That's true of alot of areas, but not the East End. It was the most heavily bombed area of London because it was nearest to the main docks at the time. It's why places like Poplar, Limehouse, and Dagenham took more hits than areas like Brixton, Shepherds Bush, and Camden.
Great years long before EU and cheap flights, and seen straight away in A&E no 6 hour waiting times, and leave one job an start another on the same day. Its a fucking shit hole of a place to live in now and the dreams of winning the lottery is the only way out of this miserable hovel that it's turned into.
Excellent work - my dad used to do this sort of thing with old postcards that he had - tried to get a few snaps whilst driving his taxi round London. Nicely put together.
When you see old London. When London was English and was the capital of England. You weren't British then you was ENGLISH 🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴
Martin Thomas It seems as if time has not been kind to the East End it looks as if the life has been sapped out of the area. I lived a couple of doors down from The Burnell Arms in Plashett Grove as a kid last time I saw the pub it it was derelict .😞😞😞😞
Some parts WERE cosmopolitan but others like my area in S E London were not. I bever heard a foreign language ever on my streets until I was 17 and that was an Italian cafe owner :)
Lovely film to watch,just very sad in this country we are not capable of retaining original character of our surroundings,this is why other cities have flourished throughout the world keeping thier charm.Through economy we created bedsit land.My dad was an East End lad and was very proud of his Manor.
Most places change over time not just London, the little village I grew up in became a new town and the heart of the old place was ripped out. Nothing stays the same forever and we do have a habit of viewing the past through rose tinted spectacles.
Far from viewing the past with rose coloured spectacles, I think these photos evidence the decline in our surroundings. There were thoughtful buildings in the East End which made attractive landmarks. Even the pubs on the street corners have a style and sense of place. Shops used to have attractive window displays while they they have lock down shutters in place. In general the modern views look tatty and unattractive.
1.51 the old hospital bromley by bow its completely gone now, makes you die, they break down building made to last 1000 years then build shit boxes that last 20 with no style what so ever
top banana No doubt wonderful in Florence Nightingale’s day, when you mostly went to hospital to die. Hardly suitable for 21st century medicine. It had to go.
How absorbing and informative. We make hires gopro walks of contemporary London on youtube (no ads - just to show how London is now) so it's great for us to see the comparison. London is still pretty spectacular. Thank you for adding it.
The 1950s and 60s were a period of plummeting poverty and disease, low crime and a high level of community spirit (in the absence of govt funded community programmes). Today we have 'relative' poverty as a victim status, rocketing crime and terrorist activity as well as new diseases and a return of some old ones.
@@BarryAllenMagic That would have been fighting among them selves rival gangs, not mugging old people or throwing acid into people's faces, the vile acts we have now. I was a child then, we used to go out all day to play only returning home for our meals, precious days.
@@bobclark6703 Fighting amongst themselves.......really? You've clearly not got the first idea about protection money and threats made to businesses, pubs, etc. in the East End; resulting in physical injury and damage if not paid. Not to mention prostitution; armed raids of Banks and Post Offices; wage blags, etc. If you were actually alive back then, you must have been living in a bloody Parallel Universe!
I really like this video, it makes me feel sad to see how much has changed but also pleased when some of the buildings are still there, particularly the Chemists towards the end, which remained as a Chemists. Thanks x
When I was there, all of the Isle of Dogs area was flattened except for a church and old pub. The pub basement had about three feet of water, and inside the church was all vandalized - pews, grand piano, organ, etc. all smashed to bits. I walked up the church spire - it was full of pigeons and their poo.The cobbled streets were still left. peoples' belongings [family photos] were strewn everywhere inside some buildings still standing . People must have vacated in a hurry.
You have done an excellent job with these photos, well done! Have you thought that by using monochrome, a better comparison could be made? Just a thought.
One thing you have to admit is that in the past they certainly had better style than we have today , in Australia some of the buildings I see here would be restored and treasured but it seems that the brits have excess from that era and just let them fall apart .
Lovely old pictures hear, But the East End is changing so fast that even in the short time since this was made a lot of the UPDATED pictures have now themselves become out of date, The speed of change is incredible.
I'm sure parts of the Countryside have not changed so rapidly Keith. I attended a Wigan v Millwall Minor Cup Final in 1999 with 47,000 other Millwall fans and never heard a foreign language spoken until after the match where we went down to the smaller Wembley station rather than get caught up in the Wembley Park hordes and for the whole length of the Saturday busy High Street did not hear a word of English spoken. The complete antithesis of earlier and that was 20 years ago...
It's wonderful to see the old places, but people moved out because they wanted a better life in new, clean homes, with room to breathe. Complaining about the fact that new people moved into the old houses, that were abandoned, is bizarre. The only way the East Enders of the 50s would have stayed there, is if the whole lot had been demolished and rebuilt with more expensive homes, bigger gardens, open spaces, etc. But it didn't happen.
