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Luton - A History & CelebrationSelected extracts and photosReturn to Book | Search for another Book | View all photos for Luton | Luton homepage |
22 captions found: Showing captions 1 to 20 | |
 Luton, Wardown Park 2002 (ref. L117723k) | Military vehicles from the local Vauxhall Bedford factory were tested at Wardown Park during wartime. Public swimming was banned in 1950 in an increasingly safety- conscious age that valued its people more after so much wartime carnage. At least boating is still legal! (see left). It is fitting to end on one of the most profound reasons for Luton to celebrate recently: the local football club, Luton Town FC, came top of League One and were promoted to the Championship League. (The club still honours one of its former (Robert Cook) (Robert Cook) Martyn Coote conducts a live radio show at Bute Street Hat Museum. The arrival of BBC Three Counties Radio in Luton meant that a daily paper was no longer feasible; covering Bedfordshire, Berkshire and Hertfordshire, it makes Luton a reference point for a wide area. |  Add your own Memory Add to your Album |
 Luton, the Corn Exchange c1950 (ref. L117013) | Looking towards Chapel Street from Cheapside, we see a variety of building styles. There are just enough people out to catch one's interest, and make us wonder who they were and what they were doing all those years ago. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Luton, Chapel Street 2005 (ref. L117721k) | Geoff Cox said: 'I think the negative image goes back to Lorraine Chase and the Luton Airport advertisement (for Campari); it led to the naff town idea. To a lot of people it's just a place people see when they're going up and down the M1. Football is very important, but not necessarily the supporting of the local team. A lot of people in Luton haven't got roots; they have moved here for cheaper housing. We have a lot of commuters, and we want to get them interested in the town. We do four pages of Luton news each week. Even those who don't support Luton town will be interested that there are plans for a new stadium. It may be used for other purposes like rock concerts, but there will be those who worry about the effect near their homes.' The Milton Keynes and South Midland Spatial Strategy gave the green light for massive new development in the Luton and Milton Keynes area, but with no firm commitment to infrastructure. Geoff Cox observed: 'The rush hour is an absolute (Robert Cook) Looking across at Chapel Street today, from under the canopy of the large shopping centre. Needless to say, much has changed; however, the old Boots building remains, nowadays an estate agent's, helping to handle the thriving property market. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Luton, Advertising Hoarding 2005 (ref. L117715k) | LOOKING TO the future, a lot depends on the fortune of the nation and its place in the world. A bitter election campaign in 2005 saw the Tory leader Michael Howard criticise south-east expansion plans when there is no firm commitment to infrastructure. Luton, like all busy towns and cities, has its problems, and every hospital could use more cash in the right areas. High house prices do not make it easy to recruit nurses. South-east expansion will certainly put pressure on the M1, and on local roads like the A505 and the rat run through Houghton Regis. Public transport is still the poor relation, although coach links to Luton Airport are good and help reduce motor traffic. Plans to establish a tramway on the old Luton to Dunstable line have so far failed to bear fruit. There can be no doubt that without serious funding toward better transport the quality of life, not just in Luton but the whole south- east, will diminish. Over the wider region, there is outrage and protest against plans for a new flight path at lower altitudes over Aylesbury Vale. This is the price of cut-price air travel. It is like mobile phones: everybody wants the benefit, but not the inconvenience of the environmental price being paid in their own communities. (Robert Cook) Modern jets are parked up on the Luton tarmac; it is hard to imagine that this was once Eaton Farm. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Luton, Airport, Modern Jets 2005 (ref. L117716k) | LOOKING TO the future, a lot depends on the fortune of the nation and its place in the world. A bitter election campaign in 2005 saw the Tory leader Michael Howard criticise south-east expansion plans when there is no firm commitment to infrastructure. Luton, like all busy towns and cities, has its problems, and every hospital could use more cash in the right areas. High house prices do not make it easy to recruit nurses. South-east expansion will certainly put pressure on the M1, and on local roads like the A505 and the rat run through Houghton Regis. Public transport is still the poor relation, although coach links to Luton Airport are good and help reduce motor traffic. Plans to establish a tramway on the old Luton to Dunstable line have so far failed to bear fruit. There can be no doubt that without serious funding toward better transport the quality of life, not just in Luton but the whole south- east, will diminish. Over the wider region, there is outrage and protest against plans for a new flight path at lower altitudes over Aylesbury Vale. This is the price of cut-price air travel. It is like mobile phones: everybody wants the benefit, but not the inconvenience of the environmental price being paid in their own communities. (Robert Cook) Modern jets are parked up on the Luton tarmac; it is hard to imagine that this was once Eaton Farm. