Thanks to Alistair over at Unpopular, and his friends at I Like, I just looked at two sets of pictures at Flickr, of 1950's and 1960's London. This is the London I think about when I read the wonderful books by Colin MacInnes. Especially what's become known as his London trilogy - City of Spades (1957), Absolute Beginners (1959), and Mr. Love and Justice (1960).
What's so exciting about this point in London history is thinking about what's just around the corner culturally - musically, socially, in art. Talk about your tipping points! The photo above is of the famous 2i's Coffee Bar which became one of the meeting places before & during this point in time for many of the kids who would go on to take part in the cultural shift.
If you've seen Quadrophenia, or Scandal (about the Prufumo Affair) you'll have at least a partial idea of what I'm talking about.
Further reading:
Paolo Hewitt: The Sharper Word: A Mod Reader
Colin MacInnes: The London Novels
Barry Miles: In the Sixties
Mick Farren: Give the Anarchist a Cigarette
2 comments:
Horribly out of print and expensive but I cannot recommend this one enough: "Days in the Life: Voices from the English Underground, 1961-71" by Jonathan Green and Andrew Loog Oldham's "Stoned" which is equally exciting about this period.
I've had that book on a "too find & read" list for ages now. And now that you've reminded me about it, it seems there's an edition available from Amazon UK now for about 11 or 12 quid. Not bad. I may have to buy myself a xmas present!
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