Creda constellation oven

[shannick]

Hi guys we have the opportunity to buy this lovely oven.

What sort of price would you suggest for a fully working and immaculate condition one? It's gorgeous.
We're based in the UK

 

[aquarius1984]

As someone qualified in cookery

And with a CV in the food industry/ teaching....

Wild horses wouldn’t drive me to own vintage cooker ever again for daily use.

No fan assisted oven here. So limited batch baking ability here, yeah you can faff moving stuff around but it’s a faff. And risky when it comes to delicate or finicky cakes etc.

Great for multi level cookery ie full Sunday roast with a pudding but the lack of a fan breaks the deal just for this way of using it.

That hob.....

Vile things. No controllability.

Certainly not a cooker for anyone who cooks.

That said if it’s just appearance then £50 seems reasonable.

If you cook, then really you should be looking at a modern Induction hob and a multifunction oven be it double or single, or whatever suits your kitchen set up and needs.

 

[vacbear58]

Creda Constellation

Nick

Have you given up on the Tricity Oven?

The cooker you have pictured is a Creda Constellation from the early 1960s. If you can wait a couple of days I have a brochure at home which I can post here which will give you more details of the layout.

The lack of a fan oven may or may not be a disadvantage to you, a lot would depend on whether or not you batch bake - millions of people cooked successfully in a non fan oven - I did myself for many years although I will admit it is my preference even though my ovens offer a number of cooking options. The hotplates too are not the easiest to use. Add to that the grill (broiler for Americans) is at the top of the oven (it might actually have two grills) which means that whilst using the grill the door must remain open which could be a nuscience.

But this cooker will be getting on for 10 years older than the Tricity oven and parts will be even harder to get along with issues of old, crumbly wiring and controls which may not work. It will also weigh a ton!

You have said before that you have a 70s house so there are a couple of alternatives you might like to consider:

 

[vacbear58]

Creda Europa Oven

If you have not abandoned the idea of a split level oven this Creda from the late 1970s looks to be in good clean condition. There are still quite a few of these around so spare parts could be easier to find. It would be contemporary with the Tricity hob you have previously posted about. the main oven is fan assisted if that should be an issue

Pardon our interruption...

 

[vacbear58]

Carron Capri

If you would prefer to go down the free standing route this Carron Capri would be a good candidate - again from the 1970s. No fan ovens but more controllable radient rings and a more convenient eye level grill. The Creda Constellation is going to be approximately 1100mm wide, this Carron about 900mm wide. The Carron has a griddle plate on the right hand side.

I almost bought one of these myself when I moved into my 1970 built home a few years ago but decided to stick with split level fan and induction hob that I had grown used to.

Pardon our interruption...

 

[shannick]

Vintage UK ovens

Hi all thank you for your advice and opinions on this.
Im not a chef and not a Baker, I hardly ever I use the fan oven on our modern AEG oven so won't miss it.
On the Isle of Man,you world be hard pushed to find anything approaching the condition of this cooker so I am going to get it anyway. Vacbear58 yes please I'd like to see that brochure! Thank you.

With regards to the knackered tricity oven I have... I've sorted that with these two I've been offered. Immaculate and in perfect condition and working order. Like I said, rocking horse poop!

£150 for the tricity oven, fridge, hob and extractor. I'm not going to tell you what I'm offering for the creda

The big creda oven is for our utility room.

Thanks lads.

Nick

 

[vacbear58]

Good catch

On the Tricitys, I think the hob is a Creda actually. Frankly £150 is a bit OTT, even the fridges are not that rare, I have had three but had to junk two as I had no room for them all. And the oven is not THAT rare either. But it’s your money ........ Don’t go mad over the Constellation either, it’s by no means the first I have seen and it won’t be going anywhere fast. If you like this style alternative would be the GEC Cavalcade which is similar but later and went on into the 1970s. It had radiant rings and more conventional door layout too.

But I will still post the brochure, I think I have it scanned already

Al

 

[warmsecondrinse]

While the appliances are totally geek-worthy......

I've always wanted to go to the Isle of Man to see for myself, in person, how one successfully resurrects a language.

 

[davey7]

The wall ovens look like they came from Mrs. Leadbetter's kitchen....

Can I ask why the grill/broiler was eye level in the UK so much? And you have to keep the doors open?

 

[vacbear58]

The wall ovens look like they came from Mrs. Leadbetter'

And the reason for that is because they are the same, or at least similar, the ones in Margo's kitchen have a stainless finish rather than black glass.



From 4.15 in. Actually I had not realised that there some differences in the kitchen design from season to season until I saw this clip.

Eye level grills were much more common in gas cooker rather than electric. It seems there was almost always a plate shelf on gas cookers and it seems to me that at some point in the mid to late 1950s they moved the grill up there too so that by the early 1960s they were almost all up there. With electric there was a tradition of having square hotplate combined with the grill almost from the start so that the grill was almost always under the hotplates. From the early 1960s there were some electric cookers that had eye level grills and even combined with mini ovens (which became more sophisticated in the 1970s) but most the grill stayed under the hotplates even long after the combined hotplate fell out of favour

 

[davey7]

Jerrrr-Ree!

I do so love Margot (the Beeb's spelling apparently)! I know they had striped blinds at the window at one point. I think the special episode when they almost, um, wife swapped.

I think the Barbican had Creda ovens as well.

And thanks for the history there.

 

[anthony]

my mum

still uses her Parkinson Cowan prince 1 Universal Gas Cooker bought new in 1968.The only thing that's been altered is the pilot light which as now been blanked off .Nice cooker lovely big oven .four burners and unlike its modern counterpart it wont tip up when you open the oven door. Back in the day my mum cooked for a family of 6 and she also did a lot of baking so its been well used .It was converted to natural gas around 1970/1

 

[vacbear58]

Brochure

Here are the scans from the brochure

 

[anthony]

the question is

does it float on a cushion of air