50s/60s Britain and Now

[Reorte]

The problem with that sort of redevelopment is that without tackling the problems that turned places into slums in the first place you'll just create new ones in time. Yes, the housing had fallen into such a state it was beyond saving but new houses alone aren't the answer - you just have the same problems down the line if the causes of poverty aren't tackled.

[Rugd1022]

There's a thread on Pistonheads about how grim and run down parts of London were in the '70s which I've been contributing to, naturally with a bit of thread drift it's veering back to the '60s, here are some of the photos I've been posting over there, some of which are screen grabs from films and TV shows of the period...

 

 

 

 

[Hroth]

1 hour ago, Rugd1022 said:

some of which are screen grabs from films and TV shows of the period...

 

I immediately spotted the three that were from "Blow Up", with David Hemmings returning from a clandestine "shoot" in a doss house...

 

Look out for a book "The East End in Colour 1960-1980" which has a trove of such pictures ( https://hoxtonminipress.com/ )

[iL Dottore]

Very nice photos Rugd1022. What IS interesting is that had we had the wherewithal back then to buy those "dumps" and "Slum/Derilect Properties" and had spent some money in gentrifying them, we'd ave a property portfolio worth millions....

[Reorte]

5 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Very nice photos Rugd1022. What IS interesting is that had we had the wherewithal back then to buy those "dumps" and "Slum/Derilect Properties" and had spent some money in gentrifying them, we'd ave a property portfolio worth millions....

 

Some of them do seem to be rather nice buildings that have got into a very poor state.

[Re6/6]

Butter beans...yuk!

 

I'd probably quite like them now. My revulsion stems from school lunches in the early 50s when they were served almost dry and cooked to death.

 

Ah... memories!

[Reorte]

1 minute ago, Re6/6 said:

Butter beans...yuk!

 

I'd probably quite like them now. My revulsion stems from school lunches in the early 50s when they were served almost dry and cooked to death.

 

Ah... memories!

I do a rather nice lamb and butterbean hotpot. But that might be a sign of changing times, my unpleasant bean memories from an early 80s childhood were broad beans.

[Ohmisterporter]

As a child in the late forties and early fifties we lived next door to our grandparents. Every Christmas they had a goose and Nana always saved the grease that came off during cooking. After that if I ever had a cold or even a sniffle I had goose grease rubbed onto my chest. Can't understand why that practice ever died out.

[Rugd1022]

59 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

I immediately spotted the three that were from "Blow Up", with David Hemmings returning from a clandestine "shoot" in a doss house...

 

Look out for a book "The East End in Colour 1960-1980" which has a trove of such pictures ( https://hoxtonminipress.com/ )

 

Thanks - some other good choices there too including the book on the underground from 1970 to 80.

 

 

[Devo63]

3 hours ago, Rugd1022 said:

There's a thread on Pistonheads about how grim and run down parts of London were in the '70s which I've been contributing to, naturally with a bit of thread drift it's veering back to the '60s, here are some of the photos I've been posting over there, some of which are screen grabs from films and TV shows of the period...

 

One of the things that is really noticable in a lot of those photos is the number of British made cars and the variety of marques visible. On my last trip to the UK most of the vehicles that I saw were from the Continent or Asia with only a small amount (in my opinion) of local product. At least you do still have auto manufacturing - our car industry in Oz totally died a couple of years ago.

 

Dave R.

[Hroth]

Another 60s thing that came to mind.

 

There used to be an air-raid siren on the roof of the Town Hall, which occasionally used to go off. I was told that it was to tell the firemen that there was a fire (the firestation was nearby) and they had to go to it.  Being very young at the time, I didn't see any reason to disbelieve it.

 

This would have been around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis....

