Living at Thamesmead, 1974
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- čas přidán 12. 08. 2012
- A semi-fictional account of a couple who live in the Thamesmead estate. This film shows the architecture and landscaping of Thamesmead and the everyday lives of the residents. Includes sequences showing social activities, sporting events, educational and health facilities.
Starring Julie Dawn Cole and Spencer Banks as the young couple.
Date: 1974
Reference No: GLC/DG/PRB/11/032/001
Collection: GLC
This film is part of the collections at London Metropolitan Archives, a public research centre which specialises in the history of London. If you haven't visited an archive before, it's a little bit like a library but with one key difference; the majority of items in an archive are unique, handwritten documents which cannot be seen anywhere else.
We care for and provide access to the historical archives of businesses, schools, hospitals, charities and all manner of other organisations from the London area. With 100 km of books, maps, photographs, films and documents dating back to 1067 in our strong rooms, we're proud to provide access to one of the finest city archives in the world - you could call it the memory of London.
This channel provides highlights from our film and video collections and films which we have created. Find out more at www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma and explore our film clips, photographs, maps and prints of London at www.londonpicturearchive.org.uk
Oh my goodness! I've just seen my dad at the TCA meeting (at 18:17). He is the dark-haired balding chap in the grey/green jacket sitting on the left of the screen directly opposite Patrick Forbes. My dad died in late 1974 at just 46 years old so it is amazing to see him in this clip. And our house, 1 Redpoll Way, is in the background as the two characters walk up the walkway (19:20).
IS your dad the one in the middle of the left side table ?
That's awesome!
Your dad was awfully young when he passed.
Pretty interesting that like ( not his death obviously)
RIP to your dad
My nan lived in Thamesmead sometime during the 70's and 80's. I would have been 4 when this was filmed. Lovely reading all the comments about people's relatives in the film. Of course it's changed now, so has London, much more multi-cultural and I would imagine that nannying health and safety laws, would prevent a lot of what is seen near the beginning of the film, being doable now anyway. Kids riding and running around on concrete, oh no can't have that lol. For kids nowadays, staying in, is the new going out to play, with so much available in the home anyway.
Amazing trip down memory lane. Was great to see my dad Ricky O'Brien playing darts in the Pyramid club. Great memories and what a lovely place then and even now! Thamesmead you are always in my heart.
Brilliant video, Lived there for all of my childhood, loved the place and so many fantastic memories
It must have been amazing for a while to live in this brave new world. Before it all came crashing down.
This looked amazing. , it was a city for the future and still should be . Such a shame lack of funds and maintenance ruined it .
You are perfectly right imho. Thamesmead should have been the ultimate guide for any 'planned' city or part of a city. (Look at the quality and beauty of the architecture!) But as you mentioned, a lack of funds, a lack of proper maintenance BUT most of all: that they (Greater London Council) didn't execute the plans as they where originally ( bridge over the Thames, one or two connections with the underground, a shopping center, the marina, etc,etc ) THAT turned Thamesmead into a non beloved, non wanted 'sink' estate...
I spent the first 22 years of my life in Thamesmead and then we moved away to Suffolk in 2010.
Andrew Chapman
I don't think any of the originals live there anymore
It looked an idyllic place to live back then sadly it just declined into poverty we called it the Concrete jungle!! I love watching these archive videos and wish was still in those times seemed so much simpler then people evened happy with what they had!!!
very well said ,i lived in binsey walk in 1999 loved it
All changed once the boat people arrived I think. Plumstead steadily became more like a ghetto too. It’s the people who make or break a place. I was there from around 1972 at 5 years old. Loved it. Amazing place to grow up.
4:41 the same shot as used by Stanley Kubrick for ''A Clockwork Orange'' and before The Lakeside Pub too.
I’ve been there
Its dwn to local councils who build these places to keep them updated and not to let them become run down im sure it was paradise to the people that moved there when it was first built
Thank you for sharing this. I was amazed to see my dad 'Richard (Ricky) O'Brien' @ 5:28 (the man in the blue shirt). Anyone who used to drink in the 'Pyramid Club' would remember him in the 1970s before and after his unfortunate accident in 1977. He has now passed away (9.7.01) but I'm pleased to see him at his prime in this historic video.
Its amazing how this place has changed
Yes. It was a pretty awful place in the 80s and 90s apparently. It's okay now, and it was okay when it first started.
The Glock family got so angry they went out and started a gun factory.
Hahaha.
