The Way We Were
1961, Woolwich, London
The rapid growth of personal car ownership during the late 1950s and early ’60s saw a big demand for town centre parking. A number of innovative schemes were tried out to make the most of available space and this usually meant that the only way was up to cater for the maximum number of vehicles on a compact footprint.
Woolwich was at the forefront of one such scheme – the Auto Stacker. It certainly made the news at the time, though not necessarily in a manner that Woolwich Borough Council, which kick-started the project, would have liked.
At the official opening ceremony on 11 May, 1961, with Princess Margaret presiding, the demonstration vehicle got stuck and had to be pushed into place by staff. It went wrong again that evening when the system found itself starring in the ‘new technology’ slot on the Fyfe Robertson Tonight BBC television programme – hardly an auspicious start.
The Auto Stacker was an automated system for parking cars from ground level to one of the 256 parking spaces spread out over eight floors. Built at a cost of £100,000, it never really worked properly and was abandoned within months of opening and demolished a few years later at a cost of £60,000. You can find several newsreel clips online of this flawed project.
Meanwhile, back on the ground it was business as usual in Woolwich High Street as witnessed in this wonderful view along Woolwich High Street, dated 9 May 1961 – possibly taken in conjunction with the publicity for the Auto Stacker? This splendid image was taken a decade before I started pounding the mean streets as a trainee reporter with the south east London Mercury weekly newspaper. However, there are a few common threads.
Woolwich Dockyard and its towering chimneys can be seen in the background, in front of which are two fine examples of London Transport’s AEC Regent III RT double decker fleet. I recall running on Route 54 from Woolwich to the Royal Standard pub, then across Blackheath before dropping down Belmont Hill into Lewisham, eventually heading off to Catford and West Croydon.
The other common denominator is the presence of several variations of Morris Minor parked on the left, starting with a Series II Tourer, with a later saloon further along the road keeping a Traveller company. My first car in the late 1970s was a 1958 Minor 1000 saloon, 7789 HK, after passing my driving test in nearby Erith. I wonder if any of the Minors seen here have survived? All that is left of mine is an old number plate.
The number of vans and trucks going about their business or parked outside the commercial premises is very noticeable in this view. The Bedford CA van was a very common choice so it is not surprising to see a couple of these; one of which has a ding in its offside rear corner.
Another versatile light commercial was the Austin 152 Omnivan, introduced in 1956, available as either a van, truck or coach.
The passenger-carrying example parked prominently bottom right of our picture has clearly seen some life and has a home-made roof box and spare wheel on top, which would not help its already limited aerodynamic properties.
Looking much more presentable, driving towards us in the middle distance is an Austin A40 light commercial. While A40 Devon cars (there’s a curvaceous example parked on the left) had been discontinued in 1952, the van, pick-up and Countryman variations continued in production until 1956. A Commer Cob van and a Ford Thames pick-up truck add further to the working vehicle selection box.
There’s plenty of variety to choose from among all those period saloons – plus a motorcycle and sidecar combination if you like the inside/ outside lifestyle mix – and even a sporty Berkeley B95/105 two-seater.
If I could take just one of these cars home today it would be the Vauxhall Velox E series, which continued the Luton-based firm’s fondness for US styling, producing what looked like a scaled down Chevrolet. Stateside looks – Woolwich-style!