Sparky
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Post by Sparky on Apr 22, 2021 8:38:45 GMT
I love photos like this. Does anyone know where this is? If so - grab a street map shot of the same street today. I've already done that Sparks, just two posts up before yours. It is in Farnborough, Hampshire a couple of miles away from me. Sam. Cheers Sam! Missed it - not enough sugar in the tea this morning.
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Post by Dirty Epic on Apr 22, 2021 10:49:33 GMT
Another common sight in the old days: Not so much the bland housing estate but the fact that the roads are empty of cars, the grass verges are still level grass, and the front gardens have bushes and gates instead of a small car park. This is not a picture of a new build estate as the established hedges confirm but of a typical 50's/60's estate that sprung up across the country in those post-war years. Families would typically have had just one car (if at all) and those cars would have disappeared during the day when the bread-winners were at work. Although I didn't live on an estate, that view above is reminiscent of our cul-de-sac in that throughout the 60's and 70's we had an empty road to play in on our bikes, pedal cars, etc. The grass verges were always well maintained too. Sadly now the grass verges have been tarmac'd over, the front gardens have been opened up for car parking, and the pavements are lined with cars throughout each and every day. Sam. I love photos like this. Does anyone know where this is? If so - grab a street map shot of the same street today.
The streets are clean, the roads aren't full of tarmac patches (only two on the left) & pot holes, and as you say, no cars parked everywhere.
This was still sort of common until about the mid/late '80's in some places then car ownership increased and those driveways as you say appeared.
Sadly a lot of those grass verges now have either gone to be on street/permit parking or if they're still there end up like mud baths in the winter time as most people don't care tearing them up etc.
Nice spot Sam.
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Sparky
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Post by Sparky on Apr 22, 2021 11:11:09 GMT
I love photos like this. Does anyone know where this is? If so - grab a street map shot of the same street today.
The streets are clean, the roads aren't full of tarmac patches (only two on the left) & pot holes, and as you say, no cars parked everywhere.
This was still sort of common until about the mid/late '80's in some places then car ownership increased and those driveways as you say appeared.
Sadly a lot of those grass verges now have either gone to be on street/permit parking or if they're still there end up like mud baths in the winter time as most people don't care tearing them up etc.
Nice spot Sam. There are grass verges on the streets near us, and the streets are quite often double parked as there aren't driveways to the houses. A few years back, residents on that street asked to council if they could remove the verges and create parking spaces - and that they were all willing to pay.
The council refused and told them they wanted to keep it's green spaces and as many grass verges as possible. For the last 2 months, they've been trampled over by small diggers, dug up, churned up, kerbs damaged while this all new singing and dancing Fibre Optic Internet stuff is all installed. One of the contractors told a resident, it was cheaper and easier to dig up the grass verges than the roadway. Once the work has been completed, it's just a mud bath mixed with stones and rubble.
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Del Boy
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Post by Del Boy on Apr 22, 2021 14:26:49 GMT
It's an annoying situation where contractors don't make good after so called repairs. The place looks awful most of the time.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 23, 2021 16:05:45 GMT
Yes I remember this scene well back in the early 80's when I used to be a Postie, so I'd see quite a few cars either being worked on, on the road side or permanently jacked up in the front Garden, this was mainly on Council estates And dogs on rope leads I take it GC The front door of the property will be open, said dog had enough rope to get near the front to menace passers by and the car would be a crusty mkIII Cortina ? Haha yes Twas always a lot of dogs back then! Bloody nuisance at times! They would always wait to attack me when I was wearing my Walkman & head phones, so I couldn't hear them! try and sneak up behind me and Scragg my bag! Lol never mind menacing passes by! I would menace the dogs with my special alarm! It drove um crazy and the cats to. Must admit though! the friendliest of people live on council estates! I'd always get invited in their houses at 8:30 in the morning which lead to eating bacon and supping glasses of peach snaps! It's a wonder I ever made it back to the sorting office at times especially with a wobble on! This is a great thread though and a interesting observation that Sam mentioned regarding the grass verges back then. There's a similar street on a steep incline I frequent, and because there's now that many cars on the estate, nearly every single vehicle as to park completely on the footpath! Otherwise ya can't pass each other when driving up and down! No wonder though back then so many kids played out on the street!!! all hours of the day. What with hardly any cars! and no mobile phones, Xbox's or anything that could show social media! What do you expect! I'm glad to say! I was one of those kids!
