Carnaby Street - when London was so colourful and cool in the 60s

Love it. Thanks.

You're welcome, Snazzy.

Love it! That was a fun time...thanks OP. :)

My grandmother moved to England in the sixties from the US. She said, “The first thing I did when I moved to England was shorten my skirts!”

America was a bit behind when it came to the mini skirt.

I was down there in '74 for the King Tut exhibit.

Bought a couple of Indian cheese cloth smocks with embroidery which was all the rage.

America was big into hot pants in 1970 as I remember.

Actually, Swinging London was fueled by American money and enthusiasm. Even the term Swinging London was an American invention.

In what way is it now differently lively?

It's not just fashion focused now - there are tons of cafes with tables outside and there's a fab kind of outside food court (see link) which is really good with good restaurants and a good atmosphere in general. Quite cruisey, gay & str8.

It must have been a fun time to be alive!

At least in the UK, in the US the Vietnam War and race relations were about to get extremely nasty.

The USA had the 70s.

Gary must've wanted to see Big Ben.

That Lucy in London thing is so peculiar - some old lady jumping around like an idiot.

I know you see this on Youtube, but where do these people who download, find such crazy, obscure footages? That was bizarre.

I sent the link to my grandmother to look at. She loved it and said it brought back lots of memories so thanks for sharing, OP. She says it was, “Very fun and very wild. It was like no where else I had ever seen. Maybe it was like that in San Francisco, but I happened to be in London. It was fun to be on the edge and observe with [one of her British friends.] Sometimes I’d go just by myself— I felt safe. You know how when you are young and you feel like you can manage whatever.”

The guy in the red pants in the third picture makes me think of Buddy Cole.

Soundtrack for OPs pics.

[quote]The guy in the red pants in the third picture makes me think of Buddy Cole.

He was called Mike d'Abo - he was a famous singer

Quite cute

Many of the English girls are quite pretty; not a single English guy is doable.

1967, the song Ringo said was the best of the 60s. Robin Trower showing a notable VPL in his tight white trousers.

Is that the Duchess of Cambridge in those Burgundy shorts on the left?

It was a smashing time!

Fun thread!

All The Gear Carnaby Style (1966)

Carnaby Street Undressed (Trailer)

Petula Clark...

It has a very young Twiggy in a couple of scenes R13.

Sort of like seeing your grandmother drunk.

R22 that was Anna Quayle and Rita Tushingham in the clip.

Carnaby 1968.

I once posted this, from my personal archive, to a "60s London" Facebook group and turns out the guy in this pic was a member - he said "That's ME!" he hadn't seen the pic in YEARS!

Better dressed than now - more suits and effort made in general.

No true Londoner would ever go near Carnaby Street these days. It's an embarrassing tourist trap.

[quote]No true Londoner would ever go near Carnaby Street these days. It's an embarrassing tourist trap.

Not true...it's become a destination again.

R33 No it hasn't. In 40 years I've never heard any Londoner say 'Let's go to Carnaby Street'. I've been drinking, eating and shopping in and around Soho since I was a teenager and it's just not somewhere that's ever come up. The restaurants and shops are all chains aimed at tourists who think Carnaby Street is cool.

Even bloody Covent Garden is cooler than Carnaby Street, and I type that through gritted teeth.

Same here, r34. Carnaby Street was overrated in the 60s and 70s and is corporate cookie-cutter high street chain store shit today.

The coolest part of the pics were the classic cars. A very cool Jaguar Mark 2 looking sexxy as hell, a nice little Triumph Herald, and TR2 (?), some Minis and a sweet little Alfa Romeo Duetto Spider.

OK - you're not getting it.

Carnaby isn't some trendy destination, but it's a buzzy lively street again and that Kingley Court is a great place for drinks or dinner. It has a young fun vibe

[quote]Even bloody Covent Garden is cooler than Carnaby Street

No.

R37 OK, I get that you're not a Londoner. No self-respecting Londoner is going to go to Carnaby Street for anything. Like no Londoner would ever set foot in Leicester Square if they can help it.

To give you an example, someone I knew who was from a provincial town once organised drinks at Two Floors, one of the 'buzzy and lively' bars advertised on the Carnaby Street website cos he thought it was cool. He'd obviously googled 'cool bars London' or something and got the kind of tourist traps you'd expect. No-one went.

