Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/10/25/what-the-london-underground-us.html
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One lone person smiles for the camera, right at the end. Everyone else either ignores, or casts a quick, wary glance at the lens.
Still, an enjoyable watch, just folks being folks 50 years ago.
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Only a couple of not-white faces in the entire series of clips.
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Mind the gap.
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Slightly reminds me of the attached scene of subway commuters from the film Koyaanisqatsi.
I like that film because it’s footage from another time. The people of 1982 who saw the film when it first came out found the film mundane because it was just footage of their regular world. I also wonder if the film maker anticipated the value of his footage to future viewers.
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(Except for the Northern Line, which for some reason was not being upgraded and I guess is still exactly like this video.)
The Northern Line started to get new trains (1995 Stock) in 1998, so possibly just after you left?
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Glorious - no one making eye contact, no one daring to stand on the left of the escalator, no one making the crashing social faux-pas of talking to a stranger - just as it should always be.
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I kept waiting for John Steed and Emma Peel to come racing through.
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Not one woman is wearing pants.
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I bet they all are. None of them are wearing trousers, though.
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I long for a land where people follow proper escalator etiquette. In the US even if there’s one person they’ll stand in the middle of the escalator, oblivious to the fact that there are people with places to be.
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The Northern Line was my line, so I know whereof you speak!
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What are those sheets of paper with the small text on them some are holding and reading?
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People never change. Folks in the first clip- You’re supposed to let passengers off the train first.
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Oh this is about the London subway system, not some resistance group.
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twenty-five years ago i started showing “koyaanisqatsi” to my sixth grade students as a treat so they could see one of my favorite films. during the first few years seeing human activities filmed using the time-lapse process caused a couple of kids to vomit and made several queasy due to the motion of it all. after a few years the kids had no problem with that aspect of it. a few years ago i finally stopped showing my classes the film because the consensus among the students became that the movie was so brutally boring that i must be punishing them.
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Did they still have wooden treads on the escalators (and the car floors?).
They had those up until 1986.
EDITED TO ADD- the date above is wrong- they got rid of them after the King’s Cross fire which was in November 1987
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Yep… thats what I remember. First used the underground in 1968… Lived in England through 86 and haven’t been there since. Its better now?
