Fascinating Vintage Photos of London in the Late 1970s and Early 1980s Are Discovered at a Retired Photographer’s Home

A collection of fascinating photographs of London in the late 1970s and early 1980s has been found inside forgotten boxes. The vintage images show Piccadilly Circus illuminated by well-known advertisements, Regent Street lit up by Christmas lights and Londoners enjoying the sunshine on deck chairs in Hyde Park.

The nostalgia-inducing photographs were taken by former Head of Photography at the National Railway Museum (NRM) York Chris Hogg, from York, as he visited family in London.

“Very soon after taking up my post at the NRM surrounded by historic artefacts including some 1.6 million photographs, I realised that a photographic record of what can seem the most mundane everyday life is as important to future generations as the pictures of great occasions and earth shattering events,” he said.

“So, in the late 1970s to early 1980s, when I wasn’t on the terraces at Tottenham I had a go at recording some of the odds and sods of London.

“Around the same time, I heard that Denis Thorpe the great Guardian photographer when asked how he was able to capture such incredible pictures of everyday Britain replied “keeping my eyes open and just mooching around”. One great piece of advice.”

Crowds of tourists gather around the famous neon advertising signs in Piccadilly Circus.

Regent Street in December 1980 as shoppers buy their Christmas presents under the festive lights.

Clock repair shop John Walker at 63 New Bond Street pictured in October 1981.

The Salvation Army band give a outdoor performance on the steps of St Martin in the Fields Church next to Trafalgar Square in December 1981.

Commuters stand and watch the huge departure boards as they wait for their trains at Waterloo station in October 1981.

Relaxed Londoners soak up the sun and top up their tans in a sunny Hyde Park in 1979.

Two large horses from Whitbread Brewery pull a large cart through Aldersgate Street in London in October 1982.

The outline of the Eros statue can be seen among the bright lights of the Coca Cola advert in Piccadilly Circus.

The bright neon lights at Piccadilly Circus shine on people enjoying London’s nightlife in 1979.

A passenger waits for a Piccadilly line train from Heathrow Central Underground Station in 1979.

An aircraft begins its journey by taking to the skies across London after jetting off from Heathrow in 1979.

One of London’s iconic red double-decker buses rolls past Trafalgar Square at Christmas time in 1981.

A bird’s eye view showing commuters waiting on the platform for District Line trains at Aldgate East Tube station.

Delivering paper to Fleet Street, October 1981.

Demolished for crossrail. Gor-ray, Dering Street, 1983.