I use to live in thamesmeas back in 2008 till 2013
The old flats been knock down and all this in the film has gone
It really have change
Dude why did southmere lake look so good back then LOL. It's not bad now but damn that was like an actual community
It looked like such a nice place to be. I'd love to see a comparison of then to now.
It's not too bad now. It was absolutely hell in the 80s and 90s apparently.
RIP, Original Thamesmead.
Of all movies filmed in Thamesmead, including Clockwork Orange, this is by far the creepiest knowing how the development eventually turned out.
It was left to rot and sold on to an association who also left it to rot and is now in the hands of private developers for gentrification !!!
Funny thing is this was filmed about 3 years after Clockwork Orange.
That grey concrete was already looking a bit stained then.
Interesting, I've never seen a production that features actors and "non-actors" together.
Why didn’t this work? Two reasons, and this applies to any of these estates: the people who live there need to care and the council or housing association need to care. If one of these pillars is missing, it goes downhill very quickly.
I remember the barn owls, heronry's , pipistrelle bats, water shrews and voles, Chris Packham some years later rescuing them, bullets and mortar shells in the moats while looking for newts, grass snakes, the natural life that had taken over the Arsenal was awesome, then this concrete jungle...
Lived there 75 to 96 mangold way . Mum lived there till her passing in 2008 . Brilliant place to grow up. Playing Run outs ,40 40 and bulldog in the squares with all your mates i Fell off the elterskelter at tavy bridge playground when i was 8 had 7 stitches in my cheeck scared for life . What would have been good was to show thr adventure playground by southmere lake .no matter where you are in the world you can allways tell a thamesmeadean . We are unique
Me and my wife met in the Pyramid Club over 30 years ago. The people have changed and its not the same.
This is SO beautiful! I've never seen anything this beautiful in my whole life! How could they destroy it?
Only 3 years after "Willy Wonka" and MAN Julie changed in that short time.
🫧 😋 🍫 🍭 🐦:I GOT A BAD FEELING ABOUT U!!!😊
Loved it there. Redbull should go talent hunting there. Almost everyone was Motor crazy in my day. Me included.
lol, I wonder if my nan saw this before moving to thamesmead from the old kent road in the late 70's?
the film , beautiful thing was filmed there
I love the open space & I guess its been built up more now.....
Quite a close knit Community...
Just like when i was a kid on the Estate in Yorkshire....
Things where So different & lots of us have find memories...
Bet some of those Flats & Masonetts where quite roomy...
Kind of Groovy😊
I guess lots of people will of bought up the places..
Nice to live away from the big smoke & some parts of the Thames is quite nice...
Thanks for uploading my request.
Amazing to think this was less than 50 years ago.
Unfortunately, the only other Thamesmead film we have is an earlier version of Thamesmead 70, made in 1967/8. In terms of content there is no real difference, except that the earlier version obviously doesn't show the improvements made by the production of later version.
4:41
That's where the Flat Block Marina scene was recorded in A Clockwork Orange, i guess?
My family moved here in '72 when I was just 6. It was every bit as good as this and I have nothing but great memories of living here. We lived on Maran Way and I think that some of this was filmed very close by. We moved out in 1977 which, by the sounds of it, was probably a lucky escape as I've been led to believe that the place rapidly went to pot in the years following. Such a shame that so much potential went to waste. It really was a great place to live and they had very high standards for potential tenents. If only they'd maintained those standards, Thamesmead might have become a beacon of what's possible with good planning.
Wow what a snapshot back in time, people arnt acting like theyre in 1974 they ARE in 1974...splendid
This video expresses the fun times people were experiencing In Thamesmead. But sadly it’s going now. 24:10 already pulled down. Sad
I think that a "a clockwork orange was filmed in this estate
That's exactly where Alex threw his brothers into the lake!
Oh what a beautiful utopian, egalitarian paradise....the 'New Jerusalem' no less!!
What's it like these days?
It's been pulled down. The houses are worth a fortune now because of the rail link
It's been demolished. The area rebuilt and gentrified.
Thamesmead was a great place to live in the 70s and early 80s .not much trouble but .its very different now sadly .this when people were proud to move into a council house and make the most of it . I guess family values existed then .
That's because it wasn't rampantly infested with 3rd world masses that are genociding us.
1973 Thamesmead, fantastic! Apparently it's not like this anymore which is a shame. What went wrong?
They let humans live there. Guaranteed to fuck a place up!
@@devally2432 There are humans living in the Barbican estate, but it seems to be very nice there, even now.
Thamesmead before the change
What change did you have in mind?
