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Things in living memory which seem very anachronistic now
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Indigo Soup
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My first professional-ish job (a paid summer internship) in 2009 still had a trolley come around the office mid-morning with tea and cakes, and the company provided tea/coffee/milk in the office 'kitchen' mid-morning. By the time I went to work for the same company full-time a few years later, both facilities had disappeared.
Mind you, it was a real shock when I went to a new employer in 2019 and on my first Friday I was invited to the pub at lunchtime. Previous jobs, merely thinking 'alc..' would have a P45 on your desk before you got to '...ohol'!
Pub opening hours to suit local workers have probably disappeared?
London’s had pubs to suit the various markets and the print industry. 24 hour drinking was available for the mobile.
Many heavy industries had nearby pubs with odd hours to suit shift changes. Swindon works had pubs with special early (04.xx!) opening for trip days.
London’s had pubs to suit the various markets and the print industry. 24 hour drinking was available for the mobile.
Many heavy industries had nearby pubs with odd hours to suit shift changes. Swindon works had pubs with special early (04.xx!) opening for trip days.
Sun Chariot
Established Member
2002 football world cup tournament was hosted in Japan & South Korea; matches screened in the morning UK time.
One enterprising local pub, around the corner from my office, opened 7:30am to show the quarter-finals, semis and final.
I recall some jubilant work colleagues rolling into the office, after sinking a few pints between 7:30am and 9am...
One enterprising local pub, around the corner from my office, opened 7:30am to show the quarter-finals, semis and final.
I recall some jubilant work colleagues rolling into the office, after sinking a few pints between 7:30am and 9am...
Killingworth
Established Member
Ah yes, the boss going to the pub at lunchtime and not rolling back until about 3.30. The bank manager offering customers the cigarette box and 'what would you like to drink?' Ash trays.
I went to work as a volunteer at a local hospital after retirement and discovered pub visits were very much frowned upon at lunchtimes. Soft drinks only.
Do many bosses get Wednesday afternoons off to play golf?
I went to work as a volunteer at a local hospital after retirement and discovered pub visits were very much frowned upon at lunchtimes. Soft drinks only.
Do many bosses get Wednesday afternoons off to play golf?
I remember being seconded over to Northern Ireland to help out on a project at the Belfast Telegraph, 20+ years ago now (oof). The old combined print site / head office building on Royal Avenue had a bar on the top floor and was always well frequented by printers and hacks alike!
BingMan
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When I worked at the CEGB Northwest HG in the seventies we had a "wet" cafeteria. Two pints and a cheese sandwich was my usual lunch.
43096
On Moderation
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Hence Private Eye's use of the name "Lunchtime O'Booze"!
To be fair, early opening happens fairly routinely now. Last year, there was the first Black Country Derby for a while, and of course it was scheduled to start at 1145 on Sunday on police advice to prevent the fans getting too tanked up in advance. The earliest I saw a pub opening was 0500 that morning (it might have been the Swan in Sedgley) - bacon rolls and beers for breakfast.
Sun Chariot
Established Member
My town's rugby club is a couple of hundred yards from our home. Weekend matches seem to involve morning alcohol for some of the spectators.
My post was pointing more toward that of a work-tolerance towards alcohol consumed during, or before, one's hours of work. I do know that one of the "7:30am Guinnessers" had a hard time coding, on those days...
Purple Train
Established Member
I have no business posting on this thread given I hope I have another sixty or seventy years left in me, but I'd like to volunteer shops with their landline number prominently displayed on the front. Less general but probably more anachronistic: said shops leaving off the dialling code and just giving the last six numbers. I wonder if there's been any particular shift from one to the other?
That being said, landlines themselves are fast becoming an anachronism... it seems odd to me that something that was very important to my home life when I was five or six should be lost to the mists of time, but I'm not eleven any more!
