C O N T E X T 1 7 1 : M A R C H 2 0 2 2 27 CHANGE ON THE HIGH STREET The younger generations particularly experienced the high street as a place for fun and excitement, using these spaces for childhood play and pleasure. ‘The centre of the city was a kids’ playground with the lifts and excalators [sic] in Lewises being the most fun’.22 For Ray Haywood, the thrill of the lighted shop windows spilling on to the street at night in the late 1950s and early 1960s was ‘pure magic to an eight year old… Almost as good as Christmas lights.’23 For teenagers the high street offered new, potentially sophisticated, experiences linked to consumerism and fashion. ‘The first Wimpys was on the other side of Woollies. Thought we were dead posh sitting with our Frothy Coffee and the occasional burger.This was around 1963.’24 For Kenny Wilson, the pinball machines in Green Bowler coffee bar on Churchgate, Leicester, were a ‘big draw’ and the cafe had a ‘superb jukebox containing all the latest hits’.25 This cafe was the meeting place for mods, and high streets attracted teenagers seeking freedom, modernity and a social space to spend time outside the home. ‘All the big record shops had listening booths… which was a pleasant way to spend a Saturday afternoon.’26 For those moving into adulthood, the city centre was frequently associated with meeting one’s future spouse. Colin Crossley met his wife in Debenhams in 1965, and Leonard Dapier met ‘a young lady at Leas clock in 1966 and still together now’.27 Important life events were linked to the high street and to precise spots. Clive got engaged to his wife outside Collingwoods, a jewellery shop in Middlesbrough.28 While this was a personal experience, Collingwoods was remembered collectively as the place to buy an engagement ring. For many citizens the high street provoked feelings of anxiety or alienation: new immigrants, ethnic minorities, women, gay citizens and the economically deprived were anxious, marginalised or threatened in this urban space. Immigrant communities tended to shop in neighbourhoods which provisioned their cultural and language needs, making rare visits to the high street, where they experienced racism. Custom, culture, security and design caused women of all backgrounds problems in this space. For south Asian Muslim women in 1960s Bradford ‘it was only men who usually go in the shop’; white Birmingham mothers found their movement in Birmingham’s Bull Ring restricted by their prams.29 At night poor lighting and empty streets created fear in pedestrians, particularly women.30 Individual anxieties and collective feelings of alienation, loss and nostalgia focused on the high street as redevelopment or economic change impacted familiar haunts. Commonplace aspects of townscapes, shops and buildings sometimes disappeared decades before their loss was discussed and mourned as rendering local high streets unrecognisable.31 ‘Used to work in Bernies [Bradford] in the early 70s. Moved down to London, came back a couple of years ago and did not recognise the centre’.32 Evidence from high street users show intense and lasting relationships with this important urban space. Their experience of shops, buildings and streetscapes was often defined by function and life stage, but was rich, sensory, emotional and recalled carefully. From frothy coffees and door handles, to love and war, high streets were significant spaces in people’s lives which added to the sense of place and the comfort of belonging. The high street was more than the sum of its buildings. 1 Modernising the City: experiences of post-war reconstruction (2000) Leverhulme-funded project led by Phil Hubbard and Keith Lilley, interviews by Lucy Faire 2 Kell, Marcia, Memory of Carlisle, francisfrith.com 3 Memory of Grimsby, francisfrith.com 4 Harrison, Ian, Memories of Middlesbrough, Facebook; Hinchliffe, Peter, Exeter Memories, http://exetermemories.co.uk 5 Tony, J, St Helens Connect, www.sthelens-connect.net/forums/ 6 Nottingham Hidden HistoryTeam; Cooper,Vicky, Leicester Memories, Facebook 7 the_motownman, Leicesterforum.co.uk 8 Kenneth Ross, www.mybrightonandhove.org.uk/topics/technology/ electricity/electricity 9 Harrison, Ian, Memories of Middlesbrough, Facebook 10 Modernising the City 11 McLeod, Margaret, Town Centre Memories, www. ourwelwyngardencity.org.uk/ 12 PhyllisWoodman (1966) ‘Awful din’, SundayTelegraph, 24 July 13 BrummyPaul’, Birmingham History Forum, https:// birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/ 14 St Helen Connect, www.sthelens-connect.net/ 15 Cunningham, George (1994) By George: my childhood in Sheffield, Hallamshire Press, Sheffield 16 Mail, John, Memories of Burton uponTrent, Facebook 17 Old Photos of Carlisle and Surrounding Areas, Facebook 18 Sheffield History Forum 19 Stilgoe, Jackie, Memories of Burton uponTrent, Facebook 20 Sheffield Forum 21 Ensor, Robert, Birmingham History Forum 22 Mason, Keith, Olive and Eric website, www.oliveanderic.com/ 23 Rob Haywood (karoo.net) 24 Pettler, Margaret, Memories of Middlesbrough, Facebook 25 Knapp, Shaun (2019), Mods: two city connection, DB publishing 26 Knapp 27 Dapier, Leonard, Leicester Memories, Facebook; Crossley, Colin, Memories of Middlesbrough, Facebook 28 Memories of Middlesbrough, Facebook 29 Quoted inWills, Clair (2017) Lovers and Strangers: an immigrant history of post-war Britain, Penguin, London; Adams, D (2011) ‘Everyday experiences of the modern city: remembering the post-war reconstruction of Birmingham’, Planning Perspectives, 1:26 30 Schmuki, B. (2012) ‘If IWalked on my Own at Night I Stuck toWell-lit Areas’: gendered spaces and urban transport in 20th century Britain, Research inTransportation Economics, 34:1 31 Irvine-Whitehead, Maureen, Leicester Memories, Facebook 32 Chamielec, Stef, Old Photos of Bradford, Facebook Lucy Faire is a director of the Leicester Vaughan College, an honorary fellow at the Centre for Urban History, University of Leicester, and teaches history at the Open University. Denise McHugh is an associate lecturer and honorary research fellow in history at the Open University. They are the authors of Twelve Shades of Grey: encountering urban colour in the street in British provincial towns, c1945–1970 and The Everyday Usage of City-Centre Streets: urban behaviour in provincial Britain, c1930–1970.
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