There are some shots with nice, newly built housing - but not many. It seems to me, what we had was far more pleasing to the eye than what we have now. Streets and streets have been pulled down to be left derelict. This wasn't the Luftwaffe, the type of cars are post war. Why destroy a beautiful corner shop or pub to make way for a decrepit private garage or left for weeds to overtake. "Progress" huh!
It really makes me sad how we squander our heritage in this country. Those Victorian shops and houses were so beautiful, why on earth were they allowed to be knocked down? Talk about ruin the character and charm of London
every one looks back and thinks things were better in their time,i told my kids it was better in my day,my old man said it was better in his day his old man and on it goes,my kids will tell theirs it was better in their day.the one common denominater is age,its better because your younger full stop! dont get old cos we all start moaning !!
Exactly. People love the past because they were younger, relatively carefree and, crucially, a lot of the people they loved were still alive then. It's human nature. I feel it myself, all the time.
Tracy Simmons . interpersonal violence was widespread but not discussed; beating children was accepted, domestic abuse was "normal", child abuse was routinely disbelieved, fights were a normal part of pub going life. In the current era, we have recognised that all of these - and more - went on . Violence in the past was ignored, minimised and simply not talked about - it was, however, very much a fact of life
@@sudgur990 i grew up in the roman everyone i knew friends their familys and our neighbours were all kind warm hearted people everyone helped each other out there was a great sence of community and respect for each other i come from a large family who used the local pubs there wasnt many fights at all not like now days with people robbing and stabbing each other anyone who lived there would tell you that .i know years ago domestics were not out in the open like today but thats all over the country not just the eastend ! I would walk home at night without a worry and so did all my friends and family we never had any problam now days you would .The crime rate is the worse its ever been .lots of good people have moved they have seen enough its really sad .They may have opened a few trendy cafe's and gone a bit organic but all the best days have been its all gone !
Mohammed Yaqoob Why do you have moustache's is it to look like your mom's. What you get is our old shit. Our countries are much better than your dusty war torn shit hole that's why you're in the west on the ponce, looking for women without moustache's. Keyboard warrior .....where's your list then ?
@@woden20 what a stupid ignorant shit bag. Read your history you prat. Read about the Indus Valley civilisation and the Persians/Egyptian/Assryians dynasties. They were great civilisations way before the UK invaded and pillaged everyone. Before that you guys did not have nothing. The tea you guys drink is from china/India. The nations favourite dish is a Asian curry or a turkish kebab whilst you guys eat mash patatoe loool. Not to mention all the other stuff people from the UK realise is all from abroad. Ignorant idiot read up history about the great civilisations of the past you will wake up that peanut size English brain of yours.
@@mohammedyaqoob7882 Govts/Big Business always been as one. They care less about us. It's Govts that have taken ppl to war & it's always the ppl who suffer. Stop fighting each other, fight your government & demand more from them.
To non racist people I apologise for my colourful language in my earlier message. But that idiot drove me to say them filthy things. To racist read my earlier message
What year was "Now" (2010?) and what year was "Then"? Also, I'm not sure what you mean by "todays cess pit". There was tremendous poverty and suffering in the East End pre-war and post-war. It has now been going through a period of regeneration and is radically improved.
Wish I could of lived in those days, its a shame there gone and will never come back its just going to get worse its been royally taken over by every nationality going hence why in recent years londoners are moving away.
Too right, bloody immigrants. The Polish and the Bulgarians and the Russians and the Australians and the Kurdish and the Turkish and the Bengalis and the Pakistanis and the West Indians and the Africans and the Huguenots and the Jews and the Normans and the Vikings and the Saxons and the Romans and the Jutes and the fucking Celts. It's been downhill ever since.
Historically illiterate. Until recently, the dominant culture in England was identifiably Anglo-Saxon. The Romans (who, apart from their roads, left little of lasting significance) left Britain and the English (i.e. the Angles, Saxons and Jutes) arrived, displacing the Britons (i.e. the Welsh), which is why we speak English (a Germanic language) and not Welsh (a Celtic language). The Normans were a small ruling elite and could not efface the English language, although the borrowing of Norman French words did create Middle English from c. 1100 (with its familiar couplets, e.g. Norman-French "mutton" v. Anglo-Saxon "sheep", etc.). Your "passing pageant" version of history implies that all waves of immigration were equally significant, culturally and ethnographically; this is not remotely true.
@talara18 erm, not sure if you know what the state of the eastend was in the 1800s, but I can assure you it was far worse than it is now, extreme poverty, disese infested slum. Its quite rosey now. Ive never had any issues there.
