The story of one house in Lausanne Road over a century and a half, and of one family who lived there in the 1950s.*
Now I would just love to know what mum and dad made of the new household designs which were featured in Woman’s Own for January 12 1956.
I can't remember if it ever crossed the front door but they would not have escaped the exciting new ideas for transforming their early 20th century house into one which fitted with the 1950s.
Looking at them today they seem quite ordinary and just a little old fashioned but back then they were at the cutting edge of all that was new and innovative.
The basic designs were all there two decades earlier but were way out of reach of most working people.
But by the mid 50s that was changing. Mum was already making inroads into our old fashioned house coming up with the ideas and dad delivering.
It was partly as a result of the growing prosperity, along with new mass produced materials like plastic and Formica and the ever present offer of hire purchase, which meant for a “few pounds down and the rest over easy instalments” bits of the new life could be pretty much within the reach of every one.
All of which marks the 1950s off as more of a mould breaker than perhaps “the swinging 60's.”
Here were bold new colours, exciting fabrics and designs which relegated the old heavy furniture in many peoples’ dreams to a place in a museum along with the odd dinosaur and other ancient relics.
Of course like most families how ever much we may have wanted to embrace modernity it was still the case that much in our house was a mix of the new and much that was old.
The furniture was Utlity, and some at least of the bedding had come down from Gateshead when my grandparents died.
But there was still the striking yellow pine dressing table and the flying ducks, although in our case mum had gone for something slightly up market and the ducks were a tad more robust but they stood on the wall happily facing the old star mirror and the classic print of the Chinese Woman.
Pictures; adverts from Woman’s Own, January 12 1956
*The story of one house in Lausanne Road, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20story%20of%20one%20house%20in%20Lausanne%20Road
I can't remember if it ever crossed the front door but they would not have escaped the exciting new ideas for transforming their early 20th century house into one which fitted with the 1950s.
Looking at them today they seem quite ordinary and just a little old fashioned but back then they were at the cutting edge of all that was new and innovative.
The basic designs were all there two decades earlier but were way out of reach of most working people.
But by the mid 50s that was changing. Mum was already making inroads into our old fashioned house coming up with the ideas and dad delivering.
It was partly as a result of the growing prosperity, along with new mass produced materials like plastic and Formica and the ever present offer of hire purchase, which meant for a “few pounds down and the rest over easy instalments” bits of the new life could be pretty much within the reach of every one.
Here were bold new colours, exciting fabrics and designs which relegated the old heavy furniture in many peoples’ dreams to a place in a museum along with the odd dinosaur and other ancient relics.
Of course like most families how ever much we may have wanted to embrace modernity it was still the case that much in our house was a mix of the new and much that was old.
The furniture was Utlity, and some at least of the bedding had come down from Gateshead when my grandparents died.
But there was still the striking yellow pine dressing table and the flying ducks, although in our case mum had gone for something slightly up market and the ducks were a tad more robust but they stood on the wall happily facing the old star mirror and the classic print of the Chinese Woman.
Pictures; adverts from Woman’s Own, January 12 1956
*The story of one house in Lausanne Road, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20story%20of%20one%20house%20in%20Lausanne%20Road
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