When you spent your formative years in the 1960s, it is easy to assume that this was the decade when we invented all that was new, mould breaking and just exciting.
And looking back it is easy to single out the music, the fashions, and that expectation that something different and groundbreaking was shaking the country out of the stuffy lethargy of the 1950s.
You felt it every time you visited Habitat, listened to the Beatles, or walked with Mary Quant, and believed that refrain “Hope I die before I get old”.
Of course the reality as ever is a tad more messy, and with bit more reflection and informed study, “The swinging 60s” looks to be merely the inheritors of that earlier decade, which started with the Festival of Britain, saw a revolution in the materials we used to make everything from furniture to the clothes we wore and was fueled by the growing consumer society, reflected in that phrase you have never had it so good.*
I was too young to appreciate the bold new colours and design that were pushing out what had gone before, which was partly I guess because this new wave was slow to enter our house, and those around me.
Which was not for want of trying it but rather that money remained tight, and so we stayed with furniture and wallpaper which was heavy and busy.
But mother did break out with a modern take on the three flying ducks, and a sleek piece of bedroom furniture.
And that leads me back another two decades, to the 1930s.
Leap frogging the war and the immediate post war period dominated by shortages and the continuance of rationing, it was the 1930s, and indeed the 1920s which saw much of that radical change in design start to bubble forth.
Now I am no expert, but my scant knowledge of this exciting period has been extended by two books I bought from Bryan the Book on Beech Road sometime in the 1980s.
Both were published by Pelican Books, cost just Ninepence and were “books of topical importance published within as short a time as possible from the receipt of the manuscript”**
The first is Design by Anthony Bertram which came out in 1938 and the second by J.M. Richards is An Introduction to Modern Architecture which was first issued in1940 and reprinted in June 1941 and again in December 1944.
I suspect both would be read well into the 1940s and beyond, and indeed in the case of An Introduction to Modern Architecture, its reprints point to the growing belief that after the war things would be transformed.
And in his book, Mr. Bertam concluded that “Good design is not a matter of wealth, much less of the chic, the latest thing. It is not a matter of novelty for the sake of novelty, but of the production of cities and houses and goods which will best satisfy the needs of the people’ their needs of practical, honest and cheap. Lasting and beautiful things to use and see in their everyday lives”.***
The book explores the idea of design and its application in Town & Country Planning, Housing and the Workers, Architecture, In the House, Design Everywhere and What is being Done for Design?
As such it is a perfect accompaniment to Modern Architecture which reviews examines the concept, its history and the new methods which will make it possible to achieve. Concluding “that the needs of this age are in nearly every case totally different from the needs of previous ages, and so cannot be satisfied by methods of building that belong to any age but the present”.****
He doesn’t rubbish the buildings of the past, only to assert the needs for something new, which I suspect Christopher Wren would not have disagreed.
Both books are full of pictures, plans and designs and make a fascinating introduction to the world we live in.
Added to which both are still available in their original form.
And that is all, except to say, I miss Habitat, still listen to the early Beatle’s albums, and at 70 no longer embrace the Who’s “Hope I die before I get old”.
Pictures; covers from the two books, and a selection of new designs for 1938 from Design, Bertram, Anthony
*More accurately, “most of our people have never had it so good”, which was part of a speech made by the Conservative Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, in 1957, in which he asserted, “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."
At a rally to mark 25 years' service by Mr. Lennox-Boyd, the Colonial Secretary, as MP for Mid-Bedfordshire. July 20th 1957, ONTHIS DAY,BBC, http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/20/newsid_3728000/3728225.stm
**Pelican Specials
*** Bertram, Anthony, Design, 1938, page 19
****Richards, J.M. An Introduction to Modern Architecture, 1940
 |
| Design, 1938 |
You felt it every time you visited Habitat, listened to the Beatles, or walked with Mary Quant, and believed that refrain “Hope I die before I get old”.
Of course the reality as ever is a tad more messy, and with bit more reflection and informed study, “The swinging 60s” looks to be merely the inheritors of that earlier decade, which started with the Festival of Britain, saw a revolution in the materials we used to make everything from furniture to the clothes we wore and was fueled by the growing consumer society, reflected in that phrase you have never had it so good.*
I was too young to appreciate the bold new colours and design that were pushing out what had gone before, which was partly I guess because this new wave was slow to enter our house, and those around me.
Which was not for want of trying it but rather that money remained tight, and so we stayed with furniture and wallpaper which was heavy and busy.
 |
| Modern Architecture, 1940 |
And that leads me back another two decades, to the 1930s.
Leap frogging the war and the immediate post war period dominated by shortages and the continuance of rationing, it was the 1930s, and indeed the 1920s which saw much of that radical change in design start to bubble forth.
Now I am no expert, but my scant knowledge of this exciting period has been extended by two books I bought from Bryan the Book on Beech Road sometime in the 1980s.
Both were published by Pelican Books, cost just Ninepence and were “books of topical importance published within as short a time as possible from the receipt of the manuscript”**
The first is Design by Anthony Bertram which came out in 1938 and the second by J.M. Richards is An Introduction to Modern Architecture which was first issued in1940 and reprinted in June 1941 and again in December 1944.
 |
| Stlish heating, 1938 |
And in his book, Mr. Bertam concluded that “Good design is not a matter of wealth, much less of the chic, the latest thing. It is not a matter of novelty for the sake of novelty, but of the production of cities and houses and goods which will best satisfy the needs of the people’ their needs of practical, honest and cheap. Lasting and beautiful things to use and see in their everyday lives”.***
The book explores the idea of design and its application in Town & Country Planning, Housing and the Workers, Architecture, In the House, Design Everywhere and What is being Done for Design?
As such it is a perfect accompaniment to Modern Architecture which reviews examines the concept, its history and the new methods which will make it possible to achieve. Concluding “that the needs of this age are in nearly every case totally different from the needs of previous ages, and so cannot be satisfied by methods of building that belong to any age but the present”.****
 |
| Wireless & telephone |
Both books are full of pictures, plans and designs and make a fascinating introduction to the world we live in.
Added to which both are still available in their original form.
And that is all, except to say, I miss Habitat, still listen to the early Beatle’s albums, and at 70 no longer embrace the Who’s “Hope I die before I get old”.
Pictures; covers from the two books, and a selection of new designs for 1938 from Design, Bertram, Anthony
 |
| Lighting the home, 1938 |
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."
At a rally to mark 25 years' service by Mr. Lennox-Boyd, the Colonial Secretary, as MP for Mid-Bedfordshire. July 20th 1957, ONTHIS DAY,BBC, http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/20/newsid_3728000/3728225.stm
**Pelican Specials
 |
| Storage and lighting, 1938 |
****Richards, J.M. An Introduction to Modern Architecture, 1940
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