Things you don’t see outside any more

[McRhu]

Onion Johnnies.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Onion Johnnies.

In their stereotypical striped jerseys and berets, presumably (and possibly as depicted in one or more episodes of "Allo, allo!")?

 

[DelW]

Extinct in much of the south it seems, including Hampshire, West Sussex, Surrey and Dorset; these four counties (including the unitary authorities) seemed to do a blitz on removing old lamp-posts between 2010 and 2015.
.....
I'm not sure why they have gone for wholesale replacement down here. In previous upgrade iterations, they kept the classic wrought-iron (?) lamp posts from the early 20th century and just replaced the lamp. That was IMO the correct approach as old lamp-posts are part of modern heritage. But round here, they are all gone except for a few isolated pedestrian paths.

In Surrey, the county council let a 25 year PFI contract for street lighting in 2010. The contractor, a Skanska Laing JV, replaced many / most of the existing lamps and columns with new ones to a small number of standardised designs. Around a decade later, lamp heads were replaced with LED lights to reduce power consumption.

From the original announcement:

The client for the project is Surrey County Council. Under the contract, the Skanska Laing Consortium will be responsible for the design, build, finance and operation of the stock of lighting columns across the Surrey County for a period of 25 years starting in March 2010. The design, installation and ongoing operations will be carried out by Skanska.

During the first five years of the scheme, the Skanska team, which has extensive experience in infrastructure services and utilities, will replace approximately 70,000 life expired lighting columns and refurbish and upgrade a further 19,000.

Existing orange/yellow lights will be replaced with modern white light sources. In addition, full use of new energy-efficient equipment will be incorporated therefore reducing energy consumption and the carbon impact of delivering street lighting services.

Skanska will also be responsible for the operation and maintenance of the assets, including provision of help desk services and emergency response.

Further details here:

Skanska Laing Consortium reaches Financial Close for Surrey Street Lighting PFI | www.skanska.co.uk

Skanska Laing Consortium reaches Financial Close for Surrey Street Lighting PFI. Skanska and John Laing to each invest £4.6 million and Skanska to receive a construction contract worth £83.7 millio...

www.skanska.co.uk

 

[McRhu]

My memories of Onion Johnnies probably come straight from the pages of the Beano and Dandy, and I half remember them in street scenes cluttered with Rag and Bone men, cars with pop out indicators, Andy Cap characters making their boozy way home inexplicably wearing half barrels having lost their clothes, and kids in carts made with planks and pram wheels.

 

[Howardh]

Does that effectively reflect the demographics of the local population?

Yes and no. Some areas have little demand for alcohol serving places now, but the town centre is dead on its feet. A good night out can be had in Manchester, even Bury. Dunno why, a vicious circle where punters stop going, pubs close, punters keep away even more etc etc.

Town the size of Bolton should have a thriving nightlife, but it's miserable.

 

[Matey]

Road rollers, watchmen plus hut with braziers, shopping baskets, AA/RAC telephone boxes and m/cycle patrol men. AA/RAC enamel badges on cars. "Little Chefs" and road signs to military establishments. Chocolate and labelling machines on stations. Blue "Public Telephone" signs. "Post Office telegram" signs. "Kodak/Ilford Film" stickers in chemist shop windows. Fountain pens and leather school satchels. Shop tills ringing and wood cash boxes with a drawer at the shop round the corner. Juke boxes and glass coffee cups in cafes and greasyspoons. Huge advertising hoardings with "Goodness MY Guinness"adverts.

 

[Trackman]

Pubs are in short supply also, huge areas of my town (Bolton) don't have any at all, and the town centre must have lost over half from the 90's. The Old Man and Scythe still stands though!!

You should try Lewisham town centre or even it's administrative capital, Catford, it's a very short pub crawl.
About five years ago since I sent went into the The Ye Olde Man and Scythe, I usually go in Hogarth's down the round - a great place and near the 'Ye olde Pastie Shoppe' which dates back to the 17th century I think.

Stripey traffic lights with STOP written on the red lense are a big cultural loss.

In a similar vein, those rubber ramp things for detecting traffic on approach to traffic lights.

 

[AY1975]

Blue "Public Telephone" signs.

And "You may telephone from here" signs outside pubs, cafes, hotels etc that had a payphone.

