A region on the mend in post-war era
RECALLING NEWCASTLE IN 1953...
THE war had been over for eight years and things were slowly on the mend. Our photograph, taken 65 years ago, shows Newcastle’s vibrant Northumberland Street.
The pavements are packed with shoppers heading for the likes of Burton’s, H Samuel’s, Woolworth’s and Fenwick’s. On the corner of the junction with Blackett Street, we see the iconic golden clock of Northern Goldsmiths jewellery store - a popular city-centre meeting spot since its installation in 1935.
Decades before Northumberland Street was pedestrianised (in 1998), it’s busy with traffic. We see classiclooking cars and a trolley bus heading North, while the number 26 (not a trolley bus) is bound in the opposite direction for Pelaw across the river.
By November 1953, day-to-day life was gradually improving in a nation still characterised by bomb sites and ration books.
Indeed, children were overjoyed that year when sweets came off the ration. And, for the grown-ups, there was plenty of work, and living standards were on the rise, as post-war Britain painstakingly rebuilt itself.
For those who could afford it, a new house would set you back £2,000. If you were heading to the shops, 20 cigarettes would cost 22p (in today’s money), 1lb of cheese was 12p, a dozen eggs was 23p, and 1lb of butter was 10p.
For the folk in our photo from this week 65 years ago, the pop charts
featured Frankie Laine with Answer Me; Les Paul and Mary Ford with Vaya Con Dios; and Mantovani with Swedish Rhapsody. The rock’n’roll phenomenon had yet to arrive!
At the cinema, people flocked to see The Robe, From Here to Eternity, and Shane.
On this day in 1953, for those who owned a newfangled television set, the output on BBC - the sole channel at the time - included horse racing, Science Review, and Music For You, “a programme of ballet and songs” hosted by Eric Robinson.
And for Newcastle United fans, the club were sitting a modest 15th in the First Division on the back of the previous weekend’s 1-1 draw against Portsmouth at St James’ Park. The scorer? Who else but Jackie Milburn.
Earlier in the year, Gateshead FC had basked in the most famous day in the club’s history when 17,000 fans flocked to the old Redheugh Park ground where Gateshead narrowly lost an FA Cup quarter-final clash against Bolton Wanderers and mighty Nat Lofthouse.
In the wider world as they year approached its conclusion, people could look back on the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II; Mount Everest was conquered for the first time by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay; the £2m Royal Yacht Britannia was launched on the River Clyde; and the Korean War came to an end, with the nation split into North and South, and sowing the seeds of major international tensions in future decades.