Glimpse of history

looksee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLbPYQcUcgM

This is an interesting bit of film of London during WW2 - its a bit drawn out so you may wish to skip through it a bit. Its just old, slightly remastered film of people going about the streets.

What is interesting is the people. All very tidily dressed, quite formal. What is noticeable is the lack of children - I know a lot of them were sent out of London, but not all of them and I did not see one in the whole film. No teenagers. No casual hanging about. No overweight people - again it is wartime with rationing, but the clothes all fit, no indication that they were ever for a larger figure, and there were few new clothes available. I remember my mother dressing in that kind of style, just after the war.

Porters carrying cases and in one case a trunk on his shoulder at the railway station.

Considering the evidence of bombing, how somehow tidy it looks.

The film is in colour but in fact there is very little colour beyond greys and browns and beiges. And that's how I remember the 50's, colour didn't happen till the 60's, then it was riotous. 😀

Jellybaby_1

Very nice piece of film there Looksee, and very nostalgic to see the streets, the people, traffic and oh the lovely frocks!! All the chaps seem to wear either a suit or a uniform, lots of hats, bowlers and boaters, and the ladies so pretty in their feminine frocks, hats, gloves and pretty little handbags. The ladies looked so elegant and very few people carrying any weight, I noticed just a couple of matronly ladies who were sporting that middle-aged-spread that creeps up on us all. I almost forgot it was during the war which was a little bit before I was born. I noticed the fruit sellers, the tea ladies in the railway station pushing their crockery and tea urns. The buses came out more of a maroon colour rather than the bright red they were famous for. The soldiers at the end around 16:57 didn't look British, more American or Canadian, were not overweight but very broad and well fed looking compared to the civilians. I wonder what they thought of the British rations! I watched it all the way through, and swayed to the music, ahh Harbour Lights! Even though I was born later I always feel drawn back to the 40's and 50's fashion-wise and home decor-wise. Really nice to see that.

Red Hare

I think this is a great topic for a thread " Glimpse of History" Very interesting Looksee.