What was England like in late 1998/early 1999?

[breaksinthedayforyou]

Interested to know.

I am a late 90s baby and can't believe that was now over 25 years ago

One of my earliest memories is going into Woolworths in Poplar. I was in a buggy and remember feeling cold

It randomly occurred to me that 1998, my birth year, is going to sound ancient to my own grandchildren/great grandchildren. Much like my great grandmother shocking my mum years ago by being born 'in the 1800s' 😃

I wonder whether our paths ever crossed? What fun to compare experiences with your daughter.

I did see a counsellor in Wellington Square a few times, but was distracted when I saw him at a speed-dating event in Jude the Obscure!

I started at Oxford (overseas student) in Michaelmas 1997, so Princess Diana had just died, and there was a lot of hysteria. I thought I’d come to live in a deeply weird country, but it was a good time over all…

I was 20/21 at the time and maybe it's rose tinted glasses talking but my God it was better. Notably because although we had mobile phones they were only used for texting and calls, there was no internet on them. No social media or apps. It was simpler, better, happier. Public services were in better shape, there were more post offices and libraries. Music was great, pubs and bars were absolutely buzzing and full to the brim from thurs-sun. I was getting lots of lovely clothes from Bay Trading, Jane Norman and Topshop. We still had shops like Allders, The Pier, Woolworths, Athena...I could go on and on, the high street was brilliant. It was the hey day of rom coms, Sandra Bullock movies, and Friends was at its peak. The world felt simpler and happier and more hopeful. The Naughties felt similar to begin with. I genuinely believe that without the internet/mobile phones and social media we would all be happier and the geberation of kids we have now wouldn't be ridden with anxiety and mental health problems and/or feral and giving their teachers hell. We opened Pandora's box and can't close it now. I would go back to 1998 in a heartbeat - it was cheaper to live back then too.

Well, God, this makes me feel old, I was born in 1977! It was a pretty optimistic time, although perhaps 'Cool Britannia' was winding down. I was having a lot of fun clubbing and going to indie gigs, massive dance music clubs were a huge thing and people would often travel really long distances to go to mega-clubs like Gatecrasher in Sheffield week in, week out, all glammed up or with hair in flouro spikes and girls in fluffy bikinis and moonboots.

I was 2 or 3 years into work (graduate role) earning £23,000 and bought a 2-bed house for £75,000 (it was tiny and half falling down but cute) in early 1999. I was lodging before that.

As everyone says, the labour government brought optimism, money into services, pride. But all my colleagues were tories, ha ha. The early 90s recession passed me by as I was at school/ uni, but my older colleagues had been impacted by it.

We worked long hours. Weren’t allowed to wear trousers to work but we did and no one got in trouble (I think 5 years before they would have been told off) Some clients still smoked in their offices. Female senior people were rare (and in fact the only one we had was super scary).

Sometimes people would go out for lunch on a Friday and not come back. Everyone at work snogged everyone else at some point. All the directors had an affair at some point.

I had a laptop for work, I had a mobile phone and to text you had to press the number keys multiple times fir different letters - I could do that in my sleep. If I needed to do something for work at home you had to plug into the phone line and wait for about 40 mins while it whirled away.

We went clubbing at least once a week. Danced until our feet were sore then staggered home.

Y2K in terms of IT issues was huge and companies spent a fortune making sure their computers wouldn’t think it was 1900 and do all sorts of problematic things.

I do think it was a little window of prosperity and peace and optimism. But coloured by my view of being young and carefree!

I've posted on all these threads but just want to reiterate two points

As a non white woman, things felt much less race focused and no one stereotyped me for my skin colour, I was more accepted as an Englishwoman.

London was driveable and so much less crowded - the figures will back it up. So quality of life felt much higher there at least.

It was expensive but it was okay to sit and nurse one drink in the pub all night. I worked stupid hours and always worried about money but I think if you had money in those days, it must have been even better!

I was 25 and living a great life in London in late 1998-early 1999. Making decent money of my own, totally independent, working with some really fun people who I got to know well and socialised with after work. The country was riding high on the whole Cool Britannia thing, British music (Oasis, Blur, etc) was everywhere, the shops were brilliant. I remember it being a really happy and optimistic time.

I was born in 1990 - things I remember of 98 are waking up on a Saturday morning to CITV and hunting through the weetos cereal box for the toy then a whole entire day trailing round the shops- hours and hours spent with my parents shopping for a good deal (bored to tears however asda & mcdonalds had soft play areas) , going to collectibles as a treat to admire all the stuff you could start hoarding 😁TY beanie babies were all the rage at school and apparently going to make us all millionaires in the future and then finishing Saturday bargin hunting sitting in a crowded incredibly smokey pub also bored (but weirdly I remember a lot of kids running round pubs/ the grassy areas back in the 90s)

We'd drive home in a cold often breaking down car (drawing on the condensation windows with your fingers passed the time) to watch crystal maze. Photos were only taken with a film camera and generally for days out / christmas / holidays - you'd also go into a branch to book a holiday or use teletext. Mcdonalds hosted birthday parties which I find a really bizarre concept now.