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Luton, George Street c1965 (ref. L117096) | Imagine the different noises, smells and preoccupations of the people seen in L117011 in the long-lost world of 1950s Britain. The scene appears to be one of quiet tranquillity, but change was in the air. The people and their leaders sought a better world after years of war and hardship. Alas, their high hopes may have been in vain, if laughter is the measure. According to a recent survey by the cruise company Ocean Village, when they interviewed adults over 18, they found that Britain has 'a worrying trend towards glumness.' The report explains: 'In the 1950s we laughed for an average of 18 minutes daily, but this has dropped to just six minutes.' The over-45s are the most miserable, and 18- to 24- year-old women in Manchester are the happiest. So just look at this picture, and imagine you are back in a time of laughter! In picture L117096, very little has changed. Though there have been some modernising influences, and clothes appear less restrained, all seems very quiet still, but the 1960s period was the herald of a different era. For the time being reassuring local names like Blundell's remained, but the age of the chain store was about to hit town. Debenhams would become the big clothes shop for increasingly fashion-conscious women. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Luton, George Street c1950 (ref. L117011) | Imagine the different noises, smells and preoccupations of the people seen in L117011 in the long-lost world of 1950s Britain. The scene appears to be one of quiet tranquillity, but change was in the air. The people and their leaders sought a better world after years of war and hardship. Alas, their high hopes may have been in vain, if laughter is the measure. According to a recent survey by the cruise company Ocean Village, when they interviewed adults over 18, they found that Britain has 'a worrying trend towards glumness.' The report explains: 'In the 1950s we laughed for an average of 18 minutes daily, but this has dropped to just six minutes.' The over-45s are the most miserable, and 18- to 24- year-old women in Manchester are the happiest. So just look at this picture, and imagine you are back in a time of laughter! In picture L117096, very little has changed. Though there have been some modernising influences, and clothes appear less restrained, all seems very quiet still, but the 1960s period was the herald of a different era. For the time being reassuring local names like Blundell's remained, but the age of the chain store was about to hit town. Debenhams would become the big clothes shop for increasingly fashion-conscious women. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Luton, c1955 (ref. L117301) | As part of a commitment to education, the Wheatsheaf pub and King Edward VII School had to make way for a new College of Advanced Technology on Market Hill in 1957. Other landmarks, like the Central Library and the Grand Theatre, would also be gone by the early 1960s. Great changes were imminent when the picture on the right was taken. Slum areas like Latimer Road, New Town and High Town were cleared as part of a major housing regeneration scheme. A whole world of corner shops and little communities was disappearing, but what was the alternative? For a while old customs like the annual Co- op day parade would continue, but with Luton about to be put well and truly on the local map, even bigger changes were afoot. The motorway was coming. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Luton, Whipperley Ring Estate on Farley Hill 2002 (ref. L117710k) | By the 1950s, thoughts were turning toward redeveloping the town centre. Castle Street was earmarked for major change, encouraging Neville's to give up their rented yard and purchase a new site out at Common Farm, Leagrave, for £3,397. The trend to decentralisation had begun in 1953 - the same year as young Peter Henman joined the firm. His brother Michael joined in 1953, going to work on Whipperley Ring school at Farley Hill. Like their father, they had trained at Regent Street Polytechnic. Once government controls were relaxed, industry was allowed to rebuild for the future. Among the new developments was Neville's addition of a 94ft-high fermentation house extension to the Castle Street Phoenix brewery in 1957, at a cost of £100,000. By this time Greens had merged with Flowers, trading under the latter name. There were many other developments, including extensions to Skefco and the Co-op. Government controls during the early 1950s made home building a priority. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Luton, Vauxhall Motors c1950 (ref. L117028) | On 30 August 1940, a 100kg bomb scored a direct hit on Park Street bus depot, killing one person and creating a temporary bus shortage. The Germans had been aiming for the neighbouring Vauxhall works, but bombing lacked accuracy in those days. On 9 September 1940, a parachute mine was dropped on Park Street, destroying 46 houses and making 100 people homeless. On 21 October, bombs rained down, damaging 400 homes. German prisoners helped clear up the damage. Air raid shelters were not foolproof, but they gave a sense of security. In Luton they included one under shops on the east side of Park Street, and tunnels were made under Upper George Street. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Luton, Williamson Street c1965 (ref. L117098x) | This picture offers a glimpse of the soon to be demolished Midland Hotel on the left. Carnegie's magnificent public library has already gone, replaced by a bland modern structure that has now also been removed. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Luton, Corn Exchange c1950 (ref. L117007) | These premises were on Market Hill at the top of George Street, opposite the old Corn Exchange. They made way for Debenhams in 1978. The firm's other shop on the Cheapside and George Street junction was also demolished during massive retail redevelopment in the 1970s. