhead's comments are part of a trend of quasi racist comments you tend to find on any archive video footage of life in London from 2010s backwards and well into last century that show London as much less diverse place. They try to imply that before Johnny foreign moved in and much of the white working class moved out London was a low crime peaceful clean safe city. Of course those of us who have lived in London for a few decades (as I have since the mid 70s) and with a half decent memory know this not to be the case. Although there was plenty to reminisce about 70s, 80s, 90s and perhaps early 2000s London there have been many improvements since.
I grew up in Lewisham, in 1970 I was 14. My mum took us to church EVERY Sunday, all eight of us. The church was packed out every Sunday. Lewisham market supplied all our veg, couldn’t afford any fruit. Five of my six sisters went on to university, I joined the Royal Navy, my brother owns and runs his own business. Losers always make excuses….my dad rode a bicycle to work winter and summer, he was typical of the average worker in Lewisham, not these lame brains.
Their future is like something from a dystopian movie we’re crime is everywhere and the court system stops really bothering doing anything thing about it😂
Much tougher people back in the day - community was brilliant - now they are all sneaking around - no characters left just zombies. We had a lot of fun
My Auntie passed away in her nineties in Lewisham Hospital in 2014, lived through the Blitz ! Was an Air Raid Warden in Blackheath. She was treated abysmally by the nursing staff while priority was given to people of ethnic origin, she was bathed and showered by her daughter otherwise it would not be done by the staff. This is the UK today and unfortunately it will get worse
@@danielfreeley5217Pretty appropriate when comments are made about the demographic change of London in general. Some facts are pretty hard to swallow and the usual suspects just deny the obvious.
What has that got to do with 1970s Lewisham? Furthermore no ethnic minority culture really wants anyone but their own family to look after their elderly,that's in their culture. So stop lying ,your aunt was let down by her daughter and you. So what if her daughter had to bathe her,you also could've helped along with the rest of the family, or was it too much of a strain you. Unfortunately that will go on whenever ,you are right. Maybe if you or your Aunts daughter had visited enough that would never happen. I take it you mean your cousin, when you say your Aunts daughter. You sound like a really close family.
@@danielfreeley5217actually, an expected comment. Didn't you see all those ethnics saying they're forced to go on the thieve. Oh by the way that had a lot to do with the Aunt being mistreated in hospital because the ethnics were looked after first. wow. Not strange, expected. That person is having a wonderful life. Blames the ethnics when it rains 😅
If you like the above I cannot recommend highly enough you buy 'The Sweeney' DVD box set. Though I am biased, it has to be one of the very best cop series, ever. You will be treated to a London of a different era... Unmissable car chases... cons with character, and the legend that is 'Jack Regan'!
Wasn`t John Thaw only in his early thirties in this? Looked so much older, like early fifties. Great program though as me and my friends in primary school in the 70`s used to head inside when the Sweeney started!
love the footage of the older chaps in the pub reminds me of my dad and his pals back in lambeth tough people but good people unfortunately them days have gone .
London was a very dark, sleazy place back then. Places like Piccadilly, and the various train stations, were notorious. Police corruption was also absolutely endemic.
Ah, 'a dark, sleazy place back then', compared to nowadays it was relatively innocent! There's always been a few shady characters and shady deals if you didn't bother them, they didn't bother you. Now with the drug dealing on council estates it creates a lot of antisocial behaviour and hinders the lives of honest, hardworking people and the police turn a blind eye to it. The good ol' 70s they were lovely, safe times. 😢😮
@@asa1973100 'In Piccadilly above a shop'! I didn't know there was any residential places in Piccadilly/Piccadilly Circus, except for hotels and posh apartments near Green Park? Anyway, you're right Piccadilly Circus/Station was rough those days. There was a Disney/cartoon cinema I got my mum to take me there in 1975, the films were alright, but the cinema was a complete 💩hole! Also I can remember some of the shady characters around there, especially the rent boys under the arches at the end of Regent Street/Piccadilly Circus, they were v.undesirable and threatening. So yeah around Piccadilly Circus it was dire, but the rest of London was fairly quiet and safe, you rarely had muggins/stabbings then. 🙄😒
@@BrianMurfitt correct 👍 people are seriously delusional if they think it wasn’t any different back then ! I grew up in south London in the 70s on a council estate , salt of the earth earth people
Lovely bloke, loves his mum. But he nailed your mums head to a coffee table. Yes he did that, but she broke the unwritten law. And what was that law. I dont know, but if its good enough for Harry then its good enough for me. Good Old Monty Python
A time when people were "honest" about there "dishonesty"......as Michael Caine once said " he is honest as the day is long,, just done a stretch in Parkhurst"
I was born in a house in Lewisham (Courthill Road) but never asked my parents why I wasn’t born in the hospital like my brothers were. Now I live about as far away from Lewisham as is possible so I’m amazed how this video found its way to me.