I do think life is better now personally.

Dh and I were talking about this the other day. Not so much the nostalgia but just the general feeling of optimism. It really did feel like everything would keep getting better.

And hair mascara!

Your parents getting divorced is a personal thing for you...my parents didn't divorce! And I don't recognise what you're saying about electronics either.

OP the 90s were bloody amazing. Labour winning in 97 was just fantastic, we all had such a sense of optimism. In late 98/99 few people had a mobile phone, I got my first end of 99 I think. Had email/Internet at uni but didn't use it. We didn't take photos very often.

Was in my late 20's working in a university. As Labour got voted in, we knew the writing was on the wall for education, so I jumped ship into IT. Ironically I am back in education and we still have Labour's legacy haunting us.
Made an absolute killing doing overtime getting y2k ready.
Mobile phones hadn't been around long, so people weren't yet slaves to them.
I had a lovely little cottage that I bought for £38k with a £5k deposit, those were the days 😕
Our money definitely went further in those days.

I recall a lot of casual sexism in my workplaces at that time (some old-school, and some ‘ironic’ from people who should have known better but affected a kind of lads’-mag-influenced manner). All the pubs were full of smoke.

But yes, this was the downside of that time. Lots of 'lads banter' at work, casual sexism, groping in bars and clubs (that probably still goes on, it's just not me being groped any more). And the smoking - bleugh! I remember the smell of my clothes the morning after - this stinking heap of stuff that had to go straight in the wash. And my hair stinking of smoke and making my pillow stink of smoke. Yuk!

I was out of uni, my first year working. I had a junior admin job paying 10k a year and bought a house for 32k. Think my take home pay was about £600 a month, my mortgage was £200. Or maybe I had £600 after paying my mortgage. I got a lodger who paid me £200 for my spare room. Mortgage rate was 7.5%

People didn't have mobile phones. Internet was new. I bought a PC and remember going to PC World to get a free AOL disk so I could do the internet. It was all dial up, so very slow. But it seemed magical to be able to chat to people in America in chat rooms. Amazon existed but I don't remember any other online shopping. If you were on the internet it shut your home phone line off.

My friends with kids loved Labour because they were getting new benefits and Childrens Centres were opening. Everything seemed quite positive to be honest.

Used to go clubbing and walk home. Felt safe.

I got my first mobile phone at the end of 1999. Went on a plane for the first time in 2000. I don't think there was the consumerism that there is now. People weren't buying new clothes and new stuff all the time.

I’d just started working as a scientist on 20k plus offshore allowance. It was enough to pay off my student loan and put down a deposit on a flat.

I joined a book club and the host suggested a children’s book called Harry Potter. We all thought she was mad should have kept that first copy!

Anyway, it felt like a positive era. I travelled internationally with work and at that time the uk was highly respected. Oh well…..

Well, also the Cold War had ended and Labour had been voted in. Things had got really shit for a lot of people during the 70s and Thatcher years.

I had a baby. Remember being elated when Labour won the general election the year before. Previous to that myself and dh were poor. Despite both working full time and overtime. I remember being cold due to not wanting to Over spend on the heating bills! Very much like how things are now.
I could dress ds in bright baby clothes, choices seemed more vibrant and less dowdy than what’s on offer today. I didn’t know I was expecting a boy and I believe that lead to less stereotyping of sex/gender.
I remember Woolworths too. Used to go there and feed ds. Buy the 3 for 2s when it was Christmas for my nephews and nieces. They had a great range of children's clothes and toys.
Mum lived near a good market back then. There was a stall which sold socks. You could buy themed socks for little ones such as Bob the Builder, Thomas the Tank, Barbie, all that sort of thing.
I did shop more locally as there was a wider variety of shops.
Think waiting times to see a doctor were far better than today, again a labour government.
There was sexism. I was turned down for a promotion because I was pregnant. It wasn’t easy to be a working mother. Employers didn’t have to accommodate you and childcare was hard to come by.
Looking back I think a lot of the music and fashion was dreadful but at the time I didn’t seem to mind!
That reminds me I had the ‘Rachel haircut’ couldn’t spend anytime on my hair though as ds always stared crying whenever I’d washed my hair and was about to style it!

Agree. Casual sexism and smoke everywhere.

Agree about the smoking. People openly smoked in front of pregnant women and children. If you didn’t want to breath in their smoke then the onus was very much on you to move. Not always easy.

All of the above but yes, the hope! I don’t think we will feel that again in my lifetime.

There was a growing trans community but it was very different! Mainly older trans women with money for hair transplants! They were very close and supportive. They wanted to “pass” only and anything else was devastating. They did not refer to themselves as women. They had different factions and referred to “intact” tw as “ladyboys”. They had their own club nights that were very underground. Charing Cross hospital was the only place really offering surgery and the surgeon there was worshipped (later struck off). They were a sweet, positive and fragile community.

