Frank Derrett’s West End
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Cranbourne St
Fancy a stroll around the West End with Frank Derrett in the seventies?
This invitation is possible thanks to the foresight of Paul Loften who rescued these photographs from destruction in the last century. Recently, Paul contacted me to ask if I was interested and I suggested he donate them to the archive at the Bishopsgate Institute, which is how I am able to show them today.
‘They were given to me over twenty-five years ago when I called at an apartment block in Camden,’ Paul explained. ‘A woman opened the door and, when said I was from Camden Libraries, she told me a solicitor was dealing with effects of a resident who had died and was about to throw these boxes of slides into a skip, and did I want them? I kept them in my loft, occasionally enjoying a look, but actually I had forgotten about them until we had a clear out upstairs.’
Charing Cross Rd
Bear St
Coventry St
Regent St
Earlham St
Long Acre
Dover St
Carnaby St
Carnaby St
Charing Cross Rd
Cranbourne St
Dover St
Perkins Rents
Great Windmill St
Brook St
Conduit St
Frith St
Drury Lane
Dean St
Garrick St
Great Windmill St
Archer St
Images courtesy Bishopsgate Institute
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The photo colors of the 70s corresponded exactly to the mood of life at that time.
Interesting to see how some of the places look today:
Cranbourne St.:
https://www.google.com/maps/@51.5115343,-0.1279034,3a,90y,271.41h,84.34t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1swIbw_IECwE_4NSJIHY9Hiw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?hl=de
Charing Cross Rd.:
https://www.google.com/maps/@51.5125183,-0.1286747,3a,75y,84.83h,90.11t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sKE_8XV-QNC1-36cGZJR7kQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?hl=de
Long Acre:
https://www.google.com/maps/@51.5144148,-0.1222668,3a,80.3y,341.98h,86.89t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sXGW-22EVKk-RJC8W0YyEnQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?hl=de
Dover St. (The Clarence):
https://www.google.com/maps/@51.5077869,-0.1415315,3a,75y,69.57h,97.35t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sXA0VrCOV_IlKsSoxlFm-JA!2e0!3e11!7i16384!8i8192?hl=de
Garrick St. (The Round House):
https://www.google.com/maps/@51.5113684,-0.1254542,3a,90y,187.21h,98.18t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sN3gWLL12mnf6hKhEpl0GJg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?hl=de
Love & Peace
ACHIM
What a pleasure and surprise to wake up this morning and see these photos once again. This was the London I knew ,occasionally going down “west” to see the Who and Kinks playing at the Marquee in Wardour street or sometimes to the 100 club in Oxford Street.
Thank you both Gentle author for showing them and also Frank Derret for his painstaking work in taking the photos.
It was a different world then. I recall once going to a disco in the Chamber of Horrors at Madame Tussaurds Wax Works after we saw a car driving down Oxford street advertising it . I can’t remember if they allowed smoking. I hope they didn’t !
My work at Camden Libraries was the best job I ever had. I was there for 30 years and loved every moment . I met my wife there who was a librarian and we have 3 children. During the course of doing my job I met so many interesting and famous celebrities and authors who lived in the area as well a s cross section of ordinary working class people and went into their homes and listened to their stories .
I once met a man who played the violin alongside Albert Einstein in a quartet in pre war Germany. His name was Peter Borenstein . He told me the great joke between them was that Einstein would always start to play at the wrong moment because he simply could not count.
Wow, these photos really bring it all back. This is MY neighbourhood. I’m struck by the fact that many of the locations don’t look totally different today — just shows how careful Planning and Conservation can preserve and cherish a neighbourhood. I hope this part of London never changes too much, especially after seeing what some other areas, like Brick Lane, have suffered. Thank you for sharing them.
Great photos, this is the London my elder sister moved to with excitement as a young woman of 20 in 1973, she worked in Bruton Street then Baker Street back then, by the early 80s she’d migrated to working in the City.
Being 8 years younger I was an 80s arrival in London, my sister used to say it had lost a bit of its sparkle by then.
Gosh, memories of the 70’s!
I didn’t live in London then but occasionally visited for the day and I remember how the Carnaby Street area looked then – familiar shop names of the era.
Re the photograph of Brook Street showing the blue plaque noting a former residence of the composer Handel – Jimi Hendrix lived in a small flat in the building next door for a while, around the time of the photos.
The London nobody wanted to loose.
Striking pics.
Does anyone remember’Les Enfant Terribles’ a coffee bar in Frith Street? My friend and I would often get a bus to the Embankment and wander through to Soho and have coffee there in the 50’s.
I moved down to London in the late 70s and these photos are exactly as i remember it down to the garish colours. The only thing missing is a shot of a ‘Berni Inn’ which seemed to be everywhere around then.
Coming back to London in 1970 after university, living in Islington and working in Regent st really remember that time with so much energy – I worked with Mrs H who had a flat in Berwick st, ate at Jimmy’s a Greek restaurant in soho and ‘real’ Chinese restaurants, wandered the streets of the west end at lunchtime – peter jones, libertys and street markets. My cousin had a record shop in Berwick st.
Now I teach london history at Morley College Waterloo and would you believe it I’m teaching a short course on Soho after Christmas. http://Www.morley college.ac.uk W22HMSH06A. If you’re interested in a light hearted approach to social history ( I’ve been told my sessions are like a book group but unfortunately without the wine) have a look!
Thank you, Paul Loften, for saving them!
I remember Trattoria da Otello on Dean Street! My first visit to London in 1971 (age 16), my sister took me there. Great food. I still have their business card.
Thanks for these great shots. So much more colour then. Remember those Golden Egg restaurants