Interesting to see the photos as a group.

I think I might have hated it, or half-hated it, though it's difficult to project oneself backward to see a thing with fresh eyes not colored by the present. Anti-fashion or retro fashion trends agree with me better than the "look at me, I'm the shock of the new" look. It all looks a little too self-conscious and as though the clothes are wearing the people.

VIV? VIV? WHOA VIV! I'M TRIPPIN'!

The Lucllle Ball in London is an embarrassment...lol.

There was a similar stretch of gay men’s “gear” stores along a 10 block stretch of 8th Ave. in NYC’s Chelsea along with gay hair salons, restaurants, porn, novelty and card shops, and gay centric gyms. I used to love the displays that changed weekly and live, in person cruising outside of them as well as Big Cup coffee shop. One of my favorite things to do was go buy a new shirt when I got paid.

Then smartphones appeared and Google moved into the neighborhood- ruining everything. They’re all gone now, sigh.

I love that "double-breasted jacket with an ascot" look. I think I'll wear that to the Stop-N-Shop this afternoon. Does anybody have some platform shoes I can borrow?

Best pics of Barry Gibb I’ve ever seen!

I would have loved living in swinging 60s London. All that style, all that sex, all that music.

R44: they mostly look like they don’t bathe very often. I’d pass on the sex.

R44 I dunno - I’m sure some of them bathed...

Jaguar Mark 2: i want one.

R46 I’d need to do a smell test since the visual is not looking....fresh.

R17..Omg...haven't heard that in ages..probably the 60s. Paul McCartney is in the video..he and Lennon wrote that song. I didn't know that. That tidbit was in the comment below the video.

[quote][R37] OK, I get that you're not a Londoner. No self-respecting Londoner is going to go to Carnaby Street for anything. Like no Londoner would ever set foot in Leicester Square if they can help it.

Mary - I've been a Londoner since 1963, you cunt.

you get NOTHING.

[quote]he and Lennon wrote that song.

He wrote it...Lennon did not.

He wrote a few songs for other acts at the time.

This was another one and was also a hit in the USA.

[quote]I was down there in '74 for the King Tut exhibit.

Also in London in '74 to see my father who had gone there from the States and joined a hippie commune. I was a teen coming out as gay. I explored Biba with their cool cosmetics and "tacky furniture" floor and ate at the Great American Success hamburger restaurant. At night I hooked up with a guy at the Sombrero Club. When you're that young, everything is kind of magical and London was it for me. I went home and came out.

When I was a kiddie in 70s London - London as the centre of 60s cool always baffled me...in the 70s everything was America and New York, especially....films, music, everything.

It's sad that the "scenes" of years ago...Carnaby Street, The Village NYC, Haight Ashbury SF...which were fun and creative, bohemian and a unique innocence of living life (well...later some took a dark turn) are no longer. There is nothing like that today. Now, it all corporate, technological and expensive. There's a lot more violence, too. The Age Of Innocence...alas..

...*it's all corporate...^^

[quote]and ate at the Great American Success

The Great American Disaster!

It was the forerunner of The Hard Rock cafe, opened by the same guy. The Hard Rock, in the beginning was a very cool joint, believe it or not

I think there actually was a "Disaster" and a "Success." The 70s were magical because you could hitchhike everywhere. The first time I made it out to SF from NY I fell in love with the place. Everything about it was so different from what I was used to on the East Coast. By the time I was grown and moved there, it was kind of sad. There were no cool gay hippies. Everyone was in muscle shirts, mustaches, and leather.

I was staying up in Finchley and there was a Wimpy's. Different. Brit idea of McDonald's

I used to ditch school, and hitchhike down to the shore in NJ...with friends, back in the 70s. You would never do that today. I haven't seen a hitchhiker in years. Back then, everyone had their thumb out.

We were obsessed with American stuff in the 70s...everywhere was.

You don't have "fashionable cities" anymore.

It's all due to money - many of the fashionable shops and restaurants of 60s London were cheap, now they always cost a bomb and you see the Beckham's photographed coming in and out

Interesting that a picture of the Carnaby Street cottage was included.

If England was into America in the 70s, America was TOTALLY into England in the 60s. I was a kid but I remember the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, "She Loves You" and all the screaming girls. They had screamed for Elvis in the 50s, but they fainted for Paul McCartney in the 60s. Then it was just a total takeover. We all wanted to ferry across the Mersey and Twiggy took over the modeling world.