And I really remember after labour coming in a massive push to make everywhere accessible for wheelchairs. Dropped pavements everywhere!

Haha I’m pretty sure I wore heather shimmer too! Was it maybeline? Some cheapie brand for sure!

I was 12/13 I got £2 dinner money daily, which bought me a hot meal and a crispycake and I spent the leftover silver on 10p sweets such as Wham bars and Fun Gums.

With my £15 monthly pocket money I was buying Westlife CDs to listen to on my portable disc player and magazines such as Sugar. Also, Teletubbies had just come out so there was (bizarrely) a bit of a vogue for Po themed stuff and saying ‘eh-oh’! I went with my friends to see 10 Things I Hate About You.

The fashion was quite sporty, pretty/‘girly’ wasn’t fashionable, unless it was also ‘sexy’ (revealing vest/crop tops, very mini dresses or enormous platform heels a la the Spice Girls). I remember feeling a bit lost when it came to clothes because I didn’t really aspire to be either sporty or sexy, so I just lurked around in my uncool jeans and a sweater most of my early teens.

My makeup (and that of my friends) was very limited, and we all had the same stuff because it came free with magazines. Glitter nail-varnish was very much a thing, as was purple shimmer eyeshadow and glittery hair clips.

The Year 7 school disco featured S Club 7 and Steps heavily, and you were judged if you didn’t know the dance moves.
Basically, it was cool to be ‘mainstream’ back then!

I didn’t worry about World affairs at all. If you didn't read a newspaper or turn on The News, then you didn't get to hear about it. Nobody in school talked about it. I actually still have no idea what was going on in the world back then. I do remember Tony Blair winning the election though, because my dad was so ecstatic.

We learnt in Geography that there was a ‘hole in the ozone layer’ because of CFCs but not to worry as they were now banned. We knew that recycling was important, mainly because otherwise it would go into landfill and spoil the countryside.

My dad worked, my mum stayed home until I went to secondary school, we lived in a 4 bedroomed house and went on a foreign holiday every other year. Life was good!

I loved the 90s! By 98 I was old enough to go into town with friends. Most Saturdays my mum would give me up to £10 and we would go to Macdonald, then to woolworths for a bit of pick n mix.

I always wanted to get the jelly belly jelly beans but there was a story going round school that someone took a bag with 20 jelly beans to the till and it cost £5, so it scared us all off.

Then we would go into Tammy Girl and try on clothes. Possibly buy a lip gloss or glitter gel.

Probably rose tinted glasses but it felt perfect.

Dd is a similar age and it's all online now. Her friends rarely want to go out but I can't blame them as our local town has nothing to entice them. Sad really.

I had DS in early 1998. Went back to work in IT in the summer and spent the next 18 months on a project rewriting a major system because of the Millennium bug.
We listened to a lot of Catatonia and the Cranberries when we put in long overnight shifts migrating data from one system to another.

We had access to the internet in work but there was just the BBC news website and email really. Google didn’t even exist until later that year so we used Alta Vista and Ask Jeeves.

I was a final year student in 1998. While we had student loans and overdrafts we were not paying fees so debts did not seem terrifying. New Labour were recently in power and the fledgling EU was really taking off and there was a genuine sense of optimism and positivity. The music scene was incredible, and for the most part affordable despite being skint half the time. I was at Bristol uni so spent my weekends listening to the likes of Portishead, Massive Attack, Grove Armada Levellers, drum and base, trip hop and all sorts of feel good trancy dance classics. The internet was in its infancy and a bit wild west, you could chat to people from all over the world on msn and yahoo. You could buy a Eurorail pass for bugger all and spend your summers loafing around Italy, Germany and France, dossing in hostels and on peoples floors. People on the whole just seemed less twatty, you mingled more with folk with different views rather then siloing yourself in Twitter echo chambers, you were not 'literally Hitler' for disagreeing with someone. Safe spaces were for toddlers at playgroups. Smart phones/whatsapp etc did not exist so when you made arrangements people generally stuck to them rather then be flaking out. Ah good times <sniff>

I started uni in 1997 and was the last year to pay No tuition fees. I also got a grant of £400. It wasn't much. We used to get a free bus to nightclubs on weeknights pay very little entry (£2-3?) And it was 50p a shot and 10p mixer. All the alcohol was watered down. Still used to get drunk.

We'd been going to nightclubs since we were 14 or 15 because a) nightclubs still existed and b) underage girls could get in.

Guys wore shiny shirts with black trousers and black shoes (no jeans or trainers to go clubbing).

We went to big name nightclubs like gatecrasher and cream on the weekends and festivals in the summer that whilst expensive were not more expensive than holidays.

Europe was an exciting prospect. Lots of us planned to live and work there. I dreamed of retirement abroad. Loads of my parents generation bought homes in Spain and spent months and months of the year there.

In 97 no sixth formers and hardly any first year students had mobile phones. In 1998 we got a shared house and we all used the one land line. The bill would come and we'd split it.