I’ve just come across a treasure trove on You Tube of old Rank Look At Life newsreels, each ten-minutes long and looking at different aspects of London life. There are some real treats to be found, but here are a few I enjoyed when I should have been working, or at least making a cup of tea.
Members only, 1965 – inside London’s private clubs
Coffee bar, 1959 – the new world of Soho’s coffee shops
Goodbye, Piccadilly, 1967 – a portrait of Piccadilly Circus
In Gear, 1967 – an iconoclastic look at Swinging London
Top People, 1960 – the crazy world of highrise living
Shopping By The Ton, 1960 – Covent Garden, Smithfield and Billingsgate markets
Report on a River, 1963 – a love letter to the Thames
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These are brilliant!
Yoy can get these on dvd as well. I have them. Very good. Especiallly the Members Clubs one.
Wonderful aren’t they? Had seen they were available on DVD but never forked out for it.
Absolutely wonderful – a brilliant find!
There’s a superb Look At Life on supermarkets narrated by Sid James, which features a woman buying a tin of bees:
http://youtu.be/YMHjsmCjL78?t=7m55s
I just spoke to my Dad who I sent them to and he said he used to go to one of the coffee bars in the Soho coffee bars. He started waxing lyrical about the 50s as he does…
Thanks they are just lovely historical documents!
Look at the tube in the rush hour in Goodbye Piccadilly – half empty by today’s standards … you could probably get a seat if you were prepared to sit in the smoking carriage …
Love the terrible acting in the coffee bar clip. Have you read Daniel Farson’s books about Soho in the 50s? “Iron Foot Jack” pops up there as well.
Great stuff!
The Health and Safety would break into a sweat if they watched the Top People clip. The “There won’t be any traffic jams in tomorrow’s city” made me laugh.
Great Stuff Peter
I work alot at New Covent Garden at Nine Elms and love any old market footage and photos and the ‘shopping by the ton’ episode is superb I hadnt seen it before. I still remember the old market from the 60′s when I was a child. NB if anyone interested there is excellent backdrop footage of the old CG market in Hitchcocks ‘Frenzy’ which is still a very good film in its own right.
Lovely Saturday afternoon treat! Thank you.
I have a couple of ‘Look at Life’ DVDs, but not all of these are on those.
Wonderful Thank you for posting them !