The Lamp Room

Thought some might enjoy these pictures of old street scenes and street lights - Notting Hill Gate area, London, 1970 and West end 1970's

I'd love to have seen stuff like this in use back in the day!

There was so much cool street furniture back in the day. So many interesting shapes and angles to things and so much unstandardized variety. I've travelled through the country all my life and before everything was standardized you could always tell where you were in the country just by the street lighting.

Indeed, I do like seeing old street light pics and if it's a street, all the other old stuff such as cars, old signs etc. I remember when you could tell where you were by the buses, Liverpool had the green and cream Merseyside transport buses which became Merseybus following privatisation and were painted Maroon and cream, Manchester the Orange buses etc. Everywhere is Arriva or Stagecoach now.

That's interesting. I remember up in North Wales the buses were run by Crosville and were green and white - same as the welsh flag. Now all Arriva. Of course, it was all regional now I think about it. Amazing really. Come to think of it the radio stations were the same. In north Wales there was Marcher Coast 96.3fm I seem to recall, which was then I believe bought out by heart radio and just became part of their national network. Not long before that Long Wave radio Atlantic 252 closed down and that was the end of that after all those years of it blasting out the hits in the 80's and 90's. Such a shame all the regional stuff disappeared in all areas of life because it was all these local quirks that made the country have so much unique variety. Travelling the country back then really did make me feel like each region really was a very different place to visit. Of course change happens - its inevitable, and I suppose that to some degree, without the contrast of change we wouldn't appreciate it quite so much, but I really am glad I lived through those eras. I remember how experiencing them felt so clearly and I think overall, they were better times in considerably more ways than what we have now.