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Luton, the Vauxhall Motors Canteen c1950 (ref. L117034) | In spite of its large empire, Britain was badly prepared for war. However, it was amazing how well folk improvised. Work was hard. Normal hours at Vauxhall were 46.5 in the factory and 40.5 in the office. They operated four staggered shifts, with half an hour for lunch and tea and two ten-minute tea breaks. Inevitably labour relations all around became strained. Shortages led to the Vauxhall scheme to take on young men of 14 to 16 years of age, with a view to developing their potential at technical college. Luton's gas company made tar for airfield runways. The local airfield, with its attendant aircraft firms, became an RAF station and a base for aircraft manufacture – indeed, some of the famous Mosquito fighter bombers were built there. The airfield was a base for B Flight, RAF 264 Squadron. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Luton, Vauxhall Motors c1955 (ref. L117035) | The Second World War was a busy time at the Vauxhall car factory. Among other things, the plant was engaged in developing the Churchill tank. The government's appeasement policy before the war meant that there were only 100 tanks available to confront the Nazi danger. Bedford truck designs became the basis for a new breed of army vehicles; the QL made history as the company's first 4 x 4. The Luton factory's great wartime feat was to design and build a completely new tank, which was ready for production within a year of the conflict starting. Owen Hardisty joined Vauxhall as a 14-year-old schoolboy in 1940. He remembered: 'When I started Jack Hardy was a tool setter when they bombed X block, blowing the roof off. Seven were killed in there, along with another 37 elsewhere at the plant. I'd spoken to Dennis Orchard ten minutes before he died. They were working on the early jet engines in V block. The Churchill tank weighed 38 tons, but it was useless because it had a pea shooter for a turret gun, with a three inch Howitzer in the hull. It was improved when they built a 40 ton version.' Vauxhall became expert in the art of camouflage; the entire works were painted to blend in with neighbouring hills. It was a prime target, and it was lucky not to have faired much worse, especially during the closing stages of the war with the V2 rocket bombs. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Luton, the Town Hall c1960 (ref. L117088) | The clean forceful lines of the neo- classical new town hall were in marked contrast to its rather sedate and friendly looking predecessor, built by the Luton architects John Williams & Sons in 1846. The earlier town hall was burned down during the post-First World War disturbances in July 1919. In 1930 a competition to design a new town hall was held, and the winners were the architects Bradshaw, Gass & Hope of Bolton. Their design has Doric columns on either side of the entrance as the earlier town hall did, but the neo-classical style is modified by some Art Deco touches. The new town hall is built of Portland stone, with a 144- foot clock tower. The bell that sounds the hours weighs two tonnes, and is the heaviest bell in Bedfordshire. Civic power, like central government, was getting stronger. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Luton, Bedford Road 1924 (ref. 75592) | With business looking good, and the founder long gone from Vauxhall's, the company sought room to expand and happened upon Luton, where the council welcomed them with open arms. The company took large premises in Kimpton Road, and was restructured as the Vauxhall and West Hydraulic Company, with car making separated out as Vauxhall Motors Limited. Percy Kidner shared the managing directorship with Leslie Walton. Vauxhall aimed their products at a high- class market in class-conscious Britain. Wealthy customers put quality before price, and Vauxhall's engineers approached car making along similar lines to Rolls Royce. Before the First World War, a 35hp Vauxhall was expensive at £600. Company leadership was hands-on: the young director Percy Kidner enjoyed endurance driving, competing in the 1908 RAC 2,000-mile reliability trials among other events. The company's competitive spirit soon ranged further afield, even as far as Russia and Australia. Building and driving cars were very expensive activities, with motorists making up the rules as they went along. There were no formal requirements on how to drive, though the British School of Motoring was founded in 1910, over 20 years before driving tests were required. Though some might earn a living building them, ordinary working people could not afford cars, and public transport was urgently required. Luton's noisy tramway opened in 1908, taking up a lot of road space; the council owned 5.25 route miles, with services operated by a private contractor. The system was vital in getting the growing army of workers back and forth to their jobs each day. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Luton, the Technical School c1950 (ref. L117024x) | A technical education was going to be valuable in 20th-century Luton. Alexander Wilson's Vauxhall Iron Works had outgrown its Vauxhall site in London, and in 1905 by chance moved to another area associated with the legendary Falkes de Breauté. The company adopted de Breauté's heraldic griffin as their symbol. Since de Breauté's day, Luton was a very different place. Luton had experienced modernization in local government, with the Board of Health taking over key responsibilities involving water supply, care of the poor and the establishment of a regular fire brigade - Luton got its first fire station in 1901. The power station was built on the original vicarage site at the turn of the century. The famous physicist J J Thomson opened the facility, joking that he did not know what electricity was - at the time there was still something to be learned about its exact nature. The council saw the potential of cheap energy to help attract new