The Way We Were

Sights like these greeted shoppers at the nation’s supermarkets 40 years ago. The food inside might have improved, but perhaps not the cars

Southampton, 1980

‘The Margot-and-Jerry image and superb build quality charmed middle-class buyers in ever increasing numbers’

If you’re aged between about 40 and 50, this is how supermarket car parks will have looked in your earliest memories: acres of colourful British family transport, the occasional foreign runabout and squeaky trolleys with orange handles. There’s even a green and white bottle bank with a ledge that you could put your toes on if your mum lifted you up to post a bottle through a hole.

This supermarket, in the Lordshill area of Southampton, features an unusual ceramic mural created by artists Henry and Joyce Collins that charts the history of the region from Roman times to the 20th century. It was removed in 1990 when the supermarket was revamped, but has since been reinstalled in the city’s Hamtun Street.

Looking at the automotive delights though that were to be found 40 years ago, from the left we have two Ford Cortina MkIII s, then a silver Volkswagen Scirocco and a tired-looking Cortina MkII next to a Fiesta, which on a V-reg plate is therefore less than a year old. Sadly, FRU 325V is no longer with us, our golden Fiesta last appearing on the DVLA’s records in 1997.

The mustard-coloured Triumph Dolomite (Dijon, we reckon, rather than the Colman’s English tone of the Renault 5 next to it) is of course the younger, long-booted version of the Toledo, speeding past to the left. It must be said that Triumph’s Dolomite and Toledo history is very peculiar. The Triumph 1300 (short tail) and 1500 ( long tail) launched in 1965 as front-wheel drive cars, but reappeared with rear-wheel drive in 1970 and ’71 as the Toledo (short) and Dolomite ( long). From 1976, they were all Dolomites.

The R5 is nosing one of a fine pair of beige blobs, an Austin Allegro with a Webasto sunroof. To the left of it is a Fiat 127, then a four-door Ford Escort MkII, a gigantic-looking Granad MkI a estate with a badge bar and a bonnet mascot, then another Cortina MkII.

Lined up in front of the supermarket it goes Mini, Hillman Avenger GLS, Datsun 100A Cherry, Ford Escort MkII Ghia, Morris 1100 MkII, another Escort MkI, a Fiesta MkI with a black tail panel and a Vauxhall Viva HB.

Behind the big green Granada we can see another Allegro, another E10 Cherry, a Wolseley 1500 MkIII, then a Volvo 240 estate. Can you imagine any Sainsbury’s car park with only one Volvo estate in it nowadays? The dependable Swedes cost little more than an equivalent Granada, so the Margot-and-Jerry image and superb build quality charmed middle-class buyers in ever increasing numbers. Behind the Volvo there’s a Mini, a Renault 12 and what looks like a white Volkswagen Golf.

Forty years on, the vehicles filling the car park wouldn’t be anywhere near as vibrant, though we reckon that given just how long-lived they are, it’s not unusual for shoppers to pass a parked Volvo 240. A Fiesta MkI, Renault 5 or a Datsun Cherry though, perhaps not so much…

LIFE BEFORE A TIME WHEN GOOD LIVING MEANT DRIVING A VOLVO