# Great set of photos of the 1980s London Underground when you could drink and smoke



## dweller (Jul 25, 2013)

http://spitalfieldslife.com/2013/07/19/bob-mazzer-on-the-tube/

these are great, really take you back


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 25, 2013)

They're brilliant


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 25, 2013)

The woman with the pint glass


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## DaveCinzano (Jul 25, 2013)

Some lovely snapshots from the past


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## dweller (Jul 25, 2013)

Minnie_the_Minx said:


> The woman with the pint glass


 

 just the other day during the heatwave I saw a bunch of people with glasses of beer get on the tube at embankment - defiance of a law they probably didn't know existed


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## beesonthewhatnow (Jul 25, 2013)

Love this one, anyone know which station it is?


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## JTG (Jul 25, 2013)

dweller said:


> just the other day during the heatwave I saw a bunch of people with glasses of beer get on the tube at embankment - defiance of a law they probably didn't know existed


I make a point of drinking on the tube whenever I can


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## editor (Jul 25, 2013)

Ace photos:


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## twentythreedom (Jul 25, 2013)

beesonthewhatnow said:


> Love this one, anyone know which station it is?


 
Angel I reckon


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 25, 2013)

beesonthewhatnow said:


> Love this one, anyone know which station it is?


 
Obviously I've not travelled to every station and on every line, but reminds me of the island Northern line platforms at places like Clapham Common etc.


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## killer b (Jul 25, 2013)

i love them. fantastic pics.


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## story (Jul 25, 2013)

JTG said:


> I make a point of drinking on the tube whenever I can


 

Yeah, me too.


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## trashpony (Jul 25, 2013)

twentythreedom said:


> Angel I reckon


Yep. Fucking hell that platform was scary when everyone was pissed up


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## beesonthewhatnow (Jul 25, 2013)

trashpony said:


> Yep. Fucking hell that platform was scary when everyone was pissed up


 
Is it still like that, so narrow?


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 25, 2013)

trashpony said:


> Yep. Fucking hell that platform was scary when everyone was pissed up


 
Could be lots of platforms on the Northern Line though


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## rover07 (Jul 25, 2013)

twentythreedom said:


> Angel I reckon



It looks cleaner and better lit than I remember.  Fucking shithole.


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 25, 2013)

Here's another one of Angel from 1989

​​and here's Clapham Common


​from here​http://margaret-cooter.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/angel-station-as-was.html​​


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## trashpony (Jul 25, 2013)

beesonthewhatnow said:


> Is it still like that, so narrow?


No, they've got rid of them all now. They used to close Angel sometimes on a Friday night because it was so bloody dangerous.


Minnie_the_Minx said:


> Could be lots of platforms on the Northern Line though


Were there loads of them? I only remember Angel looking just like that.


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 25, 2013)

trashpony said:


> No, they've got rid of them all now. They used to close Angel sometimes on a Friday night because it was so bloody dangerous.
> 
> Were there loads of them? I only remember Angel being like that


 

Clapham Common used to frequently get closed in the mornings (I'm talking in the mid-80s when I lived there).  I once waited for 9 trains and ended up going back to Tooting to get on a train to get to Bank.

Serious overcrowding problem there

Clapham North also had the same type of platform, and no doubt others on the line, but can't remember which


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## Gingerman (Jul 25, 2013)

Fantastic pics,can remember how wonderfully grotty LU was compared with the current sanitised era


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 25, 2013)

Here's a better one of Clapham Common


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## marty21 (Jul 25, 2013)

beesonthewhatnow said:


> Is it still like that, so narrow?


 I remember Angel station very well - that platform was scary!


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## marty21 (Jul 25, 2013)

those slatted wooden floors with piss or puke running down the grooves

happy days


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## JimW (Jul 25, 2013)

Excellent! I'm nicking this link for another forum.


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 25, 2013)

Angel platform



> For years, the station regularly suffered from congestion, overcrowding and genuine fear in passengers due to the very narrow island platform (barely 12 feet (3.7 m) in width), which constituted a major safety issue.[5] Consequently, the station was comprehensively rebuilt, reopening in 1992.


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## marty21 (Jul 25, 2013)

didn't there used to be a bar on a underground platform - Sloane Square?


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 25, 2013)

marty21 said:


> those slatted wooden floors with piss or puke running down the grooves
> 
> happy days


 
and women getting their heels stuck in the grooves, both on the trains and coming off the old wooden escalators!