industry. Electricity would revolutionise car making. Alexander Wilson had founded his business in 1857, building small and medium marine steam engines. It was a modest business, operating in the close confines of crowded London. The business was renamed the Vauxhall Ironworks Company Limited in 1897, when a single-cylinder 5hp engine was used to power a river launch called the 'Jabberwock'. Others had already attached similar motors to road vehicles, and so Vauxhall joined in the experiment; they produced their first car in 1903, powered by the same type of single-cylinder 5hp engine. First impressions were good. The motoring press described it as 'neat, efficient and a cheap vehicle which should find many friends.' In 1903, Dr Tiffen informed 'Autocar' Magazine: 'It may interest you to know that the wear and tear of driving my 5hp 1903 Vauxhall at an average speed of 15 mph is almost a negligible quantity. Running costs work out at one third of the upkeep of my horse, and I never experienced a moment's worry on the road.' This unusual four-seater was tiller-steered, with driver and passenger seated behind two front passengers on raised seats. A sporty-looking 6hp two-seater followed in 1904. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Luton, Wesleyan Chapel 1897 (ref. 39723) | Religion had been the mainstay of lives high and low for centuries, but the industrial revolution was raising questions and creating pressures and hardships that were disturbing a long-settled order. Above all, the revolution was about new technology, and working practices were changing fast. For centuries, the church had preached that God approved the hierarchy of 'the rich man in his castle, the poor man at his gate', but that teaching, too, would change. When Lord Bute left the Hoo, the living was sold to various patrons, who appointed a series of vicars. These included Dr Thomas Peile, who surrendered much of his income to allow new churches to be built: East Hyde in 1859, Stopsley in 1860, and Christ Church in 1860. James O' Neill bought the living for himself when St Mary's had become run down; he remained there for 35 years. St Mary's had been the centrepiece of the old order, but could it remain so? At least its chequerboard walls benefited from a restoration in the 19th century. As the town continued to grow, more new churches were opened: the church at Biscot in 1866, St Matthew's in 1875, and St Paul's in 1892. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Luton, the Andrew Carnegie Public Library 1924 (ref. 75591v) | IN SPITE of the depression, the town's population grew to 36,404 in 1901, and the town grew richer. The Liberal mayor Edwin Oakley, who gained office in 1891, was far- sighted; he sensed that Luton's future and prosperity depended on new industries and better infrastructure. Rapid expansion meant that jerry-building was inevitable (it is thought that the term may derive from the poorly built walls of biblical Jericho, which were so easily knocked down by Joshua's army); this would build up problems later on. Health problems were endemic. Although the population reached 50,000 by 1911, men's life expectancy was only 52 years and women's 55. Infant mortality was very high, with working parents having little knowledge of what was best for their offspring or money to make good provision for them. Typhoid, scarlet fever, whooping cough, tuberculosis and diphtheria were rife. As the population grew, so did the need for public services. Balfour's Education Act of 1902 placed 'board schools' under borough or county councils (Local Education Authorities), authorizing them to establish secondary and technical schools as well as to develop the existing elementary schools. Bedfordshire County Council took over education in 1902, and it was hoped that the Higher Grade School would serve Luton's growing needs. At the time, boys were travelling to Dunstable, Bedford and St Albans. The new Luton Modern School opened in 1908. Built on the site of the White House in Park Square, it was originally called the Edward VII School; it was renamed the Technical School in 1938. The steel magnate Andrew Carnegie added to the educational infrastructure by providing the town with a magnificent new library building in 1910 opposite the town hall at the entrance to Manchester Street. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Luton, the Brewery Tap 2005 (ref. L117704k) | Contagious Diseases Acts were passed to deal with all manner of problems arising from people living in highly populated areas like Luton. Edwin Chadwick was in charge of the government campaign to sanitize towns and cities by cleaning up the water supply and trying to improve the habits of the growing populace. Religion had its own methods for cheering up the poor, but William Booth's Salvation Army was an innovation, aiming to reach out to them by entering the dens of iniquity and trying to change lives. That was a hard task in a town facing major threats to its livelihood. Things had to change. The railways would at least make it easier for people to move elsewhere in search of a job, or vice versa if Luton's fortune changed. The town's two stations were built side by side, but the Bute Street link to Dunstable was closed during the short-sighted Marples era at the Transport Ministry in the 1960s - Ernest Marples employed his scientist friend Dr Beeching to take an axe to as many rail routes as possible. The consequences in traffic congestion between Luton and Dunstable are all too obvious. Non-conformist religious groups were fierce in their advocacy of total abstinence. They played a significant role in getting some of the worst local pubs closed down through (Robert Cook) The Brewery Tap dates back to the 17th century. It stood next to a tithe barn until shops were built to meet the town's changing requirements. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