 

[J. S. Bach]

On 06/04/2020 at 03:27, burgundy said:

 ...snip... Dial telephones. We had a 3 figure phone number. ...snip... Best wishes  Eric

There is a rotary phone next to my computer as I type this:

 

[J. S. Bach]

On 06/04/2020 at 07:25, swampy said:

Reminds me of a sign a little above eye level in one (or maybe more) of the heads onboard the USS Kitty Hawk:

 

     IF YOU CAN P1$$ ABOVE THIS LINE

----------------------------------------------------------

THE SPECIAL FIREFIGHTING WANTS YOU

 

One of many fond memories from the Hawk.

Edited April 9, 2020 by J. S. Bach

[Colin]

Well done Rugd1022, those photos you posted earlier have just given me some truly huge inspiration for my next exhibition layout! Unfortunately I won’t be able to get any track laid until the shops are open again, but I can certainly start planning a few non-railway buildings (and perhaps get my 4SUB finished).

[laurenceb]

5 hours ago, Hroth said:

Another 60s thing that came to mind.

 

There used to be an air-raid siren on the roof of the Town Hall, which occasionally used to go off. I was told that it was to tell the firemen that there was a fire (the firestation was nearby) and they had to go to it.  Being very young at the time, I didn't see any reason to disbelieve it.

 

This would have been around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis....

 

They were sounding the siren at Swadlincote fire station into the mid sixties. it would go off then a couple of minutes later the fire appliance would go hairing past

[TheQ]

I remember the siren in Ludgershall which called the firemen,  I also witnessed two cars trying to get in the back yard on a shout, unfortunately the gate was 1 fire engine wide... 

 

We had the sirens here till recently as flood warnings.  But the police sitting in an office 30miles inland said they weren't needed as mobile phones and emails could do the job. 

Come the next storm,  the lines are down,  and mobile phones don't work in a lot of places on the coast.... 

 

 

[Nearholmer]

A great many memory joggers in this thread, so I'll throw one in that I don't think has been mentioned: Home Helps.

 

Not sure entirely who got home help and who didn't, but both of my brothers were born at home (quite rare in itself now, I guess) and, because it was expected that the father would be out at work, there was a service (NHS?) whereby a woman came and did basic housework for a few weeks.

 

Our Home Help was Old Ma C*****, locally famous as the only cockney in a small country town, where she'd somehow fetched-up having been bombed-out of the east End during the Blitz. She was straight out of a Giles cartoon, with knotted whatever-it-was on her head, leaning on a mop-handle, fag in mouth. I can remember standing on the bottom step of the stairs, watching her "swabbing the decks" in the hall.

 

And, the District Nurse, Miss S*****, a small plump, kindly woman in a small plump grey car, wearing her incredibly neat blue uniform, and a dark blue (?) hat, who used to come and make sure that mother and baby were doing well. I associate her somehow with National Dried Milk tins, so maybe one of my bros was bottle-fed.

 

Certainly my youngest bro was born in the middle of the deep freeze of January 1963, which is another subject in itself.

 

PS: we had a fire siren until the 1970s at least. A pal of mine at the MRC was a fireman, and all the Brigade tied houses were within hearing distance of the siren. When he bought a house, that had to be within hearing and running distance of the fire station too. Like many firemen then, he was also a painter and decorator "on the side", and when the siren went I've seen him come down a painting ladder from three storeys up, doing that sliding-feet-down-the-outside thing, hit the ground running, handing me his brush and paint kettle as he went - very impressive it was!

 

 

Edited April 9, 2020 by Nearholmer

[pH]

58 minutes ago, laurenceb said:

They were sounding the siren at Swadlincote fire station into the mid sixties. it would go off then a couple of minutes later the fire appliance would go hairing past

 

The siren on our local station was to call the volunteer firemen. If you were anywhere near the station when it went off, it was worth waiting to see them arrive - a very few in cars (this would be late 1950s - early 1960s), usually more than one in the car, some on bikes and those who lived nearby running. And the engine pulling out with guys on board obviously still getting into their firefighting gear.

[friscopete]

6 hours ago, Hroth said:

Another 60s thing that came to mind.