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## marty21 (Jul 25, 2013)

Minnie_the_Minx said:


> Here's another one of Angel from 1989
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 
 There was a documentary filmed around the old Angel station in 1989, I'm in it at the start - will find some footage later of a very young me emerging from the station


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 25, 2013)

trashpony said:


> No, they've got rid of them all now. They used to close Angel sometimes on a Friday night because it was so bloody dangerous.
> 
> Were there loads of them? I only remember Angel looking just like that.


 
I was right and wrong. Correct in naming the Claphams as having them, and wrong in assuming other stations had them.  However, there are, but these are the only ones beneath ground level



> *53. The platforms at Clapham North*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 25, 2013)

marty21 said:


> There was a documentary filmed around the old Angel station in 1989, I'm in it at the start - will find some footage later of a very young me emerging from the station


 
That link links to the underground blog where there is supposedly a film somewhere, but I don't have time to look


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 25, 2013)

marty21 said:


> There was a documentary filmed around the old Angel station in 1989, I'm in it at the start - will find some footage later of a very young me emerging from the station


 
This one maybe?

http://filmstore.bfi.org.uk/acatalog/info_19038.html


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## marty21 (Jul 25, 2013)

Minnie_the_Minx said:


> This one maybe?
> 
> http://filmstore.bfi.org.uk/acatalog/info_19038.html


Yep, Heart of the Angel - it is on youtube - can't access youtube at work, will link later - you see me emerge from the station at the beginning, after the opening sequence in the   lift- with a female mate - I am chewing a pen  wearing a shirt and tie!


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 25, 2013)

marty21 said:


> Yep, Heart of the Angel - it is on youtube - can't access youtube at work, will link later - you see me emerge from the station at the beginning, after the scene set in the life - with a female mate - I am chewing a pen  wearing a shirt and tie!


 
I think I've seen it before.  Pretty sure you linked to it in another thread.  Will go and have a look


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 25, 2013)

01.46 minutes in


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## marty21 (Jul 25, 2013)

Minnie_the_Minx said:


> View attachment 37613
> 
> 01.46 minutes in



 There's the handsome chap, newly arrived in London and about to take it by storm!


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## Schmetterling (Jul 25, 2013)

Fan-bloody-tastic!  What London looked like when I arrived in 1985.


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 25, 2013)

marty21 said:


> There's the handsome chap, newly arrived in London and about to take it by storm!


 
You were are a handsome chap indeed


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## Pickman's model (Jul 25, 2013)

beesonthewhatnow said:


> Love this one, anyone know which station it is?


could  be the auld angel station


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## Pickman's model (Jul 25, 2013)

marty21 said:


> There's the handsome chap, newly arrived in London and about to take it by storm!


sure you've not changed a bit bar becoming a published poet


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 25, 2013)

Anyway, despite me saying it could be one of the Claphams, it probably is Angel.  I can't see any clock on the Clapham ones (although I haven't actually looked for an old picture to see if the Clapham ones ever had a clock)


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## marty21 (Jul 25, 2013)

Pickman's model said:


> sure you've not changed a bit bar becoming a published poet


 alas that didn't make me  millions so I could retire to a private island


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 25, 2013)

marty21 said:


> alas that didn't make me millions so I could retire to a private island


 
I looked at the pavement beneath your feet, and unfortunately you picked the concrete paved one.  The gold one was around the corner.  If you'd turned the other way on exiting the tube, life could have been so different for you


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## Pickman's model (Jul 25, 2013)

marty21 said:


> alas that didn't make me millions so I could retire to a private island


it's always the second volume of poems which makes a mint


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## marty21 (Jul 25, 2013)

Minnie_the_Minx said:


> I looked at the pavement beneath your feet, and unfortunately you picked the concrete paved one. The gold one was around the corner. If you'd turned the other way on exiting the tube, life could have been so different for you


 one day I will find that gold, one day  *shakes fist*


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 25, 2013)

marty21 said:


> one day I will find that gold, one day  *shakes fist*


 
Not the way the country is at the moment


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## Pickman's model (Jul 25, 2013)

marty21 said:


> one day I will find that gold, one day  *shakes fist*


it's hidden in the auld entrance


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 25, 2013)

Pickman's model said:


> it's hidden in the auld entrance


 
or buried under one of the new platforms at Angel


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## marty21 (Jul 25, 2013)

back on topic

I don't remember smoking on the tube, they must have stopped that before i came to London in 1989?


