20 Surprising Things About London in the 1960s 😮

They called it the Swinging Sixties, but living in London during that decade was far more complicated than the postcards suggest.

Beneath the colour, music, and youth culture, London in the nineteen sixties was a city caught between two worlds. Coal smoke still hung in the air. Entire neighbourhoods were being demolished while concrete tower blocks rose in their place. Children played in streets that would feel unthinkable today, and daily life followed rhythms that now seem almost unreal.

This video explores twenty surprising realities of London in the nineteen sixties, from pea soup fogs and doorless double decker buses to pirate radio, betting shops, crowded markets, and a Thames so polluted it was biologically dead. It looks beyond the clichés to show how ordinary Londoners really lived, worked, travelled, and socialised during one of the city’s most mythologised decades.

Some changes felt exciting. Others were unsettling. Many were simply accepted as part of life.

If you remember that London, this isn’t history — it’s memory.
And if you don’t, it’s a glimpse into a city that no longer exists.

💬 Which part of sixties London stayed with you the most?
Share your memories in the comments.