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Three Litre
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Post by Three Litre on Apr 23, 2021 19:07:05 GMT
The lack of cars in that picture really dates it.
We spent 18 months living in Limerick in Ireland in 71/72.
I went back in 98 for a holiday, holy cow what a difference.
When we left people double parked with no real problem, in 98 it was just like a busy english town, new shopping centres everywhere, the roads gridlocked.
Cars used to be a luxury item, not anymore.
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Post by Sam Tyler on Apr 24, 2021 21:37:51 GMT
The lack of cars in that picture really dates it. By contrast the number of cars in this pic is just what dates it: This was the common sight in the old days when shopping centres had a road and roadside parking through the middle of them. You could pull up outside the shop, nip in and buy your wares then back out again and away within minutes. Here is the same view nowadays: Yet another pedestrianised precinct with cars parked well away from the shops in an over-priced car park, a ten-minute walk from the car and then lugging the shopping back again. Sam.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 25, 2021 18:42:45 GMT
The lack of cars in that picture really dates it. By contrast the number of cars in this pic is just what dates it: This was the common sight in the old days when shopping centres had a road and roadside parking through the middle of them. You could pull up outside the shop, nip in and buy your wares then back out again and away within minutes. Here is the same view nowadays: Yet another pedestrianised precinct with cars parked well away from the shops in an over-priced car park, a ten-minute walk from the car and then lugging the shopping back again. Sam. Yes! And no big silly super stores with everything under one roof! And everyone's bumping into each other!
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Sparky
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Post by Sparky on Apr 27, 2021 7:40:57 GMT
By contrast the number of cars in this pic is just what dates it: This was the common sight in the old days when shopping centres had a road and roadside parking through the middle of them. You could pull up outside the shop, nip in and buy your wares then back out again and away within minutes. Here is the same view nowadays: Yet another pedestrianised precinct with cars parked well away from the shops in an over-priced car park, a ten-minute walk from the car and then lugging the shopping back again. Sam. Yes! And no big silly super stores with everything under one roof! And everyone's bumping into each other! The Big Superstores and Pedestrianisation thing was the big idea from the 1960s - often clearing masses of houses & factories to make way. Local Councils took influence from Europe ("took influence" is Council speak for and all expenses paid jolly up research trip).
In some cities - the big Shopping Centre was the kiss of death for the smaller High Street shop - as they were either forced to stay where they were, and lose out, or move in to a new shopping centre at premium Rent/Rates.
A lot of the centres had roadways built on the Roof to provide delivery access to the shops in the centre, and provided a small multi-story, or in a couple of cases underground carparks that were dark, stank of wee, had overpriced parking spaces that only seemed designed to fit a mini and were miles away from the shops themselves.
Where I lived, Pedestrianisation didn't happen until the mid 1980s under a tempory "Pilot Scheme" - no more was said about this Pilot, and gradually, all the surrounding streets were just closed off. This moved all buses from opposite the shopping centre to a ring-road they built to divert traffic away, making it hard for those not driving to get to the centre, and also at the same time made the traffic much worse than it was in the first place.
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Post by Dirty Epic on Apr 27, 2021 10:33:28 GMT
You've got a point there about those 1950's to 70's 'Shopping Centre' ideas Sparky.
In some respects if the traditional high streets were kept in those area's they'd be much nicer and in some area's much less prone to the surrounding environment becoming no-go wastelands than what did eventually happen when the faded glory of these precincts quickly happened in say the late '70's onwards.
Even when they've been tarted up and had their 90's/00's/10's makeovers they still lack lustre when then big name retail vanished years ago and except for food retail not much else is there to attract you to them.
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