Piccadilly in London – early 1970s

This short clip from a longer 8mm film taken in Piccadilly in London in the early 1970s shows a very busy day in Piccadilly circus.

From a social history point of view it’s interesting to see the people, hairstyles and fashions as well as the landmarks in this film, and it’s the people and their clothes which has led me to put the date it was taken in the early 1970s or possibly the late 1960s. I have no other clues as to the date, since the film itself is in a prepaid return envelope((Kodachrome, which this film was taken on, was supplied with a return envelope which the photographer completed with their name and address. This was then used to return the film for processing and receive the processed film back )) and unfortunately the date from the post office franking is completely obliterated.

As to the location, I found this standard 8mm vintage home movie was taken in Piccadilly because of a label written on the envelope – without that I suspect it would have taken me a few hours to pin down the location.

Film of Piccadilly in London

So here is my description of the film.

It seems to me that the photographer was accompanied on the trip to Piccadilly in London on that day by his wife, partner or possibly friend. The lady in a white dress carrying her coat appears in many of the shots and so was obviously the subject of the film, but also seems to be pointing other people out.

For example, if you look at the sequence at 25 seconds into the film you can clearly see the lady make a gesture to the photographer and point to another person as she passes her. This look a bit odd and I’m not sure what was going on here.

I’d be interested in any comments anyone has regarding this or any other films on Vintage Home Movies – please let me know your thoughts.