After leaving school at sixteen, de Larrabeiti initially worked as a librarian at a public library on Magdalen Road in Earlsfield, south London. In 1952 he began attending Battersea Polytechnic with a view towards taking A-Levels and attending university. This ambition took nine years to fulfill, mainly because of economic reasons. During this period de Larrabeiti, guided by his elder brothers, worked at many things, initially as a cinema projectionist in a 3D cinema in Festival Gardens, Battersea Park during the Festival of Britain. His experiences in the Gardens are recorded in "A Rose Beyond the Thames". He later worked as a cameraman in documentary films and as a travel guide in France and Morocco.