Rubbish cars in a bleak car park, but at least it was cheap

THERE is something quite atmospheric about this picture. It is the opening of a multi-storey car park in Montrose Street in Glasgow in 1964 with the owner of an Austin Cambridge deciding whether to pay a tanner for a couple of hours or two bob for the day.

There were no electronic barriers. Instead you simply paid the attendant. Presumably they never thought drivers would race past without paying. The surroundings are very stark – just bare concrete with no adornments. And the car park closed at half-six, so not the place to park if you wanted to make a night of it.

The car park is still there, although prices have moved somewhat faster than an Austin Cambridge. It is now open 24 hours a day, but the first hour is now a whopping £3.50. My friend Mr Google helped me work out that sixpence in 1964 would now be worth just under 50p. The all-day rate is now, and I had to look at the price list twice to believe it, £21, which back then would be a sizeable deposit on a car.

The Austin Cambridge was sold in various models from 1954 to 1969, so it was out of production when I began driving. However a colleague who learned to drive in his dad’s old Austin Cambridge tells me: “It had rubbish steering, rubbish brakes, and rubbish heating.

“You would not chance leaving it parked on a hill because of the poor brakes.

“They might have called cars Cambridge and Oxford back then, but the driving experience was more Hull Polytechnic.”

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