I'd like to see the same with before and after scenes in Bayswater, London and also Colchester, Essex. Please??

I'm so happy to see this clip. Brings tears to my eyes. I grew up on Roden street then moved to Ley street back in 1979. Back then there were ONLY a few Indian families there. Great folks. But now 😮. I've posted my rage before while trying to find a traditional fish and chips shop locally. Food is food but I never grew up with a guy wearing a turban serving fish and chips and I won't stand for it now either.

Marks & Spencer finally pulled the plug on their Ilford branch. The last day of trading was Saturday 29/06/2024. Closest branches are now Stratford, Romford and South Woodford (click & collect). At least that's what it says on the notice taped to the window of the now empty shop.

As a young teenager i would visit regularly Woolworths , WH Smiths , Boots Basement floor and Ourprice for there records and cassettes as they all sold them.I also got my T.C.R race track from Woolworths those were the days..

I was here the night it closed, there were a couple of Routemasters out working on the 165s. The place stood for quite a while after closure, not quite empty as the LT Museum stored some exhibits here, FRM 1 being one of them.....

I remember what Gerald Ratner said about his business 😂😂😂. I remember my mum brought me a watch from there 3 years earlier for my birthday. 1991 was memorable year in a lot of nice ways especially the summer

Not only did I spend a lot of my childhood in the summer in the large pool and go there with our school but my Mum told us they had wrestling there and would go there and watch the Crabtree brothers one of who was Shirley Crabtree wrestle (Big Daddy) who i met when I was a 9 year old. EASY EASY.!

Ratners, ah! I remember his Crap comment, which earned front page news, as well as pages 2, 3, 4, 5 etc! In fact, he put an apology letter in each of his branches, but to no avail!

i walked past burger king last week . not sure if it permanently closed or just temporary i thought they did ok for customers. the high road looked so much busier years again

Sorry if this sounds like a rant, but here goes. Isn't it interesting how a bustling busy Ilford high road went down the toilet after developers got hold of it. Yes I know shopping trends have changed and everyone does their shopping on line these days, BUT compare pedestrianised developed Ilford today where a lot of the high street shops are empty, or charity ships or fast food outlets and NOW Marks and Spencer finally called it a day and compare it to un-pedestrianised Barkingside high street which looks like it's still a busy thoroughfare. It makes you wonder if it's a good idea to let developers redevelop towns. All they seem to do is ruin a town centre and tear the heart out of the area, leaving it looking like any other town up and down the country . I recently visited Chelmsford town centre for the first time in 30 years and was really disappointed how much it had changed. I was struck by how uninteresting it had become and could have been ( like Ilford) any other town centre in the country. All the same shops.. all very boring, I won't be visiting it again. I know I sound like I've gone off topic, but I feel the same about how boring Ilford has become,back in the eighties & nineties I was always ' up the high road', I only live ten minutes walk from Ilford high road but NOW unless I have to use the train or need to see someone at the bank, I avoid it like the plague and go to Barkingside of Romford where there seems to be a bit more going on. It's just sad to see what developers did to Ilford and all for the sake of lining their pockets & sod the consequences.

I moved to Ilford in December 1957, to work at Stratford loco, and lodged in the newly built railway hostel, sited at Aldersbrook. I lived there until February 65,and loved every minute of it.Two things I'll always remember, Bodgers new store was being built, opposite the original station entrance, and the fire at Harrison and Gibson's.I haven't been there since leaving in 65, but from what I can gather, the new Ilford is not a patch on my era.Which is a great shame.

I spent my childhood in Redcliffe Gardens opposite where the cricket and hockey pitches are from 1955-1972. We used to walk the family dog through the park. When my Dad took the dog through the park in the morning he would often have the cat on his shoulders as well. He got quite a few stares as he crossed back and forth on the zebra crossing on Cranbrook Road. I have memories of playing football and cricket on Melbourne Field where my Grandfather also played about 1910-1920 as well as tennis in the courts. Also spent time with friends in the cafe and sitting around outside. I used the Lido for swimming as a 5 year old. There was usually a good neighbour who would go and take me along. I remember with fondness the features such as the boating lake and the mansion. Also the large Cedar tree and rows of horse chestnuts. I spent many hours walking and cutting through the park on my way to either Ilford station or Gants Hill. Valentines Park was and I hope still is the Crown Jewel of Ilford. ❤

Back in the 1970's I worked in Crescent Cameras which I think was number 1 or 3 Centreway, I can't quite remember, I only worked there for a few weeks before being transferred to their head office which was in Leytonstone next to the Red Lion pub opposite Woolworths. Crescent Cameras went bankrupt in 1980 & I was made redundant .. ahhh those were the days.

From the late 70's I knew the family very well who owned Ilford Radio cars. The owner lived at the top of Tomswood hill Barkingside and had a transmission aerial on top of his house which was connected via an early kind of internet to the office @ 281 & consequently 315 high road Ilford. Ilford cars had the best reception in east London and on good days ( weather permitting) they could receive messages out as far as Heathrow and was a very successful mini cab business. But with the slow and inevitable upsurge of fly by night competitors and their constant undercutting of fares the business started to struggle and so in the early 2000's his son decided to sell the business for a piffling amount (which included the good will it had built up over the years) to a consortium made up of the Asian drivers that had worked there. I don't know what happened to the business after 1999 but it looks like they struggled before giving up. None of this is confidential as the original owner sold his house at the top of Tomswood hill and retired to the coast in the early 2000's and has sadly since passed away.

The 199 bus route must have replaced the 291 route which ran in the early 70s (they were operated by single deck RF type coaches). It wasn't well used, so I can't imagine why they used double deckers on it - unless they were too tight fisted to buy new single deckers at the time. What a pity the old shops had to go to provide Sainsburys, which I believe is now closed as well.

