Earlier this month we looked at what was making the news in Wanstead in 1971, thanks to the random discovery in a skip of a newspaper of the time.
But everyone knows the most interesting stuff in old newspapers is invariably the adverts – often the bits on the back of the story which has been cut out and saved. So what were the good folk of Wanstead being sold by local traders 39 years ago?
A garden centre at number 50 Wanstead High Street (now the modern glass-bricked set-back building next door to Rio shoes and the former chocolate shop).
No, not a query about ‘can you bothered with the Central Line’, but more a question of whether you really want to be a flexowriter. Miss Bradford sounds like a sitcom character.
Freezer shops used to be a big thing – cold and a bit warehousy, Wansteadium seems to recall. Now the Blush Temples florists, next door to the Larder.
Make sure you’ve got your paraffin before Christmas, folks. Reasonably priced, too, though probably didn’t seem like it at the time.
The George – good to find some things stay the same.
And Cinderella too – tickets 30p. You could buy three gallons of paraffin for that.
Coming next… Wanstead house prices, 1971-style.