Juke boxes and glass coffee cups in cafes and greasyspoons.

There's a separate thread on greasy spoon cafes at https://railforums.co.uk/threads/greasy-spoon-cafes.228535/

There is still a juke box on St Pancras station near the lifts and escalators to the Southeastern High Speed platforms. At least one pub in Sheffield (the Rutland Arms, not far from the station) still has one (or did last time I went in there). It's many years since I saw one in a greasy spoon cafe, though (not that I frequent those kinds of establishment these days!).

"Kodak/Ilford Film" stickers in chemist shop windows.

And specialist photography shops such as Jessops and Snappy Snaps. They may still exist but are much less common now thanks to digital photography (I think there's still a Snappy Snaps in Putney, south-west London, where I grew up).

 

[McRhu]

Leading in from juke boxes…. There used to be booths in some stations, if I recall correctly, where you could cut your own 45 rpm single.

 

[AY1975]

This may be an erstwhile local phenomenon, but in days of yore the pavements were be thronged with grannies out doing their shopping in a uniform that consisted of; Rain-Mate head scarf, Long coat of tweed or other durable material, Furry boots, Tartan shopping trolley, wee round glasses. And I daresay tightly permed hair.

Don’t forget boys’ shorts held up with a snake belt!

Sticking with the sartorial aspect of all our yesterdays (before it diverges down nostalgia junction) I would nominate... Trainspotters with bobble hats, anoraks and flares, gymn shoes, wire framed NHS specs with elastoplast on the lens, and Locoshed books squintly underlined with TEMPO felt tips, and Zenit EM or Polaroid cameras. All of which leads on the the wonderful lost world of Type 2 diesels darting like rabbits o'er the station purlieus, pink or yellow cardboard tickets and day returns for 2/6.

I've set up a separate thread on things you don't see people wearing any more (or that have made a comeback) at https://railforums.co.uk/threads/th...any-more-or-that-have-made-a-comeback.229271/

 

[Ediswan]

road signs to military establishments

There may well be fewer military establishments, but those that remain do still tend to be signed.

 

[D6130]

Penny weighing machines.

Machines for stamping your name - or anything else - on a metal strip.

Bubble gum machines outside shops and cafes.

Cigarette vending machines.

 

[nw1]

Yes and no. Some areas have little demand for alcohol serving places now, but the town centre is dead on its feet. A good night out can be had in Manchester, even Bury. Dunno why, a vicious circle where punters stop going, pubs close, punters keep away even more etc etc.

Town the size of Bolton should have a thriving nightlife, but it's miserable.

I remember transferring between bus and train at Bolton once in the late nineties, very early January 1999 to be exact. It was just getting dark, so must have been around 5pm, and, if my memory is correct I remember the route between the bus and rail stations having quite a few impressive old-ish red brick buildings but being oddly quiet. But perhaps I was just away from the action, so to speak.

It does seem a very large town though. I guess people go to Manchester instead?

 

[Matey]

There may well be fewer military establishments, but those that remain do still tend to be signed.

No longer with the old standard blue and red signs, which were removed for security reasons in the 70s. Along with the wearing of uniform off duty in public. Squaddies with kitbags, a familiar sight on railway stations, seemed to disappear with the ending of National Service in the early 60s.

 

[nw1]

In Surrey, the county council let a 25 year PFI contract for street lighting in 2010. The contractor, a Skanska Laing JV, replaced many / most of the existing lamps and columns with new ones to a small number of standardised designs. Around a decade later, lamp heads were replaced with LED lights to reduce power consumption.

I guess Hampshire, West Sussex and Dorset did the same deal because the designs of street lights in all four counties look very similar.

As I said it's a shame a lot of history (in the form of old lighting columns) was wiped out. The older lighting columns did add a lot of character to suburban streets, and you could, in theory, have had LED lights on the old columns - last time I visited Liverpool, for instance, they did that.

 

[Howardh]

I remember transferring between bus and train at Bolton once in the late nineties, very early January 1999 to be exact. It was just getting dark, so must have been around 5pm, and, if my memory is correct I remember the route between the bus and rail stations having quite a few impressive old-ish red brick buildings but being oddly quiet. But perhaps I was just away from the action, so to speak.

It does seem a very large town though. I guess people go to Manchester instead?

