Wow!
Thanks for posting this, Al! I love the ads featured!!
Thanks for posting this, Al! I love the ads featured!!
British Kitchen Design Late 1968
- Thread starter vacbear58
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Gorgeous kitchens! I'm always threatening my other half with going over our kitchen with purple Fablon, and this is very inspiring!
I'm pretty sure my grandma had the units on the front cover, the handle design and the peachy caramel colour look familiar, although hers was bought in 1979 (and sat in boxes in the dining room for a year till my grandad got round to fitting it!). It also had the first split-level cooker I'd seen, a Creda set with a brushed aluminium hob and oven with rotiserrie and analogue digital timer.
I think reading between the lines illustrates what kitchens were like then, rather than the ideals shown in the photos. The Ascot ad mentions homes with no hot water tank, so presumably some people still had cold water only, or maybe one of those gas geysers. And it's interesting that just the sink unit is on offer 'to help you make a start on your dream kitchen', suggesting that such an extravagance was still quite novel.
The ads are great, I note the electric cooking one still refers to the sootiness of town gas, a problem that would go with the introduction of gas from the North Sea. And the Hoover ad is magic too, never thought I'd see a picture of the Hoover electric knife.
One last observation - Dawn Paterson was 22? She looks like Mary Whitehouse!
Simon
I'm pretty sure my grandma had the units on the front cover, the handle design and the peachy caramel colour look familiar, although hers was bought in 1979 (and sat in boxes in the dining room for a year till my grandad got round to fitting it!). It also had the first split-level cooker I'd seen, a Creda set with a brushed aluminium hob and oven with rotiserrie and analogue digital timer.
I think reading between the lines illustrates what kitchens were like then, rather than the ideals shown in the photos. The Ascot ad mentions homes with no hot water tank, so presumably some people still had cold water only, or maybe one of those gas geysers. And it's interesting that just the sink unit is on offer 'to help you make a start on your dream kitchen', suggesting that such an extravagance was still quite novel.
The ads are great, I note the electric cooking one still refers to the sootiness of town gas, a problem that would go with the introduction of gas from the North Sea. And the Hoover ad is magic too, never thought I'd see a picture of the Hoover electric knife.
One last observation - Dawn Paterson was 22? She looks like Mary Whitehouse!
Simon
Thank you Al
Very interesting, but in the 90's we started getting European design magazines over here that took kitchen design to a real up market look and functionality. We also got Australian design magazines that, I think, really influenced American kitchen design, so I am surprised at your comment about how things have not changed much since then.
In those old photos I see some real blatant kitchen blunders, like backing a cooker up against wall in a corner, a real no-no!
Very interesting, but in the 90's we started getting European design magazines over here that took kitchen design to a real up market look and functionality. We also got Australian design magazines that, I think, really influenced American kitchen design, so I am surprised at your comment about how things have not changed much since then.
In those old photos I see some real blatant kitchen blunders, like backing a cooker up against wall in a corner, a real no-no!
British Kitchen Design Late 1968!!
Thank you for posting. This is real enjoyable viewing material. I don't understand why I don't see any dishwashers. By the late 60's they were popular over here in the USA.
Peter
Thank you for posting. This is real enjoyable viewing material. I don't understand why I don't see any dishwashers. By the late 60's they were popular over here in the USA.
Peter
ronhic
Well-known member
Peter.....
...it's quite simple really...
They were considered both here and in the UK as a luxury item.
Much of this can be traced back to the financial cost of World War Two
WW2 had done incredible damage to British (and European) infrastructure that required certain materials be restricted. Steel is a good example. The original Land Rover is aluminium clad because Rover couldn't get steel. Exports were paramount to earning income which often meant domestic supply suffered and everything was expensive as a result.
We weren't hit like the UK from a military point of view, but we were not in the same situation that the US was post WW2 either. BUT, our wool and wheat industry's were doing amazing things. It is quite true when people say that 'Australia rode on the sheep's back through the 1950's and into the 1960's'.
You also need to remember that whilst automatic washing machines were just starting out in the UK (and Australia for that matter) in the early to mid 1960's, they had been around for 15-20 years in the US because of several key reasons.
- the Lend Lease program meant that the UK and Australia + others owed America huge amounts of money for WW2 supplies. Exports were key to paying this off, not domestic consumption
- America had a HUGE population to satisfy demands and support industry
- America had been producing arms/tanks/ships (liberty tanker anyone?) - you name it, so had amazing capacity for manufacturing that needed to be used to employ people returning from war.
The UK was given 50 years + 5 years deferred @ 2% to repay Lend Lease obligations. The last payment was made on 29th December, 2006....
