Thirty years in the history of a bit of Wilbraham Road

I have over the last few days been reflecting on the changing views of one small part of Wilbraham Road.  It started with a photograph from 1913 and I want to conclude with two from 1928 and sometime in the 1950s.

They are instantly recognizable as the same place and yet in that few decades there have been some changes which hint at the way things have moved on.

In 1928 the tram still dominated the way people travelled on public transport, and yet within less than ten years the Corporation had decided to progressively phase them out in favour of the bus, and by the 1950s the tram its overhead cables and even the track had gone.

There may have only been two more cars on the road in the later picture but it would not be long before those relatively empty roads would be far busier.

And behind the curtains inside the front rooms of the houses and flats it would have been the television which was about to replace the wireless as the main source of entertainment which might never the less compete for attention with the record player which by the late 50s would be playing the new 45 rpm singles instead of the heavy and out dated old 78s.

But for those on a night out in 1958 the chances were they would be repeating the experiences of their parents thirty years earlier and visiting one of the three cinemas and depending on which one they chose might very well have sat in the same seats.

Such were some of the changes from the late 1920s.

Pictures; from the Lloyd collection