This is exactly who I hate East London. Very characterless For example 1:30, whats the point in demolishing a very beautiful Victorian corner shop and replacing it with an ugly shed
Well thats just ruined Frank Sinatra's song as a I kept clicking back and forth to compare pics.....we we we we'd ri ri ri ride in lim lim limousines. Felt rather sad seeing the character vanish.
No matter what your views may be, Our Country's politicians have let us down badly. Our Country today, is unrecognisable, Its a multicultural metropolis. Nothing against other nationalities living with us, side by side, But some of them are not wanted in their own Country,
That is what a global empire gets you. These fools laud themselves with their ancestors' achievements but don't want to deal with the aftermath. Bunch of deluded clowns playing the victim card.
Black men are obsessed with race mixing in the UK mix race seems to be common in the in uk and no one likes this. Racial harmony will get worse not improve.
Is the orange brick housing association at (0.44) 0:41 still owned by the church? . I like very much how you got a bicyclist in the modern picture, too; at (2.48) 2:44. You must be an artist, then ! Interesting to see the result of WWII bombing. . Cheers. from, del-boy.
Back then: "When I was 17, it was a very good year, a very good year for small town girls and soft summer nights, we hide from lights on the village greens, when I was 17" Now for me as a 17 year old today: "When I was 17, it was a very bad year, a very bad year for small town girls, and harsh summer nights, we hide from the lights, and it is not a pretty sight, gunshots everywhereeeeeee, when I was 17..." Then and Now... Part 3 :). Lol the reality of growing up in the 2010s
o OMG Mile End right now is a completely shit Is like a Public Toilet with all those people walking down the street with pijamas mile end = blocks + pijamas + fried chiken hallal Before Tower Hamlet was more elegant and it had an air of New York
@xr6lad Ok, so you have been, and spent time in the area? tourists like to visit brick lane to go shopping, or for something to eat. go for a night out in shorditch, faringdon etc. Ive stumbled back drunk many a time in the middle of the night through parts of the rougher parts, and never had any trouble, there are many smaller towns in the uk i would rather nt walk through during throwing out time.
If you're going to use comparisons between 'then', and 'now', at least choose an era that's past and stick with that era when comparing it with today. Instead you're just jumping from different 'past eras' which is not only confusing, but unhelpful and actually not that fair. Why do you show some photos of a street scene from say 1910, then use the 'then' photo in another street scene from the 1970's? It's not balanced at all. Anyway, in some of the examples there's virtually no difference at all between 'then' and 'now' (that posh terraced street 0:57 and 1:03), while in a few others, it actually looks better 'now', than 'then' (the canal scene 2:05 and 2:08) 'now' has a tree, 'then' doesn't....'now' the water probably doesn't smell, 'then' it would have stank. Sorry mate but if you're going to do something like this, at least do it abit more objectively. You're also 'conveniently' forgetting the fact that London's East End was bombed during WW2 and took a pounding, so some of the 'then' shots (if earlier than WW2) would have been destroyed by bombs - there's not much that could be done about this. Pubs that have closed are largely a result of being out priced by supermarkets and cheap off licences.
'White flight' could also be a factor. Alot moved further out into Essex (beyond Romford, Ilford, Dagenham etc). This could be another reason as to why pubs in some areas closed.......other than bring priced out by supermarkets and off licences both constantly selling beer on special offer.
It's not about time. Countries like England and America have come to be pinnacles of opportunity. They are the centre of the world, what people everywhere else see in TV. Ghettoisations are inexorable impositions when one type of race is congregated in one place. This + what you said.
I'm only here for the old cliched responses of "it was so much better back"then from teary eyed Cockneys who had it on their toes to Essex because London was a tip after the war. Much better place to live now but what would they know stuck in Essex
@trippy119 So your judgeing somewhere you have never been. I can asure you alot of eastlondon is thriving, canarywalf is the east end for f**k sake. With a large art seen, amazing nightlife, lots of nice bars and rstaraunts. Thousandsof tourist visit the so called grotty bits. The Olmpics is gonna be held in one of the most grotty bits of east london. Yes there is a fair amount of crime, drugs etc, like any major city, of which east london, through out the centrurys has been a hot spot for.