The people who first moved in, and lived there for about 10 years, knew how to conduct themselves. What interest me is why the next generation were so badly behaved by comparison. Maybe they were given too much freedom and they used it in bad ways.
Where are the travellers driving their horse drawn carriages down the street?
Where is this place??!! Its like a paradise!!
Trust me, ur mind will change seeing it now
Aaah....when it was all clean
New looking & safe to walk the streets without fear ....
RIP London 😮
I wonder why it all went wrong after this era ....😮
A brutalist paradise 😍😍😍
The height of modernity when it was built , cool looking buildings and right on the river .
The sad thing is most if not all that you are watching is gone the doctors surgery, tavey bridge itself, along with the shops, pyramid club Bisney walk Coraline walk the play area pulled down.
Yes I loved living there from 1969 to 1980 great place to grow up went back shocked to see so much gone .
My Father Arthur Norton drunk in the pyramid club mostly Thursday nights and run the Children’s Saturday morning picture show.
It is actually terrifying how it looks today compared to how it looked back then. I'm actually speechless. Back then it looked like (dare i say it) a nice place to live. Nowadays it looks like Pripyat's little sister.
Please, someone tell me, what happened to the area? Given the fact that I can see elements such as the children's play park I can only assume the council stopped funding to keep it nice/more and more homes were built in the area ruining whatever 'atmosphere' there was ?
Great that someone has argued that the D.L.R should now bridge across to Thamesmead. Like the both the Lewisham & the Woolwich tunnel links.
Crossrail will be useful for people who want to travel to either Canary Wharf or centrally westwards. By 2018-20 completion date.
A new river crossing is needed a.s.a.p by 2025.
OMG there is me at 2 years old at church of the cross tap dancing at 2 years old going in to hiding sooo embarrassing my bit is at 12 mins 20 secs pmsl
I've just seem my dad too! (See my comment on here). He died in 1974.
I grew up in Abbey Wood when Thamesmead was new. It seemed to have been designed for hooligans, with boot-level lighting on the walkways. Between where I lived and Thamesmead was the caravan site, from where feral kids terrorised us. People look back on those days with rose-coloured glasses. It really wasn't so great.
good to have seen Mr Seal lol after all these years..... how is Begoña?
+JUANOLIVARES i heard they divorced..
Do you have any more Thamesmead Videos?
13:19 Father Jim 🌷😊 Do you know he went on to become Bishop of Bath&Wells, and so on. Shame he is gone, he was a fab family/community priest 👍
When dreams out reach reality... a positive future was thrown away by bad decisions and short termism, there was so much promise in Thamsemead.
The main problem was they started to use places like Thamesmead to house drug addicts, ex-criminals, hooligans, etc.
Hi Rachel/Darren,
Thank you for posting about your dad, this is amazing. Do you recognise anyone else in the video? Friends of your dad, for instance?
best,
LMA
I grew up in Thamesmead around this time - I recognise a number of people in it. The teacher is Jeff Seal, who taught at Riverside. The vicar at 13:47 is Jim Thompson, who subsequently became the Bishop and Stepney and later the Bishop of Bath and Wells. The guy who appears to be the chair of the meeting (which was probably the Thamesmead Community Association) at 19:01 is Steve Chantrell. The man who mentions rent controls (to Steve's left) was called Melvin... but I can't remember his surname.
thamesmead is grimey now
Riley Schrieber really? Haven’t been near that area in a while!
What do you mean "now"....its always been like that
To me, living in those postwar estates only seems enjoyable
In the late 80s and 90s. Life seems so much more boring in these kinds of estates before that, what did people even do in those towers blocks in the 70s? You didn’t have the novelty gadgets, tv and music you had in the 90s which would have fit well with that grimey tower block estate feel and create a recipe for nostalgia if you get where I’m coming from!!
I get exactly where your coming from
People did things with other people, like holding conversations with each other, and playing games and sports. You don't need "stuff" to entertain yourself, you can do it with other people, like human beings have been doing for thousands of years.
Good point, I think expectations were lower back then, and also people were more sociable in public then they are nowadays.
They used the community centre , pub , church , shopped locally .
Is this town/estate still standing?
Julie Dawn Cole as played Veruca Salt. In Charlie & the Chocolate factory.
Por que hay comentarios tan recientes?
12:20 is my mum :)
yup lol
Pick a winner 🤣
Lived there from 75 till 80...Disraeli close....👍👍
What happened ?
If you would like to see more on Thamesmead visit/search for the facebook group - Thamesmead Stage 3 - SE28
Thamesmead is the the cheapest area in south london to buy a place at the moment
Is it true they have knocked down stage one the original thamemead buildings in this film? i lived in neighbouring abbeywood .
jazzlad1970 yep all gone Tay Bridge and surrounding area is now new blocks. Total toilet.