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## Pickman's model (Jul 25, 2013)

marty21 said:


> back on topic
> 
> I don't remember smoking on the tube, they must have stopped that before i came to London in 1989?


they stopped it five days after the kings x fire in 1987


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## marty21 (Jul 25, 2013)

Pickman's model said:


> they stopped it after kings x in 1987


 right - but you could still smoke on trains after that - I remember a smoking car on the sleeper train to Glasgow in the 90s


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## Pickman's model (Jul 25, 2013)

marty21 said:


> right - but you could still smoke on trains after that - I remember a smoking car on the sleeper train to Glasgow in the 90s


typo: not 1987 but 1989, november


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## Superdupastupor (Jul 25, 2013)

I could swear blind that the guy on the right is my pa! I was just flicking through the collection when I caught sight of a familiar profile- the more I look at it the more certain I am getting.

i'll need to ask him if he recognises the other people.


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## Pickman's model (Jul 25, 2013)

Superdupastupor said:


> I could swear blind that the guy on the right is my pa! I was just flicking through the collection when I caught sight of a familiar profile- the more I look at it the more certain I am getting.
> 
> i'll need to ask him if he recognises the other people.


it's unlikely: it's more than 20 years ago and it might prove difficult to recognise someone after all that time when they're holding their head in their hands.


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## Superdupastupor (Jul 25, 2013)

Pickman's model said:


> it's unlikely: it's more than 20 years ago and it might prove difficult to recognise someone after all that time when they're holding their head in their hands.


 

yeh true! but the guy in blue looks like he is wearing a rugby-top : he played rugby in that period so ...... yeh circumstantial.

the thing that is making me not able to put this away is a scar in the hairline that is in the same place.


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## Pickman's model (Jul 25, 2013)

Superdupastupor said:


> yeh true! but the guy in blue looks like he is wearing a rugby-top : he played rugby in that period so ...... yeh circumstantial.
> 
> the thing that is making me not able to put this away is a scar in the hairline that is in the same place.


loads of people wore rugby tops then


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## Schmetterling (Jul 25, 2013)

Pickman's model said:


> they stopped it five days after the kings x fire in 1987


 
Really? I thought there was already no smoking on the tube in 1985?

I remember my delight at discovering that one was allowed to smoke on the top deck of the bus. Of course I thought at first my friend was just being rebellious.

ETA Found this
http://www.london-today.net/web/events/february/17/00001698/0675551446.html
We are both right! Yayyyyy!


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## Bungle73 (Jul 25, 2013)

Why the need to drink on the Tube?  It's rather vulgar tbh, some scruffy oik sitting there with a can of Fosters.


dweller said:


> just the other day during the heatwave I saw a bunch of people with glasses of beer get on the tube at embankment - defiance of a law they probably didn't know existed


Glasses of Beer? From a pub?



Gingerman said:


> Fantastic pics,can remember how wonderfully grotty LU was compared with the current sanitised era


Yes, because it's better to have a dreay dirty Tube rather than a nice clean one. 



dweller said:


> just the other day during the heatwave I saw a bunch of people with glasses of beer get on the tube at embankment - defiance of a law they probably didn't know existed


Glasses of Beer? From a pub?


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 25, 2013)

marty21 said:


> back on topic
> 
> I don't remember smoking on the tube, they must have stopped that before i came to London in 1989?


 

The carriages absolutely reeked, especially the ones that were fully underground


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## Schmetterling (Jul 25, 2013)

Bungle73 said:


> Why the need to drink on the Tube? It's rather vulgar tbh, some scruffy oik sitting there with a can of Fosters.
> 
> Glasses of Beer? From a pub?
> 
> ...


 
*blows raspberry


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 25, 2013)

Pickman's model said:


> they stopped it five days after the kings x fire in 1987


 

Ban on smoking on buses didn't come 'til much later, and whilst looking for the date, I came across this, so confused now

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8136355.stm

I'm thinking maybe it was banned on the tube trains first, then on the platforms and every else 

I definitely remember smoking on trains in 1985


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 25, 2013)

Found this

*1984:* Smoking banned on London Underground trains.
*1985:* Smoking ban extended to those stations that are wholly or partly underground.
*1987:* London Underground smoking ban extended to entire network following the King's Cross station fire, in which 31 people died.

I was obviously being a rebel still smoking on the trains in 1985


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## Puddy_Tat (Jul 25, 2013)

From memory, I think smoking on tube trains was banned before smoking on platforms / within stations. 