 

There used to be an air-raid siren on the roof of the Town Hall, which occasionally used to go off. I was told that it was to tell the firemen that there was a fire (the firestation was nearby) and they had to go to it.  Being very young at the time, I didn't see any reason to disbelieve it.

 

This would have been around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis....

 

Romford market area  had an air raid siren go off .i assumed  the Russians were attacking so bought an AMT 3 in 1  Ford  from a local shop kit just in case .It was actually a flood warning I think .My daughter gets spooked by a warning that a siren will inform the area  that a prisoner has escaped ....from Broadmoor .

[pH]

12 hours ago, Reorte said:

The problem with that sort of redevelopment is that without tackling the problems that turned places into slums in the first place you'll just create new ones in time. Yes, the housing had fallen into such a state it was beyond saving but new houses alone aren't the answer ...

 

Some of the post-war 'schemes' in Glasgow were classic examples of this - huge new housing estates on the edges of the city, mostly composed of 4-storey blocks like the old tenements, with absolutely no services. People were moved out of real slums near the city centre to these places, and were lost. One scheme, Drumchapel, had 30,000 people in it and one row of (I think) 6 shops, no cinema, no pub. (Billy Connolly described it as "a desert wi' windaes"). Before the slums could be knocked down, people were moving back into their old homes and had to be moved out again.

[laurenceb]

37 minutes ago, pH said:

 

The siren on our local station was to call the volunteer firemen. If you were anywhere near the station when it went off, it was worth waiting to see them arrive - a very few in cars (this would be late 1950s - early 1960s), usually more than one in the car, some on bikes and those who lived nearby running. And the engine pulling out with guys on board obviously still getting into their firefighting gear.

Swad was full time crew with the crews housed just behind the station. I was told that the siren was sounded to warn people to stay clear as they had to go through the town on most of their shouts

[Kickstart]

Bangor, Co Down, still had sirens for the volunteer fire brigade in the 1980s.

 

Think they were decommissioned in the early 1990s, but far from certain of that.

 

All the best

 

Katy

[Johann Marsbar]

14 hours ago, Hroth said:

Another 60s thing that came to mind.

 

There used to be an air-raid siren on the roof of the Town Hall, which occasionally used to go off. I was told that it was to tell the firemen that there was a fire (the firestation was nearby) and they had to go to it.  Being very young at the time, I didn't see any reason to disbelieve it.

 

This would have been around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis....

 

Colchester Rd Fire Station in Ipswich used to have the same, and that remained in use as such until the early 1970's - Preumably by which time things like telephone pagers had been introduced to summen firemen there. It was certainly loud, as you could hear it from a couple of miles away!

[Hal Nail]

8 hours ago, pH said:

 

Some of the post-war 'schemes' in Glasgow were classic examples of this - huge new housing estates on the edges of the city, mostly composed of 4-storey blocks like the old tenements, with absolutely no services. People were moved out of real slums near the city centre to these places, and were lost. One scheme, Drumchapel, had 30,000 people in it and one row of (I think) 6 shops, no cinema, no pub. (Billy Connolly described it as "a desert wi' windaes"). Before the slums could be knocked down, people were moving back into their old homes and had to be moved out again.

I live in Ealing where some dreadful flats built on what were fields alongside Castlebar Park station have been pulled down to be replaced by even more dense modern blocks. I was in the recently refurbished corner shop there - which has proved invaluable during the current crisis - and they told me there been a change of plan and it is now being demolished shortly to make way for more flats.

 

Meanwhile just down the road the leisure centre is being knocked down to built another raft of housing blocks.

 

Nothing changes.

[TheQ]

In a similar  thing to fire sirens,  the RNLI, announced the gradual replacement of Maroon firing in 2006. The last actually being fired in 2010.  I bet that saved a few cups of tea with the surprise of the Big Bang not going off... 

 

We surprise a few each summer in the first week of August,  by firing our cannon at the sailing club at 08:00 

Edited April 10, 2020 by TheQ