Half term holiday, shite style..

[scaryoldcortina]

October half-term, 1979, to be exact. I was 8, my parents took me and 2 of my sisters (6 and 4) to London for a week, youngest sister (11 months) stayed at home in Middlesbrough with my gran.

Now, seeing as it was 1979, middle of a depression, interest rates and inflation through the roof and my folks were trying to manage 4 kids and a mortgage on one teacher's salary we didn't get to stay at the ritz. We stayed with my uncle and his wife in their flat in Willesden Junction, and mum bought a family off-peak super saver tube/bus ticket to go explore the capital with. Oh, and we only went places that were free, took sandwiches and got wet (cos it rained all week).

 

Anyway, my dad just found a box of slides from that week, and has scanned them onto picassa, so I'll show you the ones with cars in.

Here we all are, on a CB750F2. Probably my uncle's. The yellow car was his too, but it didn't work. Behind it is my parents Austin 1300 estate, thats how we got 210 miles south...

Outside windsor castle. I think this as far as we got (it cost to get in)

Is that a lotus 'tina outside buck house? I know we didn't get in there....

Quite a few of these were taken from the top deck of a bus.

Shouldn't London have more cars in it? I remember it being really busy, but I'm struggling to find pics with cars in..

I mean, Picadilly Circus, with almost no cars! It took several more years before we got the hang of the YMCA dance.

Ah, waiting for the lights to change.

I like this one. Double parked and unloading... some things never change.

[eddyramrod]

Here we all are, on a CB750F2. Probably my uncle's. The yellow car was his too, but it didn't work.

Is that a lotus 'tina outside buck house?

 

No, it's a Triumph Herald, or possibly Vitesse, sorry. The yellow car outside Uncle's house is a Honda S800 Coupe.

 

Thanks for posting these, magnificent!

[scaryoldcortina]

I know... I was wondering how quickly someone would "spot" it. (the Honda..) The lotus tina one was a joke (white car/green stripe...)

 

Found a couple more.

British Museum car park. No zoom lens, I suspect

Some street stuff. What's the car on the pavement?

[autofive]

cracking bell bottoms young man

 

I too visited 'that there london' around that time. we stopped, with or caravan, in a lorry park on the opposite river bank to the Tower of London

 

i only have one memory of '79 London;

 

[scaryoldcortina]

aah, but by october, we had a brand-new tory government and the bins were being emptied again.

 

Sorry, no cars. Field Marshall Montgomery's field caravan. Posted mainly because of the excrutiatingly bad dummies.

[Richard]

I like how it's pissing rain in most of the pictures- proper holiday weather.

 

I had a budget holiday in London in 1981 or it might have been 1980. My dad was already down there for some work reason and I was put on the bus alone, aged 11 or 12, in Dundee. I think the ticket was £5. We stayed with some family friends and then we hitched a ride back to Kirkcaldy with a school trip that was organised by a teacher friend of his.

 

The one thing that sticks in my mind about that holiday was seeing the famous Iranian Embassy window.

[chaseracer]

Amazing lack of road markings, considering the dazzlingly multi-coloured shit we have everywhere now...

[scaryoldcortina]

Just remembered one more thing about this holiday - the 1300 broke down on the way home and the AA badge on the grille was left by the previous owner.. I remember mum explaining to me that the having the badge didn't mean we could ring them from the box, even if I DID have a key for it.

 

One side of the hydrolastic let go somewhere in lincolnshire, we hobbled lob-sidedly to a garage, best they could do was let the fluid out of the other side, and point to the bit in the manual that says "the car can be driven at up to 30mph on depressurised suspension".

 

So, we drove 150 miles at 30mph on the bumpstops. The 1300 struggled on for only another couple of months before failing a MoT on pretty much everything. They replaced it with a lada 1200.

[Lord Sterling]

Great stuff, thanks for putting them up Scary. I love street secenes from the past, just shows how tidier and simple things were back then.

 

I used to live not too far from Willesden Junction in Willesden lane back in 2001.

[ChinaTom]

Excellent pics - brought back a lot of memories for me as well. I would have been a few months younger than you at that time (and indeed this time as well I suppose), and had similar budget holidays although London was close enough for a day trip for us in XRT801S, Austin Allegro 1750HL.

[seth]

Fabulous pictures I love how several of them seem to be of "nothing", simply the street scene.

 

Lack of road markings might be partly due to the wetness of the road making them difficult to see but also due to some of the locations. I think The Mall up to B-ham Palace is still basically free of markings. MArble Arch (where the National Express Coach is also may not have markings at that point still. At least if it dies then everyone (myself included) ignores them and just tries to aim in the right vague direction without hitting anyone else.

[scaryoldcortina]

Fabulous pictures I love how several of them seem to be of "nothing", simply the street scene.

 

Lack of road markings might be partly due to the wetness of the road making them difficult to see but also due to some of the locations. I think The Mall up to B-ham Palace is still basically free of markings. MArble Arch (where the National Express Coach is also may not have markings at that point still. At least if it dies then everyone (myself included) ignores them and just tries to aim in the right vague direction without hitting anyone else.

 

while avoiding a transit luton unloading matresses? Some of the "nothing" shots have a family story... like this one

The woman in the red jacket with the little girl (centre) is my mum and 4 year old sister. The bus behind is a no 25 (victoria and euston? I don't know, it was 30 years ago..), she got a model of a no 25 from a tat shop on St paul's plaza earlier that day, and we had spent all day looking for a no 25 to photograph her next to. I suppose you had to be there...

 

anyhow, a couple more shots (no cars, sorry)

River shite

what are the odds of just turning up at tower bridge and they are opening it so a warship can go past? Way cool! (HMS Reclaim, oldest ship in the navy, on her passing out)

Looks like a still from "Brannigan"

Thames Television logo anyone?

[PatrickMcRebel]

I spot a gold RR Silver Shadow II

 

It's nice how the London Taxis haven't changed all that much in shape.

 

Thanks for posting!

 

Patrick.