Fog on the Tyne and in the city centre
IF there was fog on the Tyne 60 years ago, there was also fog on Newcastle’s Grainger Street. It was November 1958, and shoppers and workers were making their way home through the gloom.
The trolley buses were trundling along the city centre routes and the shops blazed with light.
In the 1950s and 60s, thick fog hanging over Britain’s industrial cities wasn’t an uncommon feature, aided and abetted by smoke pouring out of factory chimney and family homes that were usually heated by coal.
It had caused major problems. In London, the ‘Great Smog’ of December, 1952 led to 4,000 more deaths than usual for that time of year.
Government legislation in the shape of Clean Air Acts in 1956 and 1968 was the official response to these regular bouts of pollution.
Smokeless zones and controls on industrial emissions all helped clean up the air that we breathe.
Away from the fog, life for many folk in November, 1958 was relatively contented.
It was a time of near-full employment and rising living standards after the scarcities, rationing and austerity of the decade that followed the end of World War II.
The average UK salary was £570, an average car cost £750, and the average house price was £2,250.
In the pop charts 60 years ago were the sounds of Lord Rockingham’s XI with Hoots Mon; Conway Twitty with It’s Only Make Believe; and Cliff Richard & The Drifters with Move It.
At the cinema, this was the year of The Bridge On The River Kwai, South Pacific, and King Creole.
And the for the increasing number of people who had TVs (at a time when there were only two channels), on this day 60 years ago - a Saturday - viewing highlights on BBC included The Lone Ranger; Six-Five Special, featuring Marty Wilde and Shirley Bassey; and Dixon Of Dock Green.
In the news headlines, 1958 saw the Munich air disaster in which 23 people including eight players were killed as a plane carrying the Manchester United team crashed on an ice-strewn runway in Germany; the UK’s first motorway, the Preston Bypass, was opened by Prime Minister Harold Macmillan; and there were race riots in Notting Hill, London.
Abroad, Nikita Khrushchev became Premier of the Soviet Union; the space agency NASA was formed in the United States; and Brazil won the football World Cup in Sweden, with a teenage player called Pele the star of the tournament.
Over at St James’ Park, there was a stylish new black and white strip, and a new manager, Charlie Mitten, trying to ring the changes.
November was a poor month for the Magpies. Other than a 1-0 win over Luton Town at St James’ Park courtesy of a Len White goal - there were losses that month to Arsenal, Birmingham City, West Bromwich Albion and Leeds United.
Newcastle United would finish 11th come the end of the 1958-59 First Division season.