Reflecting on an almost unrecognisable way of life
The householdshe seeing the ascension of Elizabeth II were usually the traditional nuclear families of two parents and two children.
They lived in a house that would have cost on average £1,891 in early 1952.
Property was cheaper in those days as there was less pressure to get on the housing ladder. Many people simply rented council homes. An average house price by the late Fifties was 4.6 times the average annual income but it was
8.3 times in 2021.
But buying a house was still no walkover: the average salary was just £10 a week (which would be £339 in 2021).
With the rigid gender structures of the day usually only the husband and father was the breadwinner and the wife and mother stayed at home and looked after the children.
Dad probably drove to work in an Austin A30, which would have cost him £529 brand new.
To fill up he would pay at least 3 pre-decimal shillings (15p) per gallon (4.55 litres) of four star petrol.
For the 1953 coronation the family would have saved up for a television set, then still a luxury.
It only showed black and white pictures, had one channel and was just 12in in size but cost £800 (£1,800 in today’s money).
The only commonplace outlet for news and entertainment in the home was the radio (then known as “the wireless”).
However, newsreels were also shown in the many cinemas in towns and cities.
The most popular newspaper of the time was the Daily Mirror, priced at 1d (0.5p).
By the mid-1950s only 14% of households had a telephone and they cost £12 a year to rent.
Food was packaged purely by imperial calculations and a pound of Brooke Bonde PG Tips tea cost 6 shillings and eightpence (33.5p).
A 26 fluid ounce (739 millilitre) bottle of Robinsons orange squash cost 3 shillings and thruppence (16p).
The Queen may well reflect on the nowunrecognisable life in the country she first inherited when her Platinum Jubilee is celebrated this summer.