Kalergi Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi Views on race and religion In his attitudes towards race and religion, Coudenhove-Kalergi continued the work of his father. In his youth, the elder Coudenhove-Kalergi was an antisemite. He had expected to confirm his antipathy towards the Jews when he started working on his treatise Das Wesen des Antisemitismus (The Essence of Antisemitism); but, Coudenhove-Kalergi came to a different conclusion by the time he published his book in 1935. Following an ironic critique of the new racial theories, he declared that the essence of antisemitism amounted to nothing more credible than fanatical religious hatred. He traced that fanaticism to religious bigotry that originated in the promulgation of Torah under Ezra. According to the elder Coudenhove-Kalergi, Jewish religious bigotry provoked opposition from the relatively tolerant Greco-Roman polytheists, eliciting their anti-Judaic reaction. Heinrich Coudenhove-Kalergi credited the Jews with originating religious intolerance, and condemned it as a violation of genuine religious principles. He branded every sort of anti-Judaism unchristian. He further urged liberal Christians and Jews to ally in protecting both of their religions, and religion as such, against the emerging menace of secularism.[42] Despite his opposition to simplistic racial theory, Heinrich Coudenhove-Kalergi agreed that Jews are racially distinct. Although he pointed out that there is no Semitic race, because Semitic is an ethno-linguistic group, he equivocated by also remarking that the charges that Semites were uncreative were belied by civilizations formed by the Assyrians and Babylonians, who spoke Semitic languages. He further sought to defend the Jews against charges of parasitic greed and cowardice with anecdotal counterexamples of Jewish industriousness and martial courage.[43] In an interview in the first Pan-European Congress in 1926, Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi expressed the support of Jews by the Pan-European movement and the benefits to Jews with the elimination of racial hatred and economic rivalry brought by the United States of Europe.[44] In 1932 Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi composed a preface for a new edition of his father's condemnation of antisemitism, reissued by his own publishing house. In 1933 he responded to the ascendance of National Socialism by collaborating with Heinrich Mann, Arthur Holitscher, Lion Feuchtwanger, and Max Brod in writing and publishing the pamphlet Gegen die Phrase vom jüdischen Schädling (Against the Phrase 'Jewish Parasite'). In his book Praktischer Idealismus (Practical Idealism), written in 1925, he describes the future of Jews in Europe and of European racial composition with the following words:[45] The man of the future will be of mixed race. Today's races and classes will gradually disappear owing to the vanishing of space, time, and prejudice. The Eurasian-Negroid race of the future, similar in its appearance to the Ancient Egyptians, will replace the diversity of peoples with a diversity of individuals. [...] Instead of destroying European Jewry, Europe, against its own will, refined and educated this people into a future leader-nation through this artificial selection process. No wonder that this people, that escaped Ghetto-Prison, developed into a spiritual nobility of Europe. Therefore a gracious Providence provided Europe with a new race of nobility by the Grace of Spirit. This happened at the moment when Europe's feudal aristocracy became dilapidated, and thanks to Jewish emancipation. Wikipedia Barbara Lerner Spectre "I think there’s a resurgence of anti-Semitism because at this point in time Europe has not yet learned how to be multicultural, and I think we’re gonna be part of the throes of that transformation, which must take place. Europe is not going to be the monolithic societies that they once were in the last century. Jews are going to be at the center of that. It’s a huge transformation for Europe to make. They are now going into a multicultural mode, and Jews will be resented because of our leading role. But without that leading role, and without that transformation, Europe will not survive."
Ironic how your description mentions how the East End wasn't filled with animals and wasn't a cess pit back then. And yet, 3:12 evidence of animal dung splattered across the street. Much less dung in the roads of the East End nowadays I should imagine. So actually much less of a cess pit filled with animals.
I live in the East End - its one of the most exciting places to be at the moment in the UK. Nowhere in England quite like it. Seems that the moaners are the people bringing down the country if anything.
@Asapoo You fool. Tourists visit the 'grotty' bits because its like a zoo. Pple frm different lifestyles like to see what 'shit' looks like rather than have to live in it. And the Olympics are being held in the 'grotty bits' in some misguided belief that spending money will make it better and more desirable. Its a hole - funny how pple come to a country to supposedly make their life 'better' but just end up making a replica of Bombay/Mumbai or some other hole rather than clean up their act.
Rose-tinted glasses much? The "good old days" of the East End which were watermarked with rampant poverty, crime and disease; yes please, bring them back! Bring back the Old Nichol while you're at it! Those reluctant to change should just be left behind to wallow in their memories IMO.
What have all that scum in parliament done to this country I was born in 1951 and it was heaven now it's hell ,its like another planet if only all these silly leftys and young people had a brain even the so called music is crap
Loving the series. One thing. You say the area has got worse due to the immigrants? Why blame the immigrants? If you were in their shoes you'd do all you could to give your family a better life. There is money to house everyone, fund the NHS, but is all in tax havens and offshore accounts. Look at the money avoided in tax each year and the income inequality in London. Let's sort that out first then see how much of a problem these powerless poor immigrants are.
Yeah, I understand we are both making the same point about the ridiculousness of blaming all London ills on immigration. My point was to add how much immigrants have influenced (and bettered) London and England to be the country it is today.
theresuga It's fine, but I think immigration is not a force for good. It is simply a tool to lower wages etc. For instance an unlimited supply of labour means big business can offer any salary and contract as there is more people than jobs. Also putting huge minorities of poor immigrants into small towns like Luton, is a way to distract the local populace from the real problems, and create tension. Anyway the point of blame should not be immigrants but governments.
