Britain, 60 Years Ago

 

 

Has any country ever changed so much in 60 years? Enchanting photos show what life was like when our Queen came to the throne

By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 21:02 GMT, 1 June 2012 | UPDATED: 23:19 GMT, 1 June 2012

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With all eyes on the Jubilee, these enchanting photographs give an insight into what life was like 60 years ago when our Queen came to the throne.

Discovered in a photographic agency?s archives, they show a world which moved at an entirely different pace. As L.?P. Hartley wrote: ?The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there.? So true.

Crime levels were a tenth of today?s. There were only 2.5?million cars on the road, as opposed to 25?million now. Few homes had phones and only a tenth owned fridges. But storing food wasn?t a problem as rationing did not end until July 1954. Shopping was a daily trail around the butcher?s, the baker?s and the greengrocer?s.

Televisions were rare ? there was  only one channel ? but sales rocketed before June 1953, so the nation could tune into the Coronation.

 

Your Hovis, madam: Like a scene from the nostalgic TV advert, a baker?s boy delivers in a quiet Suffolk street. There?s not a yellow line - or car - in sight

What?s your tip for the big race? A woman chats to a kennel lad exercising half a dozen racing greyhounds in a quiet Worcestershire lane. Let?s hope the dogs don?t catch sight of a real live hare

Perfect fit: A Hereford farrier?s young apprentice learns how to shoe a horse

Home on the range: The fire?s glowing, the kettle?s on - and baby?s cot is in the warmest place in the house

Pedal power: A family go for a 1953 picnic in the Cotswolds by bicycle. A Thermos of tea for Mum and Dad and pop for the kids

Please, sir: Schoolboys chat with a master at King's College School, London

All by hand: Artists creating flags and banners for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II at Edgington's factory in Sidcup, London

The capital at a standstill: An aerial view of the Queen's coronation procession through London, with streets lined with well-wishers

Beating heart of London: Traffic and pedestrians bustle in Piccadilly Circus, which has only grown more hectic since

What's in that basket? Giraffes peer over a fence at a young zoo visitor

Crowd pleaser: A woman on a window seat reads to children listening intently in Billericay, Essex

Home brew: A woman holds up a tea cosy shaped like a miniature thatched cottage in Stratford-upon-Avon

Slower pace of life: Wives of bargemen rest and talk on decks of barges tied up in a canal in Warwickshire

Sign of the times: Children in London lean out of a window to hang a message for their newly crowned queen

Hear ye! Men in Hastings, East Sussex, compete in a town criers' contest

Time and tide: Boats stranded by low waters sit below St Botolph's Church, known locally as the Boston Stump, in Lincolnshire

Quaint: Morris dancers perform on a village street as spectators watch in Maidstone, Kent

Hideaway: Tourists in Nottinghamshire stand inside a decaying part of an ancient tree called Major Oak

Hello sailor: A young couple lingers to talk in municipal park in Hampshire

Service with a smile: A woman stands behind a bar loaded with sandwiches at a 17th-century inn in London

Thatcher's Britain: An apprentice learns to trim new straw on a cottage roof in Hereford

Dressed to impress: Two young textile workers inspect colorful striped silks modelled by an older colleague

Fresh wounds: Four girls in Hampshire read a memorial for the Allied forces who fought on D-Day

Idyllic: Women pet a shy sheep on a hillside overlooking a green valley in Denbighshire, Wales

Sands of time: People watch a sculptor build a miniature cathedral on Weymouth beach, Dorset

Crossroads: Women on a weekend cycling trip through Lincolnshire pose beside a road sign near a meadow

The modern game: Boys at the very same school in Wimbledon, London, get stuck in during rugby practice

Old meets new: Much of Suffolk, such as this street in Bury St Edmunds, has hung on to its traditional look, but gradually it is moving away from the scenes pictured above

To the dogs: Greyhound racing was still hugely popular when the kennel lad shown above was in business, but in 2008 changing tastes saw this stadium in Walthamstow, London, shut due to falling profits and poor attendance