Oldest footage of London (bomb, years, USA, government)

[dizzybint]

Wondeful to be able to see how London looked in the past.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_me3NrPMh8

[aliasfinn]

I like looking at before & after scenes. Some haven't changed a bit.

[Dd714]

Pretty interesting. From all accounts 19th century London was one of the most dirty, polluted cities on earth. Thames full of human sewage, streets full of horse poop, skies always full of smog from the perpetual factory smoke. You can tell the sky's seem hazy but not sure if that is from just the quality of the film of the time.

[Frihed89]

Central London was bombed to bits by the Nazis. There are not before and after pictures. Nothing really started to change for at least 20 years, except for cleaning up the rubble and demolishing the bombed buildings.

[dizzybint]

Originally Posted by Dd714

Pretty interesting. From all accounts 19th century London was one of the most dirty, polluted cities on earth. Thames full of human sewage, streets full of horse poop, skies always full of smog from the perpetual factory smoke. You can tell the sky's seem hazy but not sure if that is from just the quality of the film of the time.

Probably the pollution from all the chimneys..

[msgsing]

London was one of the most heavily polluted cities in the world right up into the mid 1950’s. During the winter of 1952 there was a deadly smog caused by thousands of homeowners and business establishments that relied exclusively on coal.

City health officials later reported 12,000 deaths due to respiratory and heart problems that they attributed directly to the heavy pall of smoke that hung over the city for an extended period of time. Finally in the late 1950’s the British government mandated alternative heating methods that gradually reduced pollution.