Leonard Bentley
Piccadilly Circus: 1933
This is a Valentine’s postcard showing the view in Piccadilly Circus looking east towards Leicester Square along Coventry Street with Shaftesbury Avenue on the left. The year is 1933 and the London General Omnibus Company buses are still the most numerous in London, on 1st July London Transport would come into being and all the private bus companies would come under the auspices of the London Passenger Transport Board. This is late April and the London Pavilion is still showing “Non-Stop” variety shows which would continue until mid-1934 when the Theatre was converted into a cinema. The clue to the date can be seen on a billboard at the junction of Coventry Street and the Haymarket. “The British Trophies Exhibition” is being held at the newly completed Shell Mex House in aid of the Docklands Settlement, the exhibits were valued at half a million pounds and a dozen detectives were employed to keep a watchful eye over them. The star exhibit was the “Ashes” urn which was insured for £2000.00, among the other exhibits were the Schneider Trophy, a medical chest used on the Shackleton expedition to Antarctica, the first boat used in the varsity boat race which was exhibited alongside a modern Oxford boat, Malcom Campbell’s “Blue Bird”, Sir. Henry Seagrave’s “Miss England” speedboat, Lonsdale belts and the boxing gloves worn by Jack Dempsey in 1921 when he beat George Carpentier. The Prince of Wales sent eleven silver cups won for Golf, Point to point races and Rackets. The bus in the foreground is carrying and advertisement for “Jantzen Swimwear”, originally founded as the Portland Knitting company, it changed its name in 1918 to the “Jantzen Knitting Mills”. In 1920 its catalogue contained the image of the diving girl in a red swimsuit with stockings and cap, some admirers of the image cut it out and stuck it to the windscreen of their cars and it became a fad on the west coast of America. The fad quickly spread, and the company adopted it as their trademark logo, in 1932 it was reported to be the seventh most recognized logo in the world.
Piccadilly Circus: 1933
This is a Valentine’s postcard showing the view in Piccadilly Circus looking east towards Leicester Square along Coventry Street with Shaftesbury Avenue on the left. The year is 1933 and the London General Omnibus Company buses are still the most numerous in London, on 1st July London Transport would come into being and all the private bus companies would come under the auspices of the London Passenger Transport Board. This is late April and the London Pavilion is still showing “Non-Stop” variety shows which would continue until mid-1934 when the Theatre was converted into a cinema. The clue to the date can be seen on a billboard at the junction of Coventry Street and the Haymarket. “The British Trophies Exhibition” is being held at the newly completed Shell Mex House in aid of the Docklands Settlement, the exhibits were valued at half a million pounds and a dozen detectives were employed to keep a watchful eye over them. The star exhibit was the “Ashes” urn which was insured for £2000.00, among the other exhibits were the Schneider Trophy, a medical chest used on the Shackleton expedition to Antarctica, the first boat used in the varsity boat race which was exhibited alongside a modern Oxford boat, Malcom Campbell’s “Blue Bird”, Sir. Henry Seagrave’s “Miss England” speedboat, Lonsdale belts and the boxing gloves worn by Jack Dempsey in 1921 when he beat George Carpentier. The Prince of Wales sent eleven silver cups won for Golf, Point to point races and Rackets. The bus in the foreground is carrying and advertisement for “Jantzen Swimwear”, originally founded as the Portland Knitting company, it changed its name in 1918 to the “Jantzen Knitting Mills”. In 1920 its catalogue contained the image of the diving girl in a red swimsuit with stockings and cap, some admirers of the image cut it out and stuck it to the windscreen of their cars and it became a fad on the west coast of America. The fad quickly spread, and the company adopted it as their trademark logo, in 1932 it was reported to be the seventh most recognized logo in the world.