Come the 1960's, materials were easier for manufacturers to get and most people could afford a twin tub, which was a step up on the neighbours wringer machine, but a full automatic was beyond their reach.
Not much was different here. Wringer machines had been around since the 1920's and twin tubs since the 1950's. Semi-automatics in Oz (the machine does it all, but you have to switch between stages....no auto advance) were available from the mid 1950's and were more popular than automatics until the mid/late 1960's...
Automatics didn't get into swing in the UK until the early-mid 1970's when sales (and this is a guess at the dates) of automatics over took other varieties. It was similar here, maybe a couple of years earlier.
Dishwashers on the other hand, whilst people wanted them, were often difficult to accommodate in a small British kitchen. More often than not, kitchens in the UK also contain the washing machine, dryer (if any), a spinner if required AND a dishwasher. There isn't the allocatable space in many homes for all of these unless the kitchen has been remodeled.
Frankly, the washing machine was more important...and if a low speed spin model, so was the spinner....
I'm guessing that dishwashers really started to take off in the UK about the same time as here - early 1980's. Automatics washers were by now king of the laundry and the next 'must have' gadget was a dishwasher which was now becoming more affordable. Fully fitted kitchens had been common here since the 1950's and pretty much universal since the late 1960's, but in the UK, it wasn't unusual to buy 'units' - they weren't always 'custom' or 'fitted' until the late 1970's (possibly 1980's) and you can still just buy 'units' now....
Fitted kitchens allow all the space to be used more effectively. Dishwashers, washing machines etc. can now be plumbed in rather than 'wheeled' to the sink - they have a home, a place to live.
...so cost, influenced by government requirements for exports, internal house space along with restricted supply of materials prevented the UK from having the appliance boom that America had from the 1950's...
...it's quite simple really...
They were considered both here and in the UK as a luxury item.
Much of this can be traced back to the financial cost of World War Two
WW2 had done incredible damage to British (and European) infrastructure that required certain materials be restricted. Steel is a good example. The original Land Rover is aluminium clad because Rover couldn't get steel. Exports were paramount to earning income which often meant domestic supply suffered and everything was expensive as a result.
We weren't hit like the UK from a military point of view, but we were not in the same situation that the US was post WW2 either. BUT, our wool and wheat industry's were doing amazing things. It is quite true when people say that 'Australia rode on the sheep's back through the 1950's and into the 1960's'.
You also need to remember that whilst automatic washing machines were just starting out in the UK (and Australia for that matter) in the early to mid 1960's, they had been around for 15-20 years in the US because of several key reasons.
- the Lend Lease program meant that the UK and Australia + others owed America huge amounts of money for WW2 supplies. Exports were key to paying this off, not domestic consumption
- America had a HUGE population to satisfy demands and support industry
- America had been producing arms/tanks/ships (liberty tanker anyone?) - you name it, so had amazing capacity for manufacturing that needed to be used to employ people returning from war.
The UK was given 50 years + 5 years deferred @ 2% to repay Lend Lease obligations. The last payment was made on 29th December, 2006....
Come the 1960's, materials were easier for manufacturers to get and most people could afford a twin tub, which was a step up on the neighbours wringer machine, but a full automatic was beyond their reach.
Not much was different here. Wringer machines had been around since the 1920's and twin tubs since the 1950's. Semi-automatics in Oz (the machine does it all, but you have to switch between stages....no auto advance) were available from the mid 1950's and were more popular than automatics until the mid/late 1960's...
Automatics didn't get into swing in the UK until the early-mid 1970's when sales (and this is a guess at the dates) of automatics over took other varieties. It was similar here, maybe a couple of years earlier.
Dishwashers on the other hand, whilst people wanted them, were often difficult to accommodate in a small British kitchen. More often than not, kitchens in the UK also contain the washing machine, dryer (if any), a spinner if required AND a dishwasher. There isn't the allocatable space in many homes for all of these unless the kitchen has been remodeled.
Frankly, the washing machine was more important...and if a low speed spin model, so was the spinner....
I'm guessing that dishwashers really started to take off in the UK about the same time as here - early 1980's. Automatics washers were by now king of the laundry and the next 'must have' gadget was a dishwasher which was now becoming more affordable. Fully fitted kitchens had been common here since the 1950's and pretty much universal since the late 1960's, but in the UK, it wasn't unusual to buy 'units' - they weren't always 'custom' or 'fitted' until the late 1970's (possibly 1980's) and you can still just buy 'units' now....
