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Luton Photographic MemoriesSelected extracts and photosReturn to Book | Search for another Book | View all photos for Luton | Luton homepage |
24 captions found: Showing captions 1 to 20 | |
 Dunstable, High Street 1897 (ref. 39737) | This view looks north towards the cross-roads; the London- Holyhead telegraph poles are in situ. Urchins, horses and carts dominate the carriageway. London Central Meat Company have large premises on the left, representing the beginnings of the chain store movement into the area. Shop blinds sweep across the pavement, and the shadows show that it is quite a sunny day. |  Add your own Memory Add to your Album |
 Dunstable, High Street c1955 (ref. D69020) | This is an interesting contrast to photograph No 39737, because so little has changed. Reams of cloth still shield the shops, and the traffic is so light that elderly pedestrians risk the open carriageway rather than use the zebra crossing - they obviously have not seen the leather-clad biker roaring into the picture bottom left. The coach reminds us that the A5 has much history as a coaching route; it is waiting by the 'no waiting' sign. Meanwhile, the London Central Company are still in business as family butchers. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Dunstable, High Street 1898 (ref. 40956) | We are looking north along the A5, with the Town Hall tower on the grey horizon. Tall telegraph poles carry messages the length of the nation, but technology is still so new and remarkable that the urchins here pause for the camera. The avenue of trees ensures that for all the demands of encroaching industry, Dunstable's citizens remain in touch with nature. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Dunstable, Grammar School 1897 (ref. 39739) | The Grammar School opened in 1888. The headmaster, L C Thring, and the school were very much part of the community, and traditional features like founders' day and speech day were important local events. Those were the days before political correctness and school marketing. Schools like this were not afraid to teach character. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Dunstable, Broad Walk c1965 (ref. D69055) | Typifying the sixties town planning dream here, Broad Walk presents a range of shops away from the hazard and pollution of the motor car. The fashion for pedestrianisation can seem bland, but styles have improved since these early days. At least they faced these buildings with bricks instead of the grey and grim concrete so popular thirty- odd years ago. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Dunstable, Queensway Hall c1965 (ref. D69044) | More civic architecture here in the shape of Queensway Hall in Court Drive; in line for this era of betterment, the Hall is housing an improvement grant exhibition. The sixties might have been swinging ,but there was still much poverty among the plenty, with an abundance of outside loos, dampness and hardship for children. Harold Wilson, Labour Prime Minister, was getting ready to sort it all out with his 'white-hot technological revolution'. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Dunstable, Priory Church from meadows 1897 (ref. 39741) | The church is viewed from the meadows. It was built from the more resistant lower chalk or clunch stone, which is better known for its contribution to the cement industry. The priory held several estates in central Bedfordshire. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Eaton Bray, the Church c1955 (ref. E104009) | Falkes de Breaute and William de Cantilupe built castles here. The latter was among those extorting Magna Carta from the King. The Brays came and gave the place its name in 1490. Sir Reginald became Treasurer of England, being involved in building Henry VII's chapel in Westminster Abbey. Once entirely dependent on farming , its downland location makes it an attractive settlement for more affluent newcomers, and the one-time council houses display the spirit of Thatcher-age sell-offs. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Luton, New Bedford Road 1897 (ref. 39729) | The main road was diverted when Napier set out the grounds of Hoo Park. Leaving town by the line of the present existing Old Bedford Road, it crossed the river by a ford on the town side of Little Moor. A Turnpike Trust was formed in 1727, and the New Bedford Road opened in 1832. The road is very busy now, and the country feel has gone in the wake of developers. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Luton, Park Road 1897 (ref. 39726) | In these days this was a country lane joining Trapp's Lane and the London Road. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Luton, St Mary's Church chancel 1897 (ref. 39709) | The chancel has a mosaic reredos based on da Vinci's 'Last Supper', made in Venice and installed in 1883; the east window was rebuilt in 1886 by G E Street. Seats were provided for clergy during High Mass, under the abbot's coat of arms. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Luton, Wesleyan Schools 1897 (ref. 39722) | Non-conformists took education of their children very seriously. Until 1870, on the other hand, the state did not take education seriously for anyone except the rich. Successive governments were eventually forced to realise that Britain would have no place in the modern world unless the workers were taught the 3 Rs. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Luton, the Higher Grade School 1897 (ref. 39724) | 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. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Luton, entrance to Peoples Park 1897 (ref. 39728) | Luton has its parks to remind us of how great houses and landowners gave way to the needs of the many, with great estates being turned over to the people. No doubt there is more progress for the people on the way. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Luton, the Conveyor Belt at Vauxhall Motors c1950 (ref. L117046) | GMC executives came over from the US to get work back to normal after the war. Much of the firm's success was due to David Jones, the industry's longest-serving design executive. This is the L-type body shape, available in 4- cylinder Wyvern or 6-cylinder Velox versions. Both had the revolutionary rear hinged bonnet replacing the split bonnet. The Velox reached 75mph; the model ceased production in 1951 when it was replaced by the Detroit- influenced E-type. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Luton, the Vauxhall Motors Canteen c1950 (ref. L117034) | The canteen resembles a cave, but in its heyday there was far from savage fare to be had here! In the 1930s there were 3 lunch sittings, and it was routine to have 2 pints at the bar. After the war there were no more production workers' lunch breaks or children's parties here, as output became everything. In the 1970s a worker told me that workers were so stressed that by the time they got to the canteen they would laugh at anything; he remembered them cheering if ever a worker dropped his tray-load of food and drink. All good things end: the canteen was demolished in 1991, and the plaque listing the company's war dead was transferred from within to the factory front. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Luton, Vauxhall Motors c1950 (ref. L117028) | During 1955-57 the company spent £36 million on doubling car production, excavating over 1.5 million tons of chalk and clay from the Chilterns to accommodate 1.6 million square feet of building. The spoil was used to extend neighbouring Luton Airport by 12 acres and to reclaim 32 acres of Luton Hoo Park. Steel work came from the US; it had been intended for a wartime GMC plant making B29 bombers. New block AA was among the largest steel frame structures of the day. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Luton, Town Centre c1965 (ref. L117098) | This is the same scene as photograph No L117026 taken from a little further back. We can see that the 1960s have arrived with this modern shop and office block, which is housing an enlarged Boots the Chemist. The library could not compete with the confident stylists of this swinging age. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Luton, Vauxhall Motors Works c1955 (ref. L117029) | The works are still wearing camouflage paint, having been a prime target during the conflict. In the closing stages of the war, a V2 nearly hit Commer Karrier's despatch shop in Biscot Road, destroying a house. The first daylight raid set fire to oil tanks, but did no real damage to the works. The greatest raid was on the bus depot, killing one and injuring twelve. Even Whipsnade Zoo was hit. But the factory continued producing the Churchill tanks, along with inflatable decoy trucks, decoy planes, side panels for jerrycans and steel helmets. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Luton, Children's Home 1897 (ref. 39712) | These premises became a children's annexe to Luton & District General Hospital. Jane Creasey went there to have a squinting eye corrected in the 1950s. It has also enjoyed time as an Exodus collective with various escapist amusements! | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
