In October 1977, Mats Örn flew in to London from his native Sweden. He landed at Stanstead Airport to the east of the city in Essex, a wartime airfield serving the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces converted into a commercial airport. Mats then took a coach into the city. After stopping for tea and cake, he and his party went to Madame Tussaud’s waxwork museum and took photos of the insanely creepy exhibits. He walked about Portobello Road, photographing the people there and the stuff they were looking to trade. And he took a stroll around Oxford Street, then the UK’s ultimate shopping destination. He took photos of the shops and the shoppers. The buses – one advertising the Queen’s Silver Jubilee – and cars moving past caught his eye. He popped into the pub for a drink and a game of darts. He mooched west towards Marble Arch and around Hyde Park. He strolled into Soho, moving east, cutting back towards Tottenham Court Road and getting as far as Roseberry Avenue, Clerkenwell and onto the old meat market at Smithfield. At St Paul’s Cathedral he captured a school party careering down the steps. He saw people sat on benches to lie down or eat their lunch. And he got back on the coach. It’s those photos London in 1977, we can show you.
Tea and cake
Trading genuine cut-price once-in-a-lifetime famous name perfumes and colognes on Oxford Street
Rupert Street, London
Smithfield Market
St. Paul’s Cathedral
Westbourne Grove
London Bridge
Hyde Park
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Hyde Park