Prime
Minister
Harold
Macmillan
|
1957
Britons
'have
never
had
it
so
good'
Speaking
at a
Tory
rally in
Bedford
to mark
25
years'
service
by Mr
Lennox-Boyd,
the
Colonial
Secretary,
as MP
for
Mid-Bedfordshire.
Mr
Macmillan
painted
a rosy
picture
of
Britain's
economy
while
urging
wage
restraint
and
warning
inflation
was the
country's
most
important
problem
of the
post-war
era.
Increased
production
in major
industries
such as
steel,
coal and
motor
cars had
led to a
rise in
wages,
export
earnings
and
investment,
he said.
"You
will see
a state
of
prosperity
such as
we have
never
had in
my
lifetime
- nor
indeed
in the
history
of this
country.
Indeed
let us
be frank
about it
- most
of our
people
have
never
had it
so good."
"Go
around
the
country,
go to
the
industrial
towns,
go to
the
farms
and you
will see
a state
of
prosperity
such as
we have
never
had in
my
lifetime
- nor
indeed
in the
history
of this
country."
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The fifties have
been overshadowed by
the war which
preceded them and
the lively sixties
which followed.
Although fifties
fashion and music
are having a revival
today, it is still
difficult to
understand what it
was like to live at
that time. History
rarely falls neatly
into decades and the
fifties are no
exception. In the
first few years
Britain was still
recovering from the
war, but by 1959
Harold Macmillan was
able to boast,
`You've never had it
so good', and an
artistic and social
revolt against the
Establishment had
started which
continued into the
sixties.
If a time traveller
from the present day
could be taken to a
British town in
1950, he would
immediately notice
the dilapidated,
unpainted buildings
and the shabbily
dressed people.
Although five years
had gone by since
the end of the War,
there were still
gaps between
buildings caused by
bomb damage. Few
cars were on the
roads and people
used bicycles or
public transport.
Labour had been in
power since 1945 and
laid the foundations
of the welfare
state, but had also
faced post war
balance of payment
problems. As a
result, the best
British goods went
for export and
little was imported
from abroad. Even
patterned china was
not available for
the home market and
Britons had to be
content with white
or pastel shades.
Many kinds of food,
such as butter,
bacon, meat, tea and
sugar, were still
rationed and would
remain so until
1954. Few people ate
in restaurants as
the five shilling
limit on meals was
not removed until
May 1950. Recipes of
the period
recommended the use
of dried egg and
suggested making
`Mock Cream' with a
mixture of milk,
corn flour,
margarine and sugar,
as the real thing
was unobtainable.
A `points' rationing
system for clothes
had been abolished
in 1949, but there
was still little
choice for women.
Nylon stockings were
scarce, although
sometimes `export
rejects' could be
found in shops or
from a `spiv' on the
black market. Men
wore drab `Demob'
clothes generally a
sports jacket and
baggy trousers or an
ill fitting suit
given to them in
exchange for their
uniform when they
left the Army.
Looking back on the
early fifties, Neal
Ascherson described
them as `the years
on the grey plateau
. . . everything
dangerous or vivid
lay in the past'
(The Observer, June
1987). On an average
wage of £68s a week
there was little to
spare for
entertainment.
Suburban High
Streets were
deserted at night.
An evening out for
young people
generally meant the
pictures or a dance.
Couples were often
chaste as they had
nowhere to go to be
alone together. In
the pre pill age
birth control was
unreliable, abortion
dangerous and
illegitimacy frowned
upon. Girls married
early and settled
down to family life
like their mothers.
Although Labour had
started to tackle
the shortage of
housing, much had
yet to be done. Many
lived in `prefabs'
prefabricated houses
which had originally
been put up as
temporary
accommodation, but
were to remain part
of the urban scene
for many years to
come.
Towns were much
dirtier than they
are today, in spite
of the lack of cars
on the road. Before
the Clean Air Act of
1956 smoke from
factory chimneys and
coal fires polluted
the atmosphere
causing `smog' a
combination of
smoke, fumes and fog
which made clothes
and homes filthy,
often causing the
deaths of old people
or those suffering
from lung diseases.
The Festival of
Britain brought new
life into this grey
world in 1951.
Labour Minister
Herbert Morrison had
first planned the
event in 1947, but
by the time the
Festival opened
there was a
Conservative
government, which
was to remain in
power for the rest
of the period.
London was
transformed by the
Festival. In A Tonic
to the Nation John
Mackay remembers how
impressed he was
with the Dome of
Discovery, feeling
the `newness of
everything' and a
`sense of pride' in
his country's
future. In the same
book Gwendoline
Williams recalls the
Festival Gardens and
funfair at
Battersea: `It was
fun to cross Chelsea
Bridge and enter the
enchanted world of
the gardens . . .'.
The Battersea
Funfair, the
Festival Hall and
National Film
Theatre remained as
permanent reminders
after the Festival
was over.
Apart from giving
the British new hope
in their future, the
Festival promoted a
style in
architecture and
design known as
`Contemporary',
which rapidly spread
across the country,
influencing a
generation.
Describing a
`Contemporary'
living room, A.S.