Either that or they don't go out at all! between the bus and train stations was always very little, the nightlife was centred around Bradshawgate/Deansgate/Churchgate; although hidden away at the top of the precinct was a pub where you could always guarantee a fight! Only the Griffin now survives on that old route, with the York and Piggy's closest to the station. There was talk of a "pub" on the station itself, a welcome development, until it was realised it would be on platform 4/5 and not 1/3 (and at the back of P5 too) so the landlord I spoke to who had shown an interested simply said "it's in the wrong place" and lost interest.
Now if Greggs (on the interchange) served wine....

 

[Ediswan]

No longer with the old standard blue and red signs, which were removed for security reasons in the 70s. Along with the wearing of uniform off duty in public.

I don't recall blue and red. There are plenty of black and red (on white) signs currently around. I do recall steps being taken to protect off duty personnel, which included the various cadet forces travelling from and to home.

 

[D6130]

I don't recall blue and red. There are plenty of black and red (on white) signs currently around. I do recall steps being taken to protect off duty personnel, which included the various cadet forces travelling from and to home.

A lot of those measures were introduced after the M62 coach bombing in 1974. Some of the present day signs are not entirely honest.....for example, the signs on the A59 between Skipton and Harrogate pointing towards the United States secret communications monitoring station state "RAF Menwith Hill".

 

[Paul Jones 88]

I haven't seen a fag machine for years, always had 18 fags in the pack instead of the usual 20

 

[py_megapixel]

I haven't seen a fag machine for years, always had 18 fags in the pack instead of the usual 20

And good riddance to them!

 

[Mcr Warrior]

I haven't seen a fag machine for years, always had 18 fags in the pack instead of the usual 20

That's an early example of 'Shrinkflation' for you. (Discussed at length on a separate thread).

Shrinkflation - examples?

"Shrinkflation" is the business practice where pack sizes of items (often food items) shrink in size or quantity, yet the selling price remains the same, or even increases! An example: Packs of McVities (Jaffa Cakes) Cake Bars came, until recently, in packs of eight and were being sold for £1...

www.railforums.co.uk

P.S. Didn't the last remaining cigarette vending machines get banned in the UK, maybe a decade or so, ago?

 

[birchesgreen]

Squaddies with kitbags, a familiar sight on railway stations, seemed to disappear with the ending of National Service in the early 60s.

No, saw some on a Worcester-Brum train a couple of years ago. Mountain of kit filling the vestibule of a Sprinter

 

[Matey]

the signs on the A59 between Skipton and Harrogate pointing towards the United States secret communications monitoring station state "RAF Menwith Hill".

 

[John Webb]

A lot of those measures were introduced after the M62 coach bombing in 1974. Some of the present day signs are not entirely honest.....for example, the signs on the A59 between Skipton and Harrogate pointing towards the United States secret communications monitoring station state "RAF Menwith Hill".

Menwith Hill, Chicksands (Bedfordshire) and a number of other locations started off as WW2 listening or communication stations. As I understand it, although now operated by the Americans, the actual land remains within MoD ownership and the original names are therefore retained. Perhaps misleading, but saves money by not having to change the road signs!

 

[Ediswan]

Menwith Hill, Chicksands (Bedfordshire) and a number of other locations started off as WW2 listening or communication stations. As I understand it, although now operated by the Americans, the actual land remains within MoD ownership and the original names are therefore retained. Perhaps misleading, but saves money by not having to change the road signs!

Unless I miss the point, the signs faithfully show the name of the base, what happens on each base is a whole different matter.
As for Chicksands, aka 'Elephant Cage', that is so far past its 'use by' date that the manual is available: http://www.premium-rx.org/ref/wullenweber.pdf

 

[AY1975]

I think Wiltshire (specifically Salisbury) still had quite a few recently, in 2018. Not sure what the situation is now as I haven't been that way for a while. In addition to Glasgow, there's also NI - as I said above sodium lights were still very widespread there in autumn 2018 (on the Belfast-Newcastle axis).

I do miss them, there was something very comforting about the warm orange glow of those lights and the red colour as they turned on at twilight was very atmospheric. Also for me they'll be forever associated with my childhood, teens and younger adult years...

Me too - they were still the norm in most places in the UK when I was growing up in the 1980s, and to a large extent into the 1990s.

