Look at Life: The Market Place
Whilst we’re enjoying our egg and chips down the local caff, we may as well do a spot of shopping.
This short made by the Rank organisation in the 60s features professional lad Sid James showing off London’s markets.
Covent Garden, Portobello Road, Petticoat Lane, Berwick Street, the new supermarkets – they’re all there. You just wouldn’t necessarily recognise them…
‘The Market Place’ from Look at Life
March 9th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
This is a gem! How the hell did you find it?! Brought a lump to my throat… just how I remember so many of our classic markets… The charm has gone forever now though. Wonderful days being dragges round London as a kid by my dad, a wonderful view of people bottoms and legs…
Piley
March 9th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
Thanks for stopping by Piley. This is brilliant, isn’t it?!
It is from a DVD series which compiles a load of the Rank Look at Life shorts – http://www.amazon.co.uk/Look-At-Life-Swinging-London/dp/B000E6UMFS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1236638811&sr=8-1
There’s also a fab features on coffee bar culture, ‘working in a high rise’ and the revolving restaurant at the top of the BT Tower – sadly not yet on youtube. Well worth a purchase.
March 10th, 2009 at 10:59 am
This is literally right up my street – a mate of mines older brother ran a stall on Petticoat Lane, and aged 12 we would help out sometimes – this was around Rod’s ‘Do You Think I’m Sexy’ period – when the stall of satin trousers and sequined boob tubes was cleaned out every sunday.
Also my Nan lived just round the corner from Ridley Road Mkt, which always seemed to stayed open late and the stalls were strung with exposed bulbs..
What a great clip and as Piley says, so many great memories.
Also no stalls selling dodgy batteries and knock-off razors.
I can feel a post about indoor Markets
March 10th, 2009 at 11:00 am
….brewing up
March 10th, 2009 at 11:50 am
That’s pure gold. I’m with Piley on the ‘lump in the throat’ factor. And I love Sid’s saucy commentary – “Berwick Street; now, that’s mostly for women. I get down there sometimes, see if I can pick up something fancy in nylons…” Well, Berwick Street would certainly have been the place to do that. There are still a number of ‘models’, plying their trade in the rooms above the market. Something fancy in nylons, indeed.
Petticoat Lane was where we went on a Sunday morning, on the 25 bus. A salt beef sandwich in Blooms Kosher Deli, and all was well with the world.
March 10th, 2009 at 10:15 pm
Well, I’m a bit taken aback by your comments. That clip feels like another world to me, not really lived experience – but clearly it was real and it somehow meant something different. For me, I can’t even imagine any non-food market that’s worth going to these days. I can’t stand any of them (Spitalfields record sellers excepted).
March 11th, 2009 at 12:02 am
What a coincidence. I just mentioned this DVD at Channel Mondo. My favourite section is the post office tower. The whole collation though, is a lovely slice of social history, with clips you don’t normally see.
March 11th, 2009 at 11:16 am
I know – I saw that! I’ve just been watching the DVD this weekend and love it. My favourite is probably the one about working in a highrise building – I never realised that work could be so exciting!
March 11th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
That is so cool. I really enjoyed watching it. Thanks for posting it.
March 11th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
It’s great isn’t it Keith – it’s a fabulous glimpse of another era.
March 12th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
That video says it’s ‘no longer available’, so it’s just as well I own that DVD. it’s a gem, especially the Shell building one. London was so exciting back then, sigh.
March 13th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
Must be back up again ;) A cracking ten minutes, exactly what Youtube was made for. Like you Cocktails, it’s something I have no real experience of, Paddy’s Market excepted. Even then, it was somthing I never experienced until I was left in the care of a family my parents knew one weekend.
March 14th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
I’ve just come back from our local street market Ill Man, and although its good for buying tatties, water melons and pot scourers, it just doesn’t cut it.
I suppose if you’re looking for 100% flammable size 20 flowery nighties, fake Rolexes and plastic ivy, it’s very good though.