please empty your brain below
I 'did' Trafalgar Square before the South Bank fireworks became established, and it was the main focal point. From your description of the well timed cheer, I think we have phones to thank for that.

My recollection was a a marked crescendo at about 3 minutes to (when the couple of clocks visible were roughly pointing towards the top - besides - who ever had perfectly accurate watches in the pre-phone era?), with corks popping and cheers from random corners coalescing into a peak roar for a minute or so. I always thought Parliament Square would be a better place, where the bongs would be audible.

It was also a time before transport was so well organised as now - on one occasion I walked all the way back to Putney rather than chance the crowds and infrequent night busses.

NickW | 01.01.20 - 10:47 a.m. | #

As above, I did it in the mid 1970s with my family when I was about 12 years old!
Never have I been so scared in my life!! I was completely familiar with London and its crowds but this too it to a whole new level I've not encountered since!

My dad drove us in and my abiding memory is of sitting in the back seat watching groups of drunken males dancing round the car, banging on the roof/windows while we tried to inch forward. Been there, done that, definitely do not recommend!

Cornish Cockney | 01.01.20 - 11:07 a.m. | #

t did Parliament Square into 2001 ...was o.k. Crowds were manageable and got to see/hear Big Ben do its thing live. think once the works are complete it may become a more popular focal point than the madness that is Trafalgar Square.

anyways...happy new year/decade to one and all

Grumpy Anon | 01.01.20 - 11:24 a.m. | #

As the other comments above I also "did" Trafalgar Square New Year, for me it was back in the 1960's when it was the place to go.
Not very exiting. As for transport I drove there, easier parking back in those days.
For accurate time some people would have small portable radios and of would listen for Big Ben chimes on them.

Nowadays I go to bed as usual after 10pm and grumble if I get woken by fireworks at Midnight (which I did).

John | 01.01.20 - 11:42 a.m. | #

An early 70s duff experience here. (1972/3??). There were fights going on all over the square -- I vividly remember a crutch being used to good effect on someone.

My mate got nicked for allegedly mugging someone so I saw New Year in Cannon Row nick giving a witness statement.

Mate was released at 0200 after the victim changed his mind and said it was not him but a gang of 40 youths with a different ethnic background.

Walked home to Purley vowing never to do it again. A vow I have kept.

Chris | 01.01.20 - 11:44 a.m. | #

Any idea what the chap with the hood has just said to the girl in the bottom right corner of your photo, DG? Doesn't look like good news, though I suppose it could have been a marriage proposal (maybe the crowds were a bit too packed for him to go down on one knee)

David | 01.01.20 - 12:33 p.m. | #

I did Trafalgar Square 3 or 4 times from around 1980. Used to go up early and get eats and drinks in the west end. One time we went and saw The Last Starfighter in the cinema in Leicester Square. Then we'd go and see my uncle who had The Devonshire Arms in Denman Street, just off Piccadilly Circus before heading down to TS for midnight. All very exciting at that age. We stopped going after the year that rozzers clamped down on alcohol in the square and confiscated whatever anyone was carrying.

For unticketted firework watching now Primrose Hill has a good atmosphere which is where I went for 2018-19. Last night involved a sofa, NCIS box set, and lemsip mostly. Which doesn't explain why I still didn't wake up until twenty to twelve...

Don | Homepage | 01.01.20 - 12:33 p.m. | #

My mother always wanted to paddle in the fountains on New Years Eve so went there in the early 70s. She didn't go in the fountains but we had a good time.

Cornish Monkey | 01.01.20 - 2:58 p.m. | #

David...I think she has just learned that she is in her 5th decade, despite being 35...

Jonalot | 01.01.20 - 5:27 p.m. | #

Excellent! My hunch has been right: It's a complete waste of time to go into Trafalgar Square for New Year's...

Southern Heights (Light Railway) | 02.01.20 - 8:14 a.m. | #

Prior to organised fireworks on the South Bank, which Red Ken got started in the 90s If I recall correctly, Trafalgar Square on NYE was the simply the focal point for nothing much other than milling about drunkenly. London had the reputation of doing nothing special publicly at a time when other major cities like Edinburgh, NY and Sydney made a big deal of it.

Arlu | 02.01.20 - 1:38 p.m. | #

I went in the mid 60s, despite a few grumbles from my then boyfriend who escorted me rather unwillingly, saying that there'd probably be nothing to see. He was right, but I was still glad I'd done it. At that time I had a bedsitter just off Baker St so I was able to walk home, I won't even consider it now that I'm based in Zone 4.

amber | 02.01.20 - 4:58 p.m. | #

I did TS on NYE around 83 or 84. A miserable scary experience - miserable due drunken loutish behaviour and petty crime, scary due to overcrowding at pinch points and exit roads. Will never do it again, nor the ticketed event. Have grown to detest NYE for a variety of reasons.

Frank F | 02.01.20 - 9:34 p.m. | #

My husbands mum lives near Elephant & Castle and has a direct view of the fireworks and even from there its incredibly loud

Rachel | 03.01.20 - 3:15 p.m. | #

I once saw in a New Year at a house party in Whitechapel, where we could hear (what I presume were) the bangs of the South Bank fireworks roughly in sync with the web stream of BBC One we had on the telly.

(Now I'm in suburbia everyone sets off their own fireworks)

martin | 04.01.20 - 9:24 a.m. | #











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