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Books > Basildon Living Memories Pocket Album
Basildon, Town Square c1965 (ref. B438327) | The post office was opened in 1963. There were around 160 shops in the town centre by this time, and the Development Corporation had turned their attention to providing Basildon with a health centre, and also police, fire and ambulance stations. The long-delayed hospital was not ready until 1973. |  Add your own Memory
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Basildon, Town Square c1965 (ref. B438026) | Freedom House was built by 1960. At the time of our photo, its three echelons included ABC Wallpapers, Forbuoys newsagents and Robinson Rentals at the bottom; Peter's gents' hairdressing and Hart's store in the middle; and offices for estate agents and chartered surveyors at the top. | Add your own Memory
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Basildon, Development Corporation c1960 (ref. B438039) | The Development Corporation was formed in January 1949, with a view to converting the area into a workable New Town. Their headquarters, Gifford House, were just outside the New Town boundaries, a fact that prompted accusations of stand-offishness. Even so, there were suggestions in the 1960s of extending the development zone eastwards. 'I must admit I have often cast lustful eyes on Bowers Gifford's acres which I can see from my office window', said General Manager Charles Boniface. | Add your own Memory
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Basildon, the view from Freedom House c1965 (ref. B438066) | Work on the town centre had begun in 1956. The shops at Laindon, Vange and Pitsea—the old centres—tended to suffer as new business was drawn into the precinct. In the 1930s, Laindon High Road had consisted of 120 shops; only one of the old buildings now remains. | Add your own Memory
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Basildon, the Clock c1965 (ref. B438019a) | The town centre was constructed on a plateau
halfway between Laindon and Vange. The block
of 41 shops facing Market Square was the first
to be built. The butcher's, nearest the camera, is
certainly attracting window-shoppers. Just to its
left is a cafeteria.
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Basildon, Town Centre c1965 (ref. B438015) | Although Basildon was burgeoning as a commercial centre, the presence of the Bankrupt Stock Clearance shop on the right indicates that not everybody was doing well. It was always intended that Basildon would become a Mecca for regional shopping—an aim that was realised when the famous Eastgate Shopping Centre opened in 1985. | Add your own Memory
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Basildon, Town Centre c1965 (ref. B438014) | Old-fashioned, coach-built prams were still very much in evidence in 1965, though they were gradually rendered redundant as car ownership increased and foldaway buggies came into their own. The original plan for Basildon, however, was for each neighbourhood to have its principal amenities within easy walking distance. | Add your own Memory
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Basildon, Southernhay c1965 (ref. B438305) | The town centre was extended eastwards in the 1980s, and Southernhay was diverted. This stretch of the road survives as a walkway in the precinct. Gina Murray's hairdressing salon, on the far left, offered 'Permanent Waving from 21/-. Satisfaction Guaranteed'. Triumph Heralds and Ford Consuls were the cars of the day. | Add your own Memory
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Basildon, Bus Station c1965 (ref. B438330) | The bus station managed to combine functionalism with aesthetics. The mosaic along its fascia measures 315?×?13ft, and consists of 16,000 hand-printed tiles. The artist was John Gordon. Buses were seen as a vital conduit to and from the new estates: they ran at a frequency that compares very favourably with today's timetables. | Add your own Memory
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Basildon, Blenheim House and the Bus Terminus 1961 (ref. B438015a) | Blenheim House contained the Locarno (later Tiffany's Ballroom), where the resident group in the early 1960s were the pre-fame Dave Clark Five. Contemporaneous fashions undoubtedly included the Mekay 'immaculate shirts' advertised on the side of the 244 bus (which served Whitmore Way and Laindon). | Add your own Memory
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Basildon, Bus Station c1965 (ref. B438029a) | The bus station was built to incorporate a parade of shops, seen here beneath the canopy. By the mid 1960s, dress sensibilities were changing: the young woman in Bay A is wearing a mini-skirt, whilst the man in Bay B sports narrow jeans. His companion is evidently a clippie (see her ticket-machine)—a breed that is now extinct outside metropolitan areas. | Add your own Memory
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Basildon, Long Riding c1960 (ref. B438007) | The Basildon Development Corporation aimed at providing a wide range of different types of housing—both for visual reasons, and also to attract residents from different income-groups. Maisonettes, terraces, semis, bungalows, flats and detached houses all had a place in the new neighbourhoods. | Add your own Memory
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Basildon, the Jolly Friars c1960 (ref. B438005) | It was planned that each neighbourhood in the New Town would have its own pub. The first to materialise was the Crane (taking its name from the demolished Cranes Farm) in Pendle Drive on the Fryerns estate. The Jolly Friar was built nearby in Whitmore Way. The oldest pub surviving in the New Town area is the Five Bells at Vange. | Add your own Memory
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Basildon, Whitmore Way 1961 (ref. B438027) | The early neighbourhoods were characterised by winding streets and plenty of open space. Some of the plans won awards. Whitmore Way was the site of Basildon's first proper shopping parade: this included a chemist, a hardware shop, a post office, a Martin's newsagent, a Home & Colonial store, and a much-needed chip-shop. | Add your own Memory
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Basildon, Long Riding c1960 (ref. B438006) | 8,336 new homes had been built in Basildon by 1960. One problem not foreseen by the planners was the dramatic increase in car ownership. The initial blueprint allowed for one garage for every six homes. Come 1957, the ratio had been lowered to 1:2, and soon became 1:1. | Add your own Memory
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Basildon, the Industrial Estate c1965 (ref. B438034) | Basildon's first new factory, South East Essex Wholesale Dairies, opened in 1951. Over the next two years, the No 1 Industrial Estate sprang up around it. The dominant building was the Carreras Rothman factory (in the distance, with the clock). It closed in 1984, costing Basildon 1,500 jobs. Fifteen years earlier, it had been producing 65% of all the cigarettes exported from Britain. Amongst its innovations had been 'fat filter cigarettes, luxury length menthol cigarettes, double filters and charcoal filters'. | Add your own Memory
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Basildon, Industrial Estate c1965 (ref. B438031) | The Ford Tractor Plant—resplendent with its 600,000 gallon water-tower (right)—occupied the whole of the No 3 Industrial Estate. Built in the mid 1950s, it was followed into the town by the Ford Engineering Research Centre at Dunton. When it was taken over by the New Holland Machinery Company in 1994, the plant had manufactured 1,347,000 tractors. | Add your own Memory
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Basildon, Industrial Estate c1965 (ref. B438332) | Basildon's original target was that 16,000 people should be employed on its industrial estates. This picture shows the No 2 Industrial Estate, with Gloucester Park to the right. Wass, Pritchard & Co, in the foreground, were printers, specialising in holiday brochures, catalogues, foreign stamps, and wrappers for chocolates and razor-blades. | Add your own Memory
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Basildon, Ghyllgrove c1960 (ref. B438030) | A number of neighbourhoods—Fryerns, Barstable, Kingswood and Lee Chapel South—were in place by 1958. Then, the government issued plans for increased house-building all over the country. The south-west corner of the proposed Gloucester Park was therefore set aside for the Ghyllgrove neighbourhood. | Add your own Memory
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Basildon, Kingswood County Primary School c1960 (ref. B438038) | At first, Basildon's schools were insufficient to house the surge of New Towners. For some of the primary-age children, there were places in existing schools at Vange and Pitsea. Other pupils were shuttled to schools in Benfleet. Basildon's first new school—Swan Mead Junior & Infants, in Church Road—opened in April 1954. Kingswood was built soon after. | Add your own Memory
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