On 18/12/2020 11:14, Robin wrote:
On 17/12/2020 23:28, Scribbles wrote:


I wonder where that electricity (about 1.5 units/day) would have been
used in 1952? My guess is that it would mainly be for lighting and
radio, with a little for ironing, perhaps. I would have expected heating
by coal or perhaps a gas fire, and cooking by gas. Hot water by an
"Ascot" instant gas heater perhaps?



May I be allowed to muscle in here, territory I haveÂ* strayed into by
accident while seeking something else entirely?
I should start by saying that I was Terry's wife (for reasons that
defy logical explanation, I detest the term "widow") and was the
person who found those bills in a box of Terry's old papers so I can
supply a little background in answer to the above.

When Terry & I met in 1972, he, his mother and brother were still
living at the same address as on those bills - a privately rented, 3
bedroomed terrace house with no bathroom and only an outdoor WC. The
monthly rent was some derisory amount - less than £5, from memory -
and it was, presumably, the reason MiL was willing to live in
Dickensian conditions for so long. Her sons and other relations tried
many times to convince her to apply for a council house but she always
refused and would tolerate no argument on the subject.

In 1972, each room plus the hall and landing had a ceiling light; the
kitchen/scullery also had a working gas light, the first one I had
ever seen. The outside loo had no light; after dark, you took a
torch. Not long before our marriage, Terry & I fitted a 5 foot twin
tube fluorescent light in the kitchen which revealed corners probably
never clearly seen before.

In the 50s and 60s hot water for baths and clothes washing was
supplied from a gas-powered "copper" type boiler but, later, laundry
was dealt with at the launderette. Bathing in the old galvanised bath
simply ceased to happen at some point and strip-washing at the kitchen
sink with hot water from a kettle was the norm.

Cooking was all done on an ancient gas stove whose twin I have since
encountered in museums. There was a 'Kitchener' coal fired range in
the main living room and, while Terry remembered it in use during his
very early childhood, by the time I came on the scene, a gas fire had
been fitted in the hearth. There was a gas fire fitted, also, in the
other downstairs room which had been turned into a bedroom for ailing
MiL. Upstairs bedrooms were unheated although there was a fireplace in
each room. There was a coin slot gas meter in the cupboard under the
stairs; originally, I believe it took pennies (d) and sixpences (6d)
but at decimalisation it was converted to take (I think) 10p coins.

In 1972, the house was certainly not awash with electrical gadgets and
there would have been even fewer in 1952. Each room had only one mains
socket originally supplied although Terry and/or his brother had later
added a coupleÂ* more along with the inevitable 2- and 3-way extension
cubes. The place was a mishmash of round and square sockets: 5 amp, 15
amp and 13 amp - plus adaptors.

In the 50s, there would definitely have been radio - MiL's large
pre-war valve set in its glossy wooden cabinet. I'm ashamed to say I
can't now remember the marque but it still produced an impressive
sound in the 70s. There was a standard lamp, and an iron (NOT plugged
into theÂ* overhead light socket!) and, I suspect, little else.

In the 60s, more electrically powered stuff was acquired: a cylinder
vacuum cleaner, a TV set,Â* bedside lamps, a hand-held food
blender/coffee grinder, a soldering iron apiece for Terry and his
brother, an autochange record player, a mains powered wall clock
(constructed by Terry).Â* The kitchen acquired a gas powered fridge -
the only one I have ever encountered. It was small but exceedingly
efficient.

And that's it, as far as I recall. I came along in the 70s with
accoutrements like a hair dryer, heated rollers and a fan heater for
the bedroom and was mostly terrified to use them for fear of
overloading the creaking system entirely and starting a fire or
blacking out the whole street.

Chronically ill, MiL died early in 1973; her health undoubtedly
worsened by her living conditions. Terry and I found a place of our
own not long afterwards and Terry experienced for the first time the
joy of indoor plumbing and constant hot water on tap.



Thanks for that reminder [shivers] of life in the 1950s-60s.Â* I wish the
BBC would invite you to comment when they give David Willets a platform
to claim simplistically that young people today can never hope to have
things as good as the baby boomers did.


Paying £5 a week rent is something todays young people won't be able to
enjoy.

When I worked in London I shared a flat with two females and two cats.
This was between 1974 and 1978 and the flat was on an unfurnished lease
from the Church of england, in a fairly quiet backstreet in W9, just
off Maida Vale. It cost me £26 a month in rent and share of bills.
I was earning £1800 a year at the time. No chance of that happening
today.

On a point of detail, I was especially sorry to learn that you did not
have the pleasure of plugging the iron into the overhead light socket -
or rather into the 3-way adapter alongside a light bulb and the TV. That
meant you could iron with the flex out of the way; you were under the
light; and no one could complain you were in the way if you watched TV
while doing it