Same here. Grew up in New X Gate, went to school in Crofton Park. Got taken shopping to Lewisham every week - remember the spinning characters in the shopping centre? BHS restaurant? Cheesemans? Lewisham now is an absolute shite hole. Fortunately, I now live 120 miles away from the place 😂
@@macca9770 12,000 miles….I do remember Chessman’s very vaguely but I think it was shut down, in the 70’s? I definitely remember the market, Beatties (?) the model shop - dreamland for me as a young boy. I never go near Lewisham or Catford, where I lived for most of my childhood - who would travel all the way from NZ to be depressed by what they are now? Better to just keep the good memories.
@@chewskewsme nice. I went to Perth Oz whilst in the navy and met someone who was from Deptford!! Yes, I remember Beatties - a lad I went to school with got done for breaking into the place. Remember the Wimpy on the high street? Waiter in there could carry 25 plates on each arm 😂😂
Videos of old London always get a load of nostalgic bollocks. But it really does take the biscuit to see that on a video about actual thieves talking about thieving. Great clip though.
I grew up in Lewisham 60s/70s/80s and my mother still lives there. I grew up knowing most of the people in this video most of them are all gone now. Nice to see Billy Haywood here. Lewisham is now not the Lewisham I knew sad to see that all gone now. God bless to all the people that knew the old Lewisham
Oldskool distinguished gentlemen..great hearing the old Cockney accent..its a thing of beauty and is also nearly extinct thanks to the Resettlement programme they did to the natives of London.
Yeh you could leave your front door unlocked in them days cause you had nothing worth nicking, the grass is always greener and the dog shit always warmer in times gone by. I grew up with chancers like these in the late 60's early 70's always in the boozer when it was open and the look on the 'disabled' geezer mush @0:35 when his mates were taking the piss says it all.
Harry's Out (1971) - a documentary film about the late, remarkable Harry Haward following his release from Pentonville Prison when he decided to go straight. Harry Haward: bank robber, boxer, nightclub & pub owner (Cheeks Nightclub, Harp of Erin pub…), political activist, seniors' rights campaigner, chairman of Deptford Action Group for the Elderly (after having rescued Dage from closure - he’d been organising pensioners' parties for over 20 years), community radio broadcaster on Resonance FM…
Not me as not old enough however, my older family members know of Harry as they lived in Deptford from 50’s - 90’s. Harp of Erin, The Osborne, Brown Bear, Mechanics….etc
Their saying the same thing today ,only difference is they blame their predicament on migration / race . When the truth is laziness and the expectation of entitlement..
@@jasonantigua6825no its Harry Hayward...this clip is from the documentary Where's Harry and shows him getting out of Pentonville prison after him and his firm had a notorious shootout with the Richardson firm.
@@patrickwalsh6873 Harry Hayward mate..old villain..this is from the documentary Harry's Out when he got released from Pentonville prison after having a shootout with the Richardson firm.
& “highly educated gentlemen” pass a different turd!? Duke of Westminster going with a brass, Politicians upto all sorts. All the top brass are at it as well mate!
@@stuwitten391 no they can string sentences together. There is nothing glamorous or heroic in stealing. They had money to be down the pub. Bunch of two bob wasters.
You wouldn't last five minutes in their company, they might not have had much of an education but could live off their wits and were street wise, with a wicked sense of humour, and when they did work which many of them did they did hard manual labour like demolition or working in the docks.
@@EnglishCad what you see is what you get mate. Not the “ highly educated” trying to have you believe that they wouldn’t turn down the chance of a bit of skullduggery given the chance.
Thankfully through diversity and migration London is now a safe and friendly place to live and there is no crime just a beautiful utopian place..!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
People talking about the differences, how there was a community feeling etc... Streatham, Brixton, Croydon, Lewisham and many more examples were shit-holes then and they are still massive shit-holes now, there is no amount of gentrification that can change that. I'd love to see a documentary on leafy West-London instead, like parts of Ealing or Hammersmith as they were back then, or the good parts of North London like Hampstead Heath etc
