About Vintage Stuff

The aim of Vintage Stuff is to display some of the ephemera that I have collected, often inadvertently, over the years. I am now deliberately seeking out interesting old adverts, screen shots, leaflets, obscure record covers, picture postcards and illustrations; anything that catches my eye, in fact. They will be mainly, but not exclusively of UK origin (so many vintage blogs appear to be American) and almost always a scan from something that I actually have in my collection, rather than off the net. If you do re-blog, please acknowledge the source. Further stuff, mainly photographs, can be found on my Flickr pages, via the Benny Hill record cover.

Tuesday 13 October 2015

Boatmans Institute



In order to educate the children of boatmen on The Grand Union Canal, this school was opened at Brentford in 1904. Built for The London City Mission in the Arts and Crafts style, the architect was Thomas Henry Nowell Parr (1864-1933), who, at the time of it's building, was architect to the local council. Now a private house, it was grade ll listed only in 2000; this view dates from 1985.

The Highlanders' Institute



This organisation was formed after the First War as a meeting place for young men and women from the Highlands and Islands to meet and socialize in Glasgow. The original premises in Elmbank Street was too small by the 1950s which resulted in the building that opened at 34 Berkeley Street on 19 October, 1961.

The site was earlier a United Presbyterian church, demolished in the 1930s and a dance hall built on the site, the Institute being a rebuilding of this.

Looking very much a product of it's time, the architect was William Hamilton Sanders (c.1914-2014) and was completed for £75,000. 

By 1979 it had become a casino, being demolished in 2004, making way for flats.

This rather creased leaflet was issued for the opening ceremony; I must admit to finding the building quite striking, although perhaps poor construction hastened it's demise.