Yeah it's not an improvement it's just an expensive shithole now. I went back a few weeks ago for a laugh (parents live in Bexleyheath, sister lives in Belvedere and works in Erith) couldn't believe the house prices round there now, you'd have to pay me to live there
@@clare2401 There mostly forien who pay silly price for a house, they dont know what it's realy like there.
"Look, what is this flower growing in ? It's not soil.." "Shit, sir?.."
This is so much better than where I grew up. Bijlmer, Amsterdam. Same idea but uglier.
Lookit them flairs !
at 4:37 is that where Stanley Kubrick filmed part of Clockwork Orange?
Yes Binsey Walk
That's a bit mean, using a guinea pig as a live roulette table !
This film is the prequel to Logan's Run.
i can hear G F Handel at the begining. Water music - 3. Adagio e staccato
Is that verka salt lol in this little movie ..?
Are any of these people genuine Thamesmeadians? Or just a coach load of actors come to make an advert to sell the place ?
Thought so Veruca Salts?
Tyler Vanner Julie Dawn Cole
Tyler Vanner
I was a resident o fThamesmead and most of the people in it actually lived there. I am in the film.
Is she the same actress who played verruca in the first charlie and the chocolate factory? They look so alike 😂
That is correct, Julie later went on to play a nurse in the medical drama "ANGELS" .
That bird guy reminds me of Joe Wilkinson
15:41
I'm glad I'm not the only even in 2020
Concrete jungle forever. Thameamead will always be a poor man's place full of pikeys these days
Charlton CEC Hate the place.
A lost dream, the idealism of mid century modernity is sadly long gone. Shame really.
end times story my friend...
Ordinary people have to take some of the blame as well as politicians. They became cynical about life and that always makes things worse in the long run. People decided to give up on religion, standards, patience, politeness, fair play, etc, and instead chose narcissism, hedonism, selfishness, impulsiveness, etc. And it wasn't all the fault of politicians, it was also the free choice of ordinary people. Now life is shit in places like Thamesmead.
Think of all the new and exciting modernities you have gained instead: terror attacks, acid attacks, rapes, drug dealing, robberies, assults,...Diversity at it´s best.
@@ajs41 there are a lot of pyramid accentuate in this has anyone noticed?
The most important thing is the attitude that people have. You can have physical surroundings that are actually pretty bad but if people have the right approach to life they can overcome it. Conversely, you can have a relatively nice physical environment but if people have an bad attitude it won't work. For example, in East Asian places like Singapore and Hong Kong millions of people live in tiny flats in tower blocks, but they're mostly in a fantastic condition and state of repair because most of the people have the right attitude to living in that sort of environment.
You'll like it, no you really will. No, you don't understand, you WILL like it.
Did those flares need a licence?! And did I spy Richard Rogers in that residents meeting? Personally I think Thamesmead looked fine, obviously something went wrong with implementation and development.
i have worked loads of times over there, up on the roofs
Gosh it was easy to get a flat.
Is that the actress who played Veruca Salt?
Yes
That's her out of Charlie and The Chocolate Factory
I have just been ther today. A lot of it has been demolished. Tavy bridge has gone and also Biney way. Peabody(the owners of the estate now) are going to make a killing off this estate like no one can even imagin, it is being ripped to bits and new affordable(LOL) housing is being built. When crossrail starts watch the affordable housing become minimum £750,000 affordable(LOL). The entire system is corupted in London due to the developers controlling all the land. Just walk round it and see the money crushing the poor and there way of life. Feckin Thatcher what an idiot she was.
What happens now if a young couple put there name down for a flat?
you wait 20 years, there are none , they all got sold
Not if you’re foreign , you get one within a few months 😡😡
Sad, Thamesmead could of been a thriving community but started declining around the mid to late 1980s I would say. And now its all been pulled down.
25:23 You can see the guy started to regret it immediately.
Bet it doesn’t look like that now !! 😢
came here cause im a fan of willy wonka and the chocolate factory (one of my favorite movies), saw that one of the girls from that was in this so i thought id give it a try.
yup i dont see any trees
glory days
Is this trying to encourage teenage pregnancies. LOL!!!
She reminds me of Veruca Salt.
Wonderful, but where's all the bloody smoking?
Kids, don't listen to your parents.
Did she play the horrible kid in willy wonkas chocolate factory
Veruca Salt - played by Julie Dawn Cole.