There is still one on Rockingham Street in Sheffield city centre but it doesn't appear to be in use anymore. Sheffield had a lot of sodium lamps both on main roads and on side streets until about ten years ago when they were mostly replaced firstly by 1990s/early 2000s style pink lamps (which have themselves now mostly been replaced by LED lights).

I recently saw a concrete lamppost of probably 1950s or 60s vintage with a sodium lamp still in situ on the Dover House Estate in Putney, south-west London. Wandsworth Council replaced most of its concrete lampposts and sodium lamps with metal posts and pink lamps in the 1980s and early '90s (and these have nearly all been replaced by LED lights now), and I don't think this one has been in use for probably about 30-35 years at least but it's still in situ: presumably the council either forgot to remove it or deliberately left it there as a historic relic as I think the Dover House Estate is a conservation area.

I also saw another of these concrete posts with a metal bracket and a pink lamp fitted to replace the old sodium lamp.

I have just tried to upload photos of them but my laptop says they are too large and doesn't seem to want to let me compress them. If I manage to find a way round that problem I will post them on here.

 

[nw1]

Me too - they were still the norm in most places in the UK when I was growing up in the 1980s, and to a large extent into the 1990s.

There is still one on Rockingham Street in Sheffield city centre but it doesn't appear to be in use anymore. Sheffield had a lot of sodium lamps both on main roads and on side streets until about ten years ago when they were mostly replaced firstly by 1990s/early 2000s style pink lamps (which have themselves now mostly been replaced by LED lights).

I recently saw a concrete lamppost of probably 1950s or 60s vintage with a sodium lamp still in situ on the Dover House Estate in Putney, south-west London. Wandsworth Council replaced most of its concrete lampposts and sodium lamps with metal posts and pink lamps in the 1980s and early '90s (and these have nearly all been replaced by LED lights now), and I don't think this one has been in use for probably about 30-35 years at least but it's still in situ: presumably the council either forgot to remove it or deliberately left it there as a historic relic as I think the Dover House Estate is a conservation area.

I also saw another of these concrete posts with a metal bracket and a pink lamp fitted to replace the old sodium lamp.

I have just tried to upload photos of them but my laptop says they are too large and doesn't seem to want to let me compress them. If I manage to find a way round that problem I will post them on here.

Interesting - it's also of note how quickly the "pink lamps" have gone too, even though most of these are pretty recent, as you say 1980s to 2000s. Struggling to think of even any pink lamps close to me, let alone yellow sodium. (I remember checking this out and the pink ones are apparently sodium too).

Some of the pink lamps though were quite old: when I moved to Sussex in 1979, pink lamps were commonplace, and the lamps didn't look brand new either, perhaps early-mid 70s. Chichester had lots, and over the border in Surrey, Guildford too I think.

 

[Gareth]

By the "pink lamps", you supposedly mean high pressure sodium rather than low pressure sodium, which is what the deep orange ones are.

 

[AY1975]

By the "pink lamps", you supposedly mean high pressure sodium rather than low pressure sodium, which is what the deep orange ones are.

Yes.

Interesting - it's also of note how quickly the "pink lamps" have gone too, even though most of these are pretty recent, as you say 1980s to 2000s. Struggling to think of even any pink lamps close to me, let alone yellow sodium. (I remember checking this out and the pink ones are apparently sodium too).

Some of the pink lamps though were quite old: when I moved to Sussex in 1979, pink lamps were commonplace, and the lamps didn't look brand new either, perhaps early-mid 70s. Chichester had lots, and over the border in Surrey, Guildford too I think.

At least two London boroughs - Hammersmith & Fulham and Richmond-upon-Thames - already had a lot of them in the 1970s and 80s too. In fact, as I recall in both those boroughs pink lamps, rather than the high pressure yellow sodium lamps, were the norm on side streets for many years - certainly all through the 1980s, 90s and early 2000s.

 

[adrock1976]

I have not seen anyone for a while when their car engine fails to start using the good old fashioned method of either:

1) Getting a group of people to push the vehicle from behind while in first/second gear and bringing the clutch up to jump start the engine

or

2) Instead of a group of people, when facing downhill, letting the vehicle roll slightly in first/second gear and bringing the clutch up to jump start the engine.

Both methods would only work with a manual gearbox. I am unsure if this trick would work with hybrid vehicles today.