Memory Lane

Royal London in 1960 – and yes, we have black cabs aplenty.

The pavements are still packed with cheery crowds two days after a Royal Wedding – that of the Queen’s sister, Princess Margaret, to Antony Armstrongjones, soon to become Lord Snowdon. The decorations and general street-party atmosphere seem to have created quite a bit of congestion, with numerous coppers present directing traffic and doing their best to keep the errant pedestrians off the road. It looks to us as though that police Wolseley 6/90 (probably a Series II) has stopped to provide reinforcements to those on foot.

Over to the left is a young chap in his dashing dark blue MG TC, adorned with what looks like a sizeable bonnet mascot. In front of him is a Sunbeam Rapier MKII complete with colourful tail fins and to the right of that is one of the ‘new’ Austin taxis, an FX4. Coming towards us on the right of the shot are a couple of its predecessors, FX35S, trundling through the streets of the capital since 1948.

All shapes and sizes

Going left to right, further back in the view, we’ll start with the grey-green Austin A30 5cwt van and what looks like a pea-soup coloured Standard Vanguard II in front of it. To the right is an ivory Ford Prefect following a black Rover P2, and coming towards us we can see a pale Triumph TR2 hiding behind the FX3 taxi. Coming up behind the diminutive TR is a black Standard Ten, then a beige Alvis 12/70 saloon followed by a custard-hued Ford Consul MKII.

There’s also another MKII Consul to the right, being followed down the road by a black Morris Ten (we think) and then a white Austin A30. Right at the front, full of people and partly obscured by the crowd, is a jazzy Hillman Minx of about Series II vintage, painted an exciting two-tone white over peach.