As for the 'island platform' question, quite a few of the City & South London Railway's stations were built like that (that's what's now the bit of the northern line from Euston to Clapham Common)

Angel got rebuilt in the early 90s, Euston was similar until the 1960s - think most got re-constructed in the 1920s when the City & South London got merged into what's now the 'west end' branch of the northern line which had started off as a completely separate railway (hence the two bits of northern line at Euston being a bloody long way apart)

And no, I still don't know which station that is.

It is amazing now, reflecting just how grotty the underground had become by the late 80s.

although i think the pre-1974 glasgow underground /subway trumped it (i never experienced it)


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## laptop (Jul 25, 2013)

marty21 said:


> didn't there used to be a bar on a underground platform - Sloane Square?


 
There were many. I think Sloane Square was the last.

The bar on St James' Park is still there, boarded up.


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## oryx (Jul 25, 2013)

laptop said:


> There were many. I think Sloane Square was the last.
> 
> The bar on St James' Park is still there, boarded up.


 
I remember the Sloane Square bar well - me and my flatmates from Battersea used it a lot if our train was a few minutes away! (Inevitably it meant missing that train and waiting for another as we finished halves of lager and cigarettes).

Great pics.


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## twentythreedom (Jul 25, 2013)

Minnie_the_Minx said:


> Obviously I've not travelled to every station and on every line, but reminds me of the island Northern line platforms at places like Clapham Common etc.


The LU roundel on the left tunnel wall looks like there's only a very short station name. That's what made me think it must be Angel rather than another station with an island platform.

Mad detective skillz ftw


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 25, 2013)

Bars on the underground discussed here

http://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/the-pubs-that-once-graced-the-tube-well-underground.258215/


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 25, 2013)

twentythreedom said:


> The LU roundel on the left tunnel wall looks like there's only a very short station name. That's what made me think it must be Angel rather than another station with an island platform.
> 
> Mad detective skillz ftw


 
Although the text may have been smaller on the Claphams

Anyway, I think the clock is the giveaway for Angel


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 25, 2013)

Euston used to have an island platform as well


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## marty21 (Jul 25, 2013)

Minnie_the_Minx said:


> Ban on smoking on buses didn't come 'til much later, and whilst looking for the date, I came across this, so confused now
> 
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8136355.stm
> 
> ...


I definitely smoked on trains in the 90s - the London to Glasgow route had a smoking carriage, i got a sleeper in the late 90s? maybe even later.


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 25, 2013)

marty21 said:


> I definitely smoked on trains in the 90s - the London to Glasgow route had a smoking carriage, i got a sleeper in the late 90s? maybe even later.


 
Trains didn't happen 'til much later



> *Smoking banned on all trains*
> 
> Last updated at 14:02 09 October 2005
> 
> ...


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## skyscraper101 (Jul 25, 2013)

beesonthewhatnow said:


> Love this one, anyone know which station it is?


 
Which one is editor?


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## eoin_k (Jul 25, 2013)

Bungle73 said:


> Why the need to drink on the Tube? It's rather vulgar tbh, some scruffy oik sitting there with a can of Fosters.
> 
> Glasses of Beer? From a pub?
> 
> ...


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## dweller (Jul 25, 2013)

the glasgow underground really stinks of stagnant water in some stations (well it did back in da 90s)


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## trashpony (Jul 25, 2013)

eoin_k said:


>


Is that Jamie Oliver in the background?


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 29, 2013)

trashpony said:


> Is that Jamie Oliver in the background?


 


Apparently he was born in 1975, so he'd have to still be school age there


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## Frumious B. (Jul 29, 2013)

Bars on the tube feature quite a lot in A Word Child by Iris Murdoch. Try a sample passage from p. 37 and 38  http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=c5wBj3-tufIC&lpg=PP1&pg=RA1-PR10#v=onepage&q&f=false


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## mauvais (Aug 5, 2013)

editor said:


> Ace photos:


"Don't do it, Grandad!"


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## marty21 (Aug 5, 2013)

the smoking carriage on the sleeper to Glasgow was an excellent place to hang out, smoke, and get drunk - sadly missed - of course - all the cool people hung out there


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## Onket (Aug 5, 2013)

dweller said:


> http://spitalfieldslife.com/2013/07/19/bob-mazzer-on-the-tube/
> 
> these are great, really take you back


 
Great stuff. Thanks for sharing. My first experience of the tube must have been 90/91 going to away games. A lot of these pictures bring back memories.


