Hastings

 A view around 1950, with the East Hill Lift to the left and miniature railway in the foreground. There also appears to be a couple of WW11 pill boxes on the cliffs. A scan from a negative in my collection.

Sunlight, steam and shadows

This is the glory that was Birmingham Snow Hill station. Opened by the Great Western Railway in 1852 and closed (after a lingering death) by British Rail 120 years later, a new station opened in 1987, but without the charm of the original.

A southbound goods drifts through on 1st October 1950, scanned from a 6x6cm size negative taken by the late Mervyn Mason, now in my collection.

Bygone Luton

A selection of advertisements that appeared in copies of "The Luton News" Directory of Luton, published by Home Counties Newspapers dating from 1950 and 1954 - all businesses long gone!

Pea souper

With November now upon us, this picture, another from London - Work & Play (Batsford 1950), seems appropriate, although such 'killer fogs' are now things of the past. That in London in 1952 was so bad that it led to the Clean Air Act of 1956, which eventually banned the burning of domestic coal in built-up areas. There was also, at this time, much air pollution from factory chimneys, London still being a manufacturing city. Furthermore, many trains were steam-hauled, particularly on lines north of the Thames.

Dockland cricket

This interesting picture appeared in London - Work & Play, published by Batsford in 1950 and is credited to Fox Photo's. It shows children playing cricket in Alpha Road, Millwall, using improvised packing cases and bits of wood while the grown-ups look on. I love the sheer incongruity of seeing ships looming above terraced houses, once a common enough sight in Liverpool, Glasgow and elsewhere.

Alpha Road was apparently renamed Alpha Grove at some point, and still exists, although everything around it has been rebuilt, either because of bomb damage or post-war redevelopment. In my 1950s A-Z, it is already down as Alpha Grove, which then stretched up to Millwall South Dock, where the Union Castle Line ship is berthed. There was also a railway line, tantalisingly behind that tall fence......