Fitted kitchens allow all the space to be used more effectively. Dishwashers, washing machines etc. can now be plumbed in rather than 'wheeled' to the sink - they have a home, a place to live.
...so cost, influenced by government requirements for exports, internal house space along with restricted supply of materials prevented the UK from having the appliance boom that America had from the 1950's...
Yeah, loved this too, lots of mega-cool stuff!
Regarding Dawn Paterson looking older, it must have something to do with the name Dawn - Dawn Davenport looked a little older too back in the early '70s, but she still made a splash in life.
Regarding Dawn Paterson looking older, it must have something to do with the name Dawn - Dawn Davenport looked a little older too back in the early '70s, but she still made a splash in life.
Thanks guys
I am so pleased that you enjoyed looking through this stuff. I have more of this sort of stuff when I have time to scan it
Simon
Oh the sins that were committed with Fablon (Contact paper US) in the name of upgrading or updating LOLOLOL
It could have been late "genuine" Hygena in 1979 but only just. I always LOVED the Creda brushed stainless hob and would collect one now if I could, but I have only seen one and it was not in good condition and on the Isle or Wight at that. And the Europa oven (Fan assisted or "Circulaire" of course) too, although I have always been torn between that and the stainless Tricity or the late Moffat - Hell, I want them all LOLOLOLOL
As for Mary Whitehouse, to quote Billy Connelly, "how would you like a name that rhymes with toilet" LOLOL. But I agree with what you say, somehow people seemed to age younger then, but maybe it is just the styles.
Jon
It always seemed to me that American kitchens were what we aspired too, personally I always wanted teh Bewitched kitchen V1. Whilst i agree about cookers in a corner, I cannot begin to tell you how many I have seen in that location over the years, it was really very common.
Peter
In fact there are dishwashers in two of the schemes, no.2 and the "dream" scheme (beside the oven) - but they were VERY unusual. Both machines were British made and small by US standards. The Colston (scheme 2) was frankly a POS, I would LOVE to get my hands on a Kenwood as shown in the "dream scheme"
Chris
Bang on target, you have set it out much more clearly than I ever could, thank you
Hydralique
"Dawn Davenport is eating a meatball sandwich RIGHT out in class ...." LOLOL
Al
I am so pleased that you enjoyed looking through this stuff. I have more of this sort of stuff when I have time to scan it
Simon
Oh the sins that were committed with Fablon (Contact paper US) in the name of upgrading or updating LOLOLOL
It could have been late "genuine" Hygena in 1979 but only just. I always LOVED the Creda brushed stainless hob and would collect one now if I could, but I have only seen one and it was not in good condition and on the Isle or Wight at that. And the Europa oven (Fan assisted or "Circulaire" of course) too, although I have always been torn between that and the stainless Tricity or the late Moffat - Hell, I want them all LOLOLOLOL
As for Mary Whitehouse, to quote Billy Connelly, "how would you like a name that rhymes with toilet" LOLOL. But I agree with what you say, somehow people seemed to age younger then, but maybe it is just the styles.
Jon
It always seemed to me that American kitchens were what we aspired too, personally I always wanted teh Bewitched kitchen V1. Whilst i agree about cookers in a corner, I cannot begin to tell you how many I have seen in that location over the years, it was really very common.
Peter
In fact there are dishwashers in two of the schemes, no.2 and the "dream" scheme (beside the oven) - but they were VERY unusual. Both machines were British made and small by US standards. The Colston (scheme 2) was frankly a POS, I would LOVE to get my hands on a Kenwood as shown in the "dream scheme"
Chris
Bang on target, you have set it out much more clearly than I ever could, thank you
Hydralique
"Dawn Davenport is eating a meatball sandwich RIGHT out in class ...." LOLOL
Al
ronhic
Well-known member
I must have a look and see what I can find about Australian Kitchen and home design from around the same era. It would be good to see how they differ.
Not so classic British design
I spotted this while browing through ebay UK. The wall paper certainly dates back to the 1960s - I could see it in a kitchen or bathroom, but not in a living or dining room. But that carpet!!!!! Clearly the Hoover Junior has kept it in good order, worse luck
Al
I spotted this while browing through ebay UK. The wall paper certainly dates back to the 1960s - I could see it in a kitchen or bathroom, but not in a living or dining room. But that carpet!!!!! Clearly the Hoover Junior has kept it in good order, worse luck
Al
ronhic
Well-known member
The cleaner may be the definition of 'good taste', but the combination of wallpaper and carpet isn't....
Actually, neither of those are pleasant to look at regardless of where they may be....
Actually, neither of those are pleasant to look at regardless of where they may be....