All white. Nope.

[quote]If England was into America in the 70s, America was TOTALLY into England in the 60s.

It's true.

& in the 50s it was all about Italy & Rome...and the Americans arrived to cash in.

Sharon Tate (with a British accent) took Merv Griffin on a tour of Carnaby Street.

This video really captures the mood of Swinging London.

Julie Christie - the face of Swinging London talks about...Swinging London.

When I was growing up on Long Island all I wanted was to buy an MG or a Jag XK-E. I eventually did get both of those cars and they were the worst! 70s American cars (the Pinto and the Vega) were bad and had no style and the British cars were gorgeous but unreliable. The saying was Jag owners bragged about their loaners.

Beatniks (50s) + Mods (early to mid 60s) = Hippies (late 60s)

1973: Brought back a fab lavender leather pair of boots from (apparently) a now-defunct Carnaby Street shoe store. Nothing like them here (PA).

R69, I've dreamt for 6 decades of owning an XK-E! You have my undying envy for owning one, for however long and for whatever pain in the arse it was!

I would simply stare at one for hours!

R59, The "correctly ungrammatical" expression is, for NJ, "down the shore."

I miss fun fashion - it died about 20 years ago. Everything is so serious and repetitive now.

...and sloppy ^^.. no effort anymore in style, just comfort. You even see people in PJs sometimes.

Was it like St marks place in the eighties or bleecker street in the seventies?

[quote]Was it like St marks place in the eighties

There were a few good cafes and stores for records, books, fashion-wise it was all tat...there was also the gay baths that had been shut down due to AIDS.

[quote]or bleecker street in the seventies?

more or less the same

Mary Quant

Mary Quant shoes...

This thread is getting a bit gurlie.

The thing I noticed is that there are no fat people.

The food was too awful then, R81.

I remember my brother who was living in London brought me a colorful velvet tie rom Carnaby Street. A proud possession for many years, though I never wore it, ha.

My take in looking at these pics in the link - clothes were NOT as colorful as I remember and the majority of people look dressed in really boring clothes. Memory may be better than reality....

That's my takeaway, too -- the clothes are far more dull and safe than you would think.

But we are used to women basically walking around in their underwear. And most of the other people in those photos are in suits and dresses.

By 1968 King's Road, Chelsea, had taken over...pretty colorful clothes there

R81, We Boomers were all young then!

"The thing I noticed is that there are no fat people."

Oh, fat people existed then, but they knew damn well the shops of Carnaby Street wouldn't have anything in their size, and the salespeople would treat them like the Rodeo Drive salesbitches treat a hooker!

And if any had come along just to stare into the windows and at the people, photographers wouldn't point the camera at them.

R87 In other words, the good ole days!

The Portobello Road, Carnaby Street, the....Road.

this is really interesting footage from 1966 - very rough cut - some of the girls really look so 60s...starts @ 2:40

R89 Fucking hell has anyone EVER got an AbFab quote correct on this fucking site?

R91 is triggered AND concerned.

England swings like a pendulum do.

Who do you luv? Tom Jones or Engelbert Humperdinck?

[quote]America was a bit behind when it came to the mini skirt.

Excuse me?

Gear Guide

The Carnaby Street style looked better on women than men.

Thanks for sharing OP. That's a great site. The Jack London photos are interesting. People of the Abyss is a harrowing book and Debbie Harry is the most heavenly creature to ever exist.

R72 I badly want the E-Type’s forerunner an XK120. So Art Deco sinister.

The second I saw R99's link I thought of the creepy chic of 'Phantom Thread.'

new book

[quote] I thought of the creepy chic of 'Phantom Thread.'

The cool car from that movie was the Bristol 405 with the middle headlight and tail fins. Very hip for the time.

The English sure do make some purty cars....

DID, R103.

The mens clothing was great. The women IMO had pretty ugly clothing and footgear.

That was intentional, dear R104..

You also missed the misspelling of pretty..."purty"..if you're going to scold me R104.

[quote]lol..have to explain things..sheesh

I'll bet you do because you're a freak.

No... sometimes people are just too stupid to pick up on tongue in cheek humor...like R104 and R108.