1960

1960

England in the early 1960s…

“An almost universally admired royal family; the world’s most stable parliamentary democracy; limited social mobility; limited access to higher education; people knowing their place; a puritanical guilt about money. Yet, this was a country on the cusp of major and permanent change…Beyond the Fringe opening in London, brilliantly and irreverently spearheading a palpable decline in deference; married women increasingly going out to work; the rise of television and the motor car; the decline of the pub and the cinema; further traditional staples of urban leisure patterns – football, rugby league, greyhound racing, the News of the World, seaside boarding houses – all in decline. England was becoming, in short, a more fluid, more mobile, more open society.” – David Kynaston and Harry Ricketts in their book Richie Benaud’s Blue Suede Shoes.

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“Skinny women, develop a firm, rounded figure. Fill out the curves of bust, arms, hips and legs. Use ‘Wate-On’ and gain as much as 30lbs.”

By 1967 attitudes had changed  – an estimated one in ten adults in Britain were on a diet.

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Baby, you can drive my car…

When the first stretch of the M1 in Britain opened in 1959 there was no speed limit, no crash barriers or lighting 😱

Car ownership rose from 5,650,000 in 1960 to 11,802,000 in 1970.

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Fanny Cradock was the most prominent tv cook of the 1960s. She bossed and bullied her screen “husband” Johnny while concocting complex dishes, often dressed in a ball gown and tiara.

Fanny married four times (including a bigamous marriage). Her fourth husband was Johnny, whom she married in 1977, after her tv career had drifted to a close.