Forum Topic

Old Film of Ealing - 1901

Hope this is of interest:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmEcxE0MPgM

Bud Richards ● 4757d24 Comments

This is fantastic! Thank you so much.What a wonderful treat.

Lusy DeCoursey ● 4757d

Nice one Bud.

Nigel Brooks ● 4757d

Thank you, I really enjoyed watching this.

Jaz Brown ● 4757d

David P Archer ● 4757d

What I love about this is 112 years later, although the retailers have changed, the structure of the roads / buildings really hasn't and it is all instantly recognisable. Cannot get enough of this content

Bud Richards ● 4757d

That cyclist shows a blatant disregard for the horse and carriage!  Some things never change ;)

Andy Vaughan ● 4757d

Thank you for this :)

Inge Jones ● 4757d

I just wish it had gone on longer

David P Archer ● 4756d

Very few private cars but it looks like the high Street is thriving.More evidence to me that the private motor vehicle is really what kills local shops.

Paul James ● 4754d

What has killed local shops is the laissez-fire attitude of successive planning regimes toward the development of out of town 'superstores', the draconian attitude toward parking in town centres and the failure of government to wake up and actually do something about the costs that retailers, especially the small independents, have to bear in excessive rents and rates.Of course there are very few cars in the film, it was 1901!!Rather the car than the piles of horse manure running through the gutters on a rainy day and the dead horses left to rot where they dropped, or is that an 'inconvenient truth' for the anti-car lobby?

Nigel Brooks ● 4754d

I wouldn't be assuming that parking controls are a problem for shops, that's certainly not what they're saying in Cambridge.http://road.cc/content/news/91939-eric-pickles-cambridge-motorists-and-shops-suffer-due-councils-focus-cycling

Paul James ● 4753d

I am sure if I too look around I can find data to support my argument.However we are talking about Ealing NOT Cambridge.

Nigel Brooks ● 4753d

More here on the folly of cheap or free parking in our town centres, it's not just Cambridge that is expressing well founded doubts it's a bad idea.http://m.theatlanticcities.com/jobs-and-economy/2012/11/4-reasons-retailers-dont-need-free-parking-thrive/3978/

Paul James ● 4752d

Blimey, really clutching at straws now - Graz in Austria and Bristol (where there is loads of cheap town centre parking).But a failed study really as the retailers in Bristol totally underestimated how many of their shoppers lived within half-a-mile. Rule one of retailing, know your customers.To survive in retail in London, you have to make it convenient. if that means providing car parking for those who choose not to walk, bike, take public transport then sobeit.

Nigel Brooks ● 4752d

And Norman Baker joins in too:Speaking at a fringe event at the Liberal Democrat conference, Mr Baker said: "The worst thing you can do is give free rein to the car. The idea of giving free rein to the car and excluding or marginalising pedestrians does not work economically, does not work environmentally and is a failed policy of the 1970s."http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/liberaldemocrats/10313746/Ban-cars-from-town-centres-to-save-our-shops-says-transport-minister.html

Paul James ● 4751d

I thought Graz was clutching at straws but quoting the total irrelevance that is the LibDems, have you no shame? :-)

Nigel Brooks ● 4751d

People don't walk cycle or take publlic transport while taking their children to school. So what makes you think they wouldn't do the same for shopping. If they stop cars in the high street more people will use shopping centres therefore either way the high street shop is in trouble.

Tony Maxey ● 4751d

> If they stop cars in the high street more people will use shopping centresYou sound very certain about that, but there is lots of evidence that the opposite is true.Policies encouraging MORE vehicles to come into town centres just add to congestion, what happens next? You don't need to be a rocket scientist to work that out.Neither are car choked high streets nice places to be, so pedestrians are driven away too.Buses are delayed, the one vehicle you do want serving town centres (one bus with two people on it takes up less space than two people in two cars).Crashes and injuries go up, roads are damaged, the nation gets fatter, air quality is reduced.It's just a bad idea all round!

Paul James ● 4751d

A bit like cyclists ignoring all traffic signs and rules of the road then?Seriously, the car (perhaps not fossil fuel powered) is here to stay.People like using their cars.Shops need the 'punters' to have as easy an experience as possible.if that means providing additional parking near the shops or reducing Draconian parking enforcement, then sobeit.

Nigel Brooks ● 4750d

>A bit like cyclists ignoring all traffic signs and rules of the road then?That's a bit of a generalisation, do you think they all do?>Seriously, the car (perhaps not fossil fuel powered) is here to stay.Who's saying it isn't? I just think thinking attempting to attract more and more of them into a town centre is a silly idea.

Paul James ● 4750d

Not all cyclists disobey the rules, you only notice the ones that do and there are plenty of them.I don't want to attract more cars just make it an equitable experience for those that choose to drive to the shops.

Nigel Brooks ● 4750d

Sorry to come back to this, but this is well worth a look, seems to show that the private motor car when taken out of our city centres makes them much more livable and loveble places.http://www.ted.com/talks/janette_sadik_khan_new_york_s_streets_not_so_mean_any_more.html

Paul James ● 4725d

Here in Paris too.http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24520146

Paul James ● 4724d

Shame, for some, then then we can't turn the clock back to a time of open poverty (rather than the 28% relative poverty now recorded in London), Tuberculosis (no, that's on the rise as well), no NHS (almost evident in some areas) and malnutrition (thank God for the Trussel trust and local food banks).Personal transport is here to stay, and will largely be by car until we have affordable, integrated public transport.

Nigel Brooks ● 4724d