If memory serves me correctly (it's been many many many many years) in the other side of the pedestrian underpass by the new library was a large car park. The surface was just crushed rubble and shoppers & commuters used to park there. I can't remember what the charge was ( if they DID charge), but eventually the Cineworld complex was built on the site.

I remember a Wimpy bar/restaurant around about the middle of the parade of shops in Ilford chambers back in the 1970's. I remember about 1978 (when I was about 18) being in the Wimpy around 10.30 at night having a meal with a mate after coming out of Room at the top ( on top of Harrison Gibsons) and a fight kicked off in the Wimpy between a couple of drunks, the manager called the police and the drunks were duly arrested. My mate and I just sat there out of harms way watching the fracas while eating our Wimpy & chips. When we eventually got up to leave, we had to pay the bill at the cash register and I quipped "And here's an extra pound for the floor show" 😂😂😂😂

I've been there .... bought things, etc.

Brings back memories. Both mom and her brother brought brand new 5 door (blue) Mk3 Fiestas from that site in the nineties. LX (L reg) for uncle and a (M reg) Sapphire for mom. I also remember the Mk5 (K reg) Escort hire car they gave my mom when her car was in that dealership for repair work. #memories

Wow memories. Just near Seven Kings Station

Go there now complete shithole

I did work experience there in the 90s

Christ you know how to make someone feel old.😆 I remember this site selling MG's and other BL products. So by your time line that was before Ford took it over, so that would have been through the 1970's till early 80's!

I always remember, when I worked in Clements Road (1973-1979) the Bodgers arcade (you could cut through it to get to the bus terminus in York Road). There was an establishment within it which was forever labelled "The Sauna of Shame" as it was always being raided. I remember one court case where a Detective Constable had visited the place on five consecutive days to "obtain evidence". That was his story and he stuck to it.

My dad bought us some golf clubs from upstairs

I remember when I went to Cranbrook college, I would see a chap outside, with a beard and smoking. I somehow nicknamed him mr cheeky. Anyhow, at Christmas, I use to write him a Xmas card, to which he would respond to mr cheeky. I think his real name was Tony. Always a pleasant person.

And an unrivalled range of Letraset!

My mum used to get me art material in there for GCSEs. Was a very good shop but nothing lasts forever unfortunately.

Ahh remember visiting this place often in the late 80s and 90s for anything art/design related. Wonderful shop!

I remember it well in the ‘70s… bought protractors and Rotring technical ink pens there. Ilford was so posh once, I haven’t been there since the late 70s and have no intention of going again… what a shame 😢

As a Barking boy, I remember purchasing art pencils for school at Owen Clark around 1987.

The same stationery wholesaler I worked for, were we would speak to the likes of Mr Goldy (Gilbey’s) we would also have the unfortunate task of answering the phone to Max the buyer of Owen Clark. He was the rudest and most ignorant person. I remember as the shop was closing, I mentioned to the staff that I’d known about Max etc, they laughed, and apologised 😆

Wow a forgotten store. Cranbrook Road shops were so different from the high road. I remember some department store on that side. Was so unique

My drama class at Seven Kings High School was one of the first audiance when The Sir Kenneth More Theatre was opened. Jane in New Zealand 🇬🇧🇳🇿

I love this series, pure nostalgia for me. please keep them coming 😊

Good in the 80s, now look at it a complete shithole. The whole of London is finished.

There was a small wood here before the library and swimming pool. Mum often parked the car in Craven Gardens then we nipped through the trees to the LEB to pay the electric bill! I went to Manford Way Junior School - my class went to the swimming pool once a week on a Wednesday afternoon.

I didn’t spot HMV Records, had it gone by the ‘80s? The buses terminated in York Road where I waited for the half hourly 167 to The Bald Hind. It always annoyed me that the 150, which could take me as far as The Old Maypole was so much more frequent!

Hello. I was born at 98, Kingswood Road, Goodmayes, Iford Essex in the early 1960's. They were some of the happiest times of my life. Thank you for this little trip back in time. Jane in New Zealand 🇬🇧🇳🇿

The other lake was the one foot deep model boat lake near the Perth Road entrance, where my mum always parked the Hillman Minx in the mid-sixties. It’s been filled in, but the stone edge is still visible. More happy memories of gentler times! 👍🏻

The Angel gets a mention in Samuel Pepys diary

Used to go to Room at the Top club above Harrison Gibsons. Oscars night club was attached to The Green Gate public house near Newbury Park Station & the old King Georges Hospital.

Many happy memories of The Gants Hill Odeon. The flats that have replaced it are hideous. We often caught the 25 route master bus all the way to Victoria from Ilford Broadway, cost 5p !! 😂

I know a copper that works there, full of Muslim youth running drugs and prostitution nowadays

Shame both those units are now empty 😢

The son of the baker, Gary Pithers was in my class at junior school! My first memory of the area was being in the car and looking at the redundant trolley bus poles and wires… they went along Ley Street and terminated at the Fulwell Cross end of Barkingside High Street next to a small wood which is now occupied by the library and swimming pool.

Good video! learned a little more today👌👍

The jewel in Ilford’s crown. My school played games there in the 70s and 80s. One lunch time where there are two waterfalls, I tried to jump the stream but landed knee high in sludge!

It seems to be a bit like Beveridge Park in Kirkcaldy, where there's also a rugby union ground, Kirkcaldy RFC! Keeping the sporting theme, in 1994, Beveridge Park hosted two games in the plate competition of the womens rugby world cup! I'm also wondering if there will be something special for video 100!

Must make a visit to park 1 day here. Drove past early today