That being said, landlines themselves are fast becoming an anachronism... it seems odd to me that something that was very important to my home life when I was five or six should be lost to the mists of time, but I'm not eleven any more!
Dr Hoo
Established Member
Since the advent of Voice Over Internet Protocol in lieu of traditional landlines it is no longer possible for ‘local’ subscribers to omit their ‘own’ dialling code.
(Sorry for bit of tedious explanation.)
(Sorry for bit of tedious explanation.)
The tendency in former days for things to "go wrong" more frequently during live televised broadcasts. At one time if there was an impending problem with the next item during a news broadcast the phone beside the newsreader would ring and with a brief apology to viewers the newsreader would solemnly answer the call which would typically ask him/her to omit the next item whilst the footage for it was sorted out.
dangie
Established Member
Back to the days when virtually every motorist had a can of Damp Start in the shed/garage.
Uninterupted telephone interviews on the radio.
(‘I’m sorry, we seem to have lost………’)
Sun Chariot
Established Member
"Grains of sand" egg timer next to family telephone, so my parents could restrict my social phone calls to 3 minutes...
These are still to be found everywhere in Sweden - I don't use them that often but I think they are in nearly all supermarkets.
BingMan
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Our local buthcher has an awning which displays his telephone number as Whaley Bridge 60.
And when I first went climbing in the Lake District the hotel at Wasdale Head had the telephone number Wasdale 1
And added a shot of Redex to each gallon of petrol
PG
Established Member
When petrol had the price displayed in gallons. When did it switch to being priced in litres, I'm thinking early eighties...?
125Spotter
Member
The discussion about telephone numbers reminded me of this ancient sign. Seen some years ago in a pub in Slapton Sands (Devon). The formal English and implied deference to customer in the tone aside, I particularly like that it calls out the presence of "electric light" and – of course, as this is Railforums – the frequent G.W.R. motor-bus service.
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dangie
Established Member
I've mentioned this before on previous threads, but the original Joules Brewery in Stone Staffs had the telephone number Stone 1. Good to see they had priorities correct
Yorkshire09876
Member
Many of those numbers now will be on VOIP systems. They look like landline numbers but the dialling code is now meaningless as VOIP systems can be accessed from anywhere.
I manage ours at work. I'll normally get 'local' dialling codes for any numbers given out to the general public for contacting a particular site, but the individual staff numbers just all the use dialling code for the head office area as that's far less hassle.
It's not VoIP that did for that as much as it was the advent of mobiles. Since a significant proportion of calls would have to include the STD code anyway, BT has basically progressively done away with local dialling as exchanges are upgraded. I don't think any new exchanges have supported it for quite some time (maybe as long as 4 or 5 years?). This had the advantage of making more numbers available to be allocated to subscribers.
Edit: Looks like they started it in 2014 with five areas: Aberdeen, Bradford, Brighton, Middlesborough and Milton Keynes. (link to OFCOM paper)
Some do.
The main reason to switch from selling petrol by the litre instead of the gallon was that the price was going to be over £1 a gallon, and a lot of the pumps wouldn't show prices over 99p per unit.
I still think of MPG for comparing different cars, but for me, miles per litre makes a lot more sense, as my car does ~ 10-11 MPL so the sums are easier.
Or of course Km per litre, - I can't get used to the Litres per 100Km though.
Have you a reputable source for that ? Google suggests it was EU regulation.
125Spotter
Member
Bournemouth (01202) is also a mandatory area code dialling area, commencing slightly earlier in November 2012.
The UK law regulation to force fuel to be sold in litres was from October 1st 1995
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1995/1804/contents/made
However, practically most fuel pumps had been priced in litres for a long time before that. I passed my driving test in 1985 and I have only ever paid for fuel by the litre, although in the 80s, some places would also quote the price per gallon.
The Office for National Statistics https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/timeseries/czmk/mm23 has this plot which says that in October 1995 petrol was 53p/litre or £2.41 a gallon.
