Scenes of childhood B&W Photography of the UK

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

i was really taken with the photographs in this piece .... they give off such a feel for the London of my childhood i can smell it .....

[DracoM]

Totally agree. I want to see photos of those 'peaked' double-deckers still complete with 2WW white spots and mudguard surrounds.

And the old Greenline buses? Now THERE's an opportunity for en entrepreneur: cross London buses from Home County capital to capital, not the silly little routes they now take.

Who remembers the 710, 709 routes? Crawley to Amersham etc?

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

a fine essay by Tony Judt on the green buses

[mercia]

Who remembers the 710, 709 routes? Crawley to Amersham etc?

yes, one of my grannies used to visit us by taking a bus from Chesham (or Amersham) to Warlingham
goodness knows how long it used to take - no M25 of course

[Bryn]

yes, one of my grannies used to visit us by taking a bus from Chesham (or Amersham) to Warlingham
goodness knows how long it used to take - no M25 of course

But a very great deal less congestion.

Several old Greenline buses of various sizes were running around the Windsor and Slough area last weekend, also old red livery RMs and RTs, etc., http://www.amershammotorbussociety.co.uk/

Oh, and no, I am not a bus anorak. I just happen to drive an open top one for a living. Beats working.

[Nick Armstrong]

i was really taken with the photographs in this piece .... they give off such a feel for the London of my childhood i can smell it .....

Fantastic, Calum... a bit early for my childhood but they hum with nostalgia. I'm an addict for 60 films set in towns, I'm scanning the traffic (Yes! including the buses!), parked cars, adverts in the newsagents, products on the shelves, for pungent whiffs of my 60s childhood...

[amateur51]

Fantastic, Calum... a bit early for my childhood but they hum with nostalgia. I'm an addict for 60 films set in towns, I'm scanning the traffic (Yes! including the buses!), parked cars, adverts in the newsagents, products on the shelves, for pungent whiffs of my 60s childhood...[/COLOR]

Ah bri nylon shirts!

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

Ah bri nylon shirts!

ah The Sweeney!

[DracoM]

And the great thing was NO Changing buses either. Train travel may be quicker, but buses get you through without changing mid-city with all that that entails - big plus.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

ah yes but the traffic density was a mite less eh?

[Serial_Apologist]

yes, one of my grannies used to visit us by taking a bus from Chesham (or Amersham) to Warlingham
goodness knows how long it used to take - no M25 of course

Amazing coincidence, mercia!

We lived in S Kensington (known then as West Brompton, and certainly not the posh place in the 1950s it is now!). Mum had a sister living in Warlingham, and we used to pick up the Green Line at Victoria which took a route via Kennington, Brixton, Streatham and Croydon before just making it up the hill to Selsdon.

Thse Green Lines always gave me travel sickness, and for preventative purposes Mum always used to take a bag of barley sugars on the trip. (Anyone remember those?) Trams followed the same route as far as Croydon, and I well remember our being held up as a consequence of a cyclist crossing directly in front, getting his wheel caught in a tram line, and his legs being run over by our bus! On a lighter note, passengers on the return journey would indicate when they wanted to alight by alerting the conductor, who then tapped once on the glass partition directly behind the driver, and twice to signal time to move off. Sitting next to Mum in the front seat behind that partition, I quickly twigged and my six-year old sense of mischief took over. Mum said "Stop it, stop it", as quietly as she could not to attract attention, but there was no stopping me! Eventually the conductor strode up the gangway in frustration, demanding to know why the driver kept on stopping, and a ruddy great row ensued! After that we took the train!

Terrific photos Calum - yep, memories: mine triggered by 1950s movies such as Genevieve - ah, sky blue, bottle green, cadmium red and mustard brown, were there any other outside colour schemes available? - but especially the black and white griminess of The Lavender Hill Mob bring back the seediness and forever polluted visibility of post WW2 London. We lived down Redcliffe Gardens, the now south-bound extension of Earls Court Road to the embankment. Our piano tuner was appropriately named Mr Clapp; he was 90, a good age in those days, and told us he could remember Earls Court when it was still a village - hard to believe at the time, but subsequently verified in early photos of the district. Dad (b 1908) could remember horse-drawn buses and looking north across fields to the north of Ally Pally, but it's hard to make youngsters believe the roads around S Kensington were empty of parked cars in the 1950s except on football match days, and that our milk was delivered by horse-drawn milk float. He also sold delicious orange squash in half pint milk bottles, and a scrumptious cold milk chocolate drink called Lactachoc. Anybody remember that??

It's amazing how happy memories are the easiest to recall.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

well S_A if you walked up the Earls Court Rd to the High ST right then left up Campden Hill Rd you would eventually come to Peel St where i would have waved to you from the third storey of Campden Houses ....

at some point in the fifties Holland Park opened and you might have walked through that ....

[Anna]

A friend has sent me a link to the b&w photographs and memories of John Claridge, in particular of Spitalfields taken mainly during the 60s. If you scroll down to the end there are links to his photos of East End, Thames, etc., plus lots more to enjoy by clicking on the sidebar of archives. I hope it's ok to post the link here as all the photos are copyrighted?

http://spitalfieldslife.com/2012/05/22/a-few-diversions-by-john-claridge/

[Serial_Apologist]

well S_A if you walked up the Earls Court Rd to the High ST right then left up Campden Hill Rd you would eventually come to Peel St where i would have waved to you from the third storey of Campden Houses ....

at some point in the fifties Holland Park opened and you might have walked through that ....

I'll take a look next time I'm around there, Calum. Maybe stick an unofficial blue plaque up:

"Calum Da Jazbo

Born 1945

Nonconformist Scorpio, ex-smoker, now
believed to reside somewhere obscure
in the Middle Kingdom"

[Serial_Apologist]

A friend has sent me a link to the b&w photographs and memories of John Claridge, in particular of Spitalfields taken mainly during the 60s. If you scroll down to the end there are links to his photos of East End, Thames, etc., plus lots more to enjoy by clicking on the sidebar of archives. I hope it's ok to post the link here as all the photos are copyrighted?
http://spitalfieldslife.com/2012/05/...john-claridge/

Let's hope so Anna, cos they're great, so thanks!