The Cyclist
Another restoration of a faded slide I acquired some years ago. It looked awful holding it up to the light but its responded well to restoration.
Lots to say about this one.
The young woman on the cycle is at least in her late sixties now. As she’s holding onto the car, I’d imagine this is the family car outside the house, and a family member has taken this image.
It’s a very pleasant suburban street. The pavements are made mainly of slabs rather than tarmac of today, and the whole road appears litter free.
Just the two cars visible on the street, quite unlike today, and the Standard Vanguard in the foreground is probably washed and polished every week. Externally, it looks good for a car which must be at least 6 years old, Standard having stopped production in 1963. Given the build quality of the age, it’s probably a different story underneath, and the many oil spots we seen under the car aren’t an unusual sight then. Is this one a 1958 Phase 3?
The houses have no double glazing, satellite dishes (not every house has a TV aerial at this point) or loft conversions and the attractive front gardens remain in place; it will be some years before multiple car ownership in a family becomes normal, and the need for the front gardens to go to make way for parking. Where they had garages, chances are that when not in use, this is where the family car lived, and not general storage which most family garages are today! This, of course, is a combination of cars becoming less fragile as time passed – and cars becoming too large for garages designed for pre & post war cars.
It’s a wonderful bit of social history, and yet it really isn’t that long ago.
The Cyclist
Another restoration of a faded slide I acquired some years ago. It looked awful holding it up to the light but its responded well to restoration.
Lots to say about this one.
The young woman on the cycle is at least in her late sixties now. As she’s holding onto the car, I’d imagine this is the family car outside the house, and a family member has taken this image.
It’s a very pleasant suburban street. The pavements are made mainly of slabs rather than tarmac of today, and the whole road appears litter free.
Just the two cars visible on the street, quite unlike today, and the Standard Vanguard in the foreground is probably washed and polished every week. Externally, it looks good for a car which must be at least 6 years old, Standard having stopped production in 1963. Given the build quality of the age, it’s probably a different story underneath, and the many oil spots we seen under the car aren’t an unusual sight then. Is this one a 1958 Phase 3?
The houses have no double glazing, satellite dishes (not every house has a TV aerial at this point) or loft conversions and the attractive front gardens remain in place; it will be some years before multiple car ownership in a family becomes normal, and the need for the front gardens to go to make way for parking. Where they had garages, chances are that when not in use, this is where the family car lived, and not general storage which most family garages are today! This, of course, is a combination of cars becoming less fragile as time passed – and cars becoming too large for garages designed for pre & post war cars.
It’s a wonderful bit of social history, and yet it really isn’t that long ago.