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## dweller (Aug 8, 2013)

BBC radio LONDON have photographer bob on todays Robert elms show.
Show has just started.


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## pogofish (Aug 19, 2013)

IIRC the Tube smoking ban was largely ignored/barely enforced until after the Kings Cross fire


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## Dexter Deadwood (Aug 21, 2013)

pogofish said:


> IIRC the Tube smoking ban was largely ignored/barely enforced until after the Kings Cross fire


 

IIRC the smoking ban was not introduced until after the Kings Cross fire.


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## pogofish (Aug 21, 2013)

Dexter Deadwood said:


> IIRC the smoking ban was not introduced until after the Kings Cross fire.


 
The total ban, yes - but as Minnie mentioned above, it had been introduced in stages since 1984 but IME, these were not taken particualrly seriously until the fire.


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## JTG (Aug 21, 2013)

Minnie_the_Minx said:


> Trains didn't happen 'til much later


Yep, I remember spacehopper starting a thread on here when the South West Trains smoking carriage disappeared in the middle of the last decade!


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## FridgeMagnet (Jun 30, 2014)

I went to a talk by this guy this evening - he's had a book of the pictures published. He also has an exhibition at the Howard Griffin Gallery in Shoreditch until the 13th of July - http://howardgriffingallery.com/exhibitions/bob-mazzer-underground

It was good, despite the venue having the world's worst projector, so all the photos were completely out of focus. He's an amiable bloke and has a surprising memory for what was happening thirty or more years ago when he took the pictures. He still takes them on the tube but moved to Hastings a while ago so not nearly in the same volume. It's reassuring that even after several decades of experience, he still worries about people getting cross and not wanting their picture taken.


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## editor (Jun 30, 2014)

FridgeMagnet said:


> I went to a talk by this guy this evening - he's had a book of the pictures published. He also has an exhibition at the Howard Griffin Gallery in Shoreditch until the 13th of July - http://howardgriffingallery.com/exhibitions/bob-mazzer-underground
> 
> It was good, despite the venue having the world's worst projector, so all the photos were completely out of focus. He's an amiable bloke and has a surprising memory for what was happening thirty or more years ago when he took the pictures. He still takes them on the tube but moved to Hastings a while ago so not nearly in the same volume. It's reassuring that even after several decades of experience, he still worries about people getting cross and not wanting their picture taken.


Love those pics. 

When is that gallery open? Their website  seems light on info. Is it free?


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## FridgeMagnet (Jun 30, 2014)

editor said:


> Love those pics.
> 
> When is that gallery open? Their website  seems light on info. Is it free?


I think it's free - they're trying to sell prints so probably won't be charging people on top. It says Wednesday to Sunday 12-8pm. I might pop along on the weekend.


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## friendofdorothy (Jun 30, 2014)

http://www.playle.com/listing.php?i=KDL64313



slightly off topic but hey, its too good not to post here too - Julian Howes - the only person I know sacked from LU for wearing a skirt, in 1979.


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## blossie33 (Jul 2, 2014)

FridgeMagnet said:


> I think it's free - they're trying to sell prints so probably won't be charging people on top. It says Wednesday to Sunday 12-8pm. I might pop along on the weekend.


 
Yes, it's always free to go in the gallery, it hasn't been open that long but they've had some interesting exhibitions.

The Bob Mazzer photos are great.


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## editor (Jul 2, 2014)

friendofdorothy said:


> http://www.playle.com/listing.php?i=KDL64313
> 
> 
> 
> slightly off topic but hey, its too good not to post here too - Julian Howes - the only person I know sacked from LU for wearing a skirt, in 1979.


They've spelt his name wrong, It was Julian Hows.
There's a piece here: http://www.brixtonbuzz.com/2013/10/...ality-and-julian-hows-london-transport-skirt/

His Mum posted on this piece too: 
Brixton Fairies and the South London Gay Community Centre in Brixton (1974-6).


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## Tankus (Jul 25, 2014)

I arrived in 82 ....seem to remember the central line had smoking carridges every third or fourth ...

Always tried for the cartridge  before ...as in the summer ..the smoke would just blow down the carrridges as it moved ...

They were bloody vile 

Who used to play one legged hop on the tubes ?   Had to stand on one leg and not hold onto anything between stops ,everyone chipped in for a pint for the winner ...heh  fukwits ...I do miss the 80's


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## FridgeMagnet (Mar 2, 2016)

Just saw that the Leica Store has an exhibition of these pics up at the moment, closing next Friday.

Bob Mazzer | Underground


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