BBC Archive recently posted a fantastic video about Time Out magazine in 1978.
It’s a fascinating snapshot of London past, from the references to “seedy” King’s Cross and “trendy” Covent Garden to the fact that everybody appears to be smoking, all the time. The broadcast focuses around a couple of interviews with Tony Elliott, the magazine’s handsome founder and proprietor who looks like the lost member of Genesis.
It’s remarkable to think that despite his theoretical control, the magazine’s union was powerful enough to close down publication after Elliott had the temerity of appointing his wife, Janet Street-Porter, as deputy editor. That led to a strike and management climbdown. Another strike took place after the union chapel took offence to the appointment of a new TV editor, John Wyver, as they felt the job should have gone to an internal candidate – one of whom was broadcaster and writer Jonathan Meades.
As this film relates, at this time, almost all Time Out staff – there were a few exceptions – earned the same salary, whether they were editing a section or working as a receptionist. There were also other then groundbreaking initiatives, including mandated sabbaticals and paternity leave (“Do I have to take it?” asked one soon-to-be-father). Many of the staff members featured in this footage, including recently deceased news editor Duncan Campbell, would leave Time Out in 1981 after an extended strike following an ugly dispute regarding this pay arrangement. They went on to form City Limits, while Time Out relaunched and continued to enjoy great success.
Time Out stayed in their Covent Garden office until early 1994. That means that when I first started working there in the summer of 1998 it was still very much the new place, even though it already felt thoroughly lived in. Smoking by then was reserved for the eighth floor, where the entire top floor was given over to a massive smoking area, complete with sofas, daily newspapers and views across the West End. Different times, and great ones.
The Great Wen 