Saw these on BBC London website, a series of colour photos of East End London, Stan has already posted one above and below is the link to the rest of the series..... please log in to view this image http://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-43141667
It was a bit grim for sure, but then most of London was in the 1960's, it was after all only 15 - 20 years after the 2nd world war ended when those photo's were taken.......
Remember going to White Hart Lane a few times in the late 60's early 70's with my uncle and cousin, both originally from the East End as was my Mother, who were Spurs supporters and whilst queuing up at the turnstiles a seller would come around with bags of Percy Dalton peanuts........ I did enjoy the game in 1973 when we beat them 3-0 playing in the wonderful red/white Feyernord strip.......
Tried to add a YouTube clip of these 4 goals...and failed! I did - share - embed - and copied the link and pasted it Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?!
I remember being taken to a West Ham match around the same time. Then, it was the East End of the Kray Twins and their ilk, and it held a dark fascination for me. Went back to a game about 10 years ago expecting to fins something similar, and was amazed to emerge from the underground into an Oriental Bizarre. Bright, vibrant and lively, market stalls all the way up to the ground, I could have been in Delhi or Lahore! The old grey, shadowy East End gone for good...
I remember going to speedway at both Hackney, the old dog track and at West Ham, the Custom House stadium and thinking what a bleak area East London was, that was the late 60s and early 70s. I was at Upton Park for a match possibly 1973 and it was so packed you could only see the other end of the pitch and had to jump up and down when there was goalmouth action at our end of the ground. Leyton Orient in the early 80s was probably the biggest shytehole of the lot so all-in-all there wasn't much going for the eastend in those days...
Orient's ground from the 70's or maybe the 60's looking at those parked cars...... please log in to view this image
They must have improved it when I went there, it was 81 maybe 82 and I was behind a goal that was covered with that corrugated tinny stuff they used to use back then. The match finished 1-1... Funnily enough when I was in Waterford in 1977 I saw a match at their old ground Kilcohan Park and that had a similar sort of 'cowshed' terrace covered in the same stuff...
Photo of HQ from 1968 and the building of the South Africa Road Stand...... please log in to view this image