Byatt writes: `The
walls, in a way that
was fashionable in
those post festival
years, were all
painted in different
pastel colours: duck
egg blue, watered
grass green, muted
salmon rose, pale
and sandy gold. The
armchairs were pale
beach, upholstered
in olive cord.' (The
Virgin in the
Garden.) People
painted their houses
and put out window
boxes, restaurants
opened and towns
became more cheerful
places. The
Coronation of Queen
Elizabeth II in 1953
was another cause
for celebration,
some seeing it as
the dawn of a New
Elizabethan age.
The Festival was
also a stimulus to
the arts. Sixty
painters and 12
sculptors were
commissioned to
provide works for
exhibition, among
them the painters
John Piper, Lucien
Freud, John Minton,
Ben Nicholson and
Graham Sutherland,
and sculptors Henry
Moore, Jacob
Epstein, Reg Butler
and Barbara
Hepworth. Coventry
Cathedral, designed
by Basil Spence and
commissioned in
1951, was a lasting
monument to Festival
style. The Council
of Industrial Design
(now The Design
Council), which had
played an important
part in the
Festival, became a
powerful arbiter of
taste in the fifties
and sixties.
The deterioration of
relations between
East and West cast a
shadow over the
decade and nuclear
war became a
terrible
possibility. In 1956
the brutal
suppression of the
Hungarian Revolution
by Russia showed the
cold face of
Communism to the
world. Young men
still had to do
compulsory National
Service and many saw
active service in
Korea, the Canal
Zone, Cyprus, with
the British Army of
the Rhine, and in
other parts of the
world. The fifties
also saw a loosening
of Commonwealth
ties, and the
gradual realization
that Britain was no
longer one of the
leading powers, but
that her future lay
with America and
Europe.
Scientists were
horrified by the
proliferation of
nuclear weapons. In
1955, 52 Nobel Prize
winners signed an
appeal warning the
world that `whole
nations, neutral or
belligerent' could
be wiped out,
stimulating a lobby
for nuclear
disarmament.
Britain's first
nuclear power
station, Calder
Hall, was opened
1956 and hailed as
the first plant to
harness atomic power
for peaceful
purposes. No one
knew at the time
that it would also
be producing
plutonium for
military use. When a
fire broke out at
the Windscale
nuclear plant in
1957, the British
public were not told
that it caused a
radioactive cloud to
drift over most of
England.
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A journalist
called Henry
Fairlie coined
the word
`Establishment'
in the early
fifties to
describe those
with the power
in Britain, who
appeared to have
a stranglehold
on politics, art
and social
attitudes,
mainly because
they had been to
the same schools
and
universities.
Returning ex
servicemen, many
of whom had
university
grants, were
unwilling to
return to the
pre war status
quo. 1956 is now
considered to be
the turning
point when the
old guard lost
ground, partly
because it was
the year of the
Suez Crisis,
when Britain
discovered that
she was not
powerful enough
to pursue an
independent,
imperialist
policy in the
face of United
States
opposition. The
same year also
saw the
beginning of an
anti
Establishment
movement in
literature and
the theatre by
those who became
known as `Angry
Young Men'. The
Establishment
had received an
earlier blow
when the spies
Burgess and
Maclean defected
to Moscow in
1951 and it
became clear
that they had
not been
suspected sooner
because they
came from the
same social
class as their
seniors at the
Foreign Office.
In 1956
teenagers began
to be a social
force to be
reckoned with.
As there was
little
unemployment,
many young
people now had
lucrative jobs
with money to
spend on clothes
and
entertainment.
Rock `n' roll
music came over
from America and
Tommy Steele
became Britain's
first home grown
pop star. A new
teenage culture
sprang up with
its own music,
meeting places
and clothes,
common phenomena
today but quite
new in the
fifties. Gangs
of `Teddy Boys'
were often
feared when they
carried their
anti social
behaviour to
extremes, and
some helped to
provoke race
riots at Notting
Hill Gate in
1958. The number
of immigrants
from the
commonwealth,
particularly
from the West
Indies,
increased in the
fifties and many
encountered
racial prejudice
in their homes
and workplaces,
as well as from
street gangs.
Reacting against
the War, women
during the
fifties decided
to become
housewives
again, after
doing men's jobs
in the forces
and factories in
wartime. Few
married women
now worked and
equal pay was
virtually
non-existent
until granted by
the Civil
Service in 1958.
In 1954 the
average annual
wage for a man
was £546 13s and
for a woman £276
10s 6d.
The Guardian
reported in 1959
that a group of
Girton graduates
had agreed that
politics was not
a good career
for women and
`only the
exceptional
woman is now
going to go on
working outside
her home' after
marriage.
Advertisements
were blatantly
sexist,
emphasizing
women's domestic
duties something
which television
helped to
promote when
commercial
television was
introduced in
1954. Picture
Post worked out
in 1954 that a
woman spent at
least five hours
in the kitchen
each day. Even
the elaborately
corsetted
fashions of
Dior, Sarah
Mower of The
Guardian
realized with
hindsight,
`encapsulated
the spirit of
the good little
wife, the ideal
woman of the
fifties' (26
March 1987). The
status of women
in the fifties
led to the
women's
liberation
movement of the
sixties.
Extract from “Living
Through History,
Britain In The
1950s”, written by
Pat Hodgson. London:
B.